How to be a Human: Some Rules of Life

Let's start with the obvious... We have a body.

Our bodies are indicators that we're “alive” (with a sense of temporary permanence). You may like your body or not, but you will have it from the time you’re born to the day you die. We all seem to have things about our bodies that are either too big or too small or not in the right place. Our genetics are the creation of our ancestors… blame them if you need to blame someone. Then, do with it what you can to keep it healthy. Look at the obvious... What do you put into your body? Is it nurished sufficiently? Do you exercise your body? enough? do you sleep enough?

We learn lessons.

We all need to learn the same things about life and how to live. It’s a full time job. Everything we experience is a potential lesson and it never seems to end. Just when we think we get something, we don't. What's in your rear view mirror?

We will experience mistakes.

Mistakes seem to be part of growing. Now, chhhilll.... relaaaax...  We can only make decisions based on what we know at the time we made that decision… it cannot then be a “mistake”. We can, however, learn from the information we acquire following a decision (that creates the “mistake”) to assess our criteria for that decision.

We repeat lessons.

We tend to bang our proverbial heads against the wall until we reduce our resistance and the “new” information sinks in. Until then, be prepared for the same old… same old!

We create our own lessons, so we need to address them.

Our job is to become aware of the obstacles we present to ourselves. The more we blame, the more pain we will experience. Our problems are often an indicator of a quietly held belief or issue that we need to deal with. Challenge your resistance, be brave and have faith.

The world changes when we change.

Change is a conscious practice that creates wisdom. When we alter our beliefs, we expand our ability to manage our lives and feel empowered.

The grass isn’t greener over there.

It’s better to not avoid or procrastinate your current situation by thinking that something else is better. Use the circumstances to “correct” where you are and then you’ll move forward on your journey.

The world is our mirror.

If we don’t like something or if we do like something it will be because we have a personal attachment for a reason… we need to figure out what that reason is to help us with our sensitivities.

We are driving the bus.

Only we are responsible for the direction of our lives through our actions, our choices and our beliefs.

Our mind is the projector, the world our screen.

Our conscious and subconscious mind directs us and guides us. How we think is manifested in our world, exposing our hidden and not so hidden beliefs. All is shown to us in time.

Fear and judgment is the opposite of love.

These two polarized states of mind can not co-exist. Love is unconditional acceptance. It is our willingness to extend ourselves to nurture our own or someone else’s spiritual growth.

Our minds are pattern making machines

It’s our way of developing our illusions of control over reality. It’s also why we tend to repeat our circumstances, sometimes without knowing it.

We are resistant to our own patterns.

We like to find someone else or some situation more accountable than our own minds. Our resistance makes it easier to justify not learning or forgetting what would be beneficial to us.

Trust what you know.

Thinking is a lower state of being than knowing. Thinking is either doubting what we know or attempting to acquire new information. Trust what you know.

Memory is not fallible, learning is.

When we are open and non-resistant at the point of learning, we remember our learning… when we are anxious, uncomfortable and resistant, the information doesn’t enter the mind in the same way and it’s much more difficult to remember. Doesn’t it seem better to be open and challenge our resistance.

Until later
Leland
Leland@CounsellingandMediation.com
http://www.counsellingandmediation.com/