The theme of forgiveness has come up for me a lot lately, and certainly in more than one conversation with @Paula Jennings who is just an amazing soul 😇 It really highlights for me just how much the internal and external mirror one another. In any given moment, we're ALL doing the best we can. And so much of it the result of wounding, trauma, programming and conditioning. Let that sink in for a moment. Because it's taken me 30 years to really internalize this. After a lifetime of dealing with deep abandonment wounds and personal insecurities, always seeking to earn validation and meet the expectations of family, friends, romantic partners, and the world at large, did I come to realize that the ONE person whose love and validation I needed most was my own. For as long as I can recall, I was hyper critical of my own self, highly judgmental. A full blown perfectionist with extremely compulsive and extreme tendencies. Not until did I turn my gaze inward and see the wounded child was I finally able to release all of that. To practice love and compassion for your self is work of the highest order. I say this because if this is how we view and engage ourselves, it no doubt becomes the way we view and engage others. And I can certainly look back and see now just how much I internally judged and criticized others. How high the expectations I placed on them actually were. Never recognizing that this was a projection of my own lack of self worth. But the moment I was able to shine a light on that, those judgements dropped. I could see how given my early experiences, I developed certain characteristics, behaviors, beliefs and perceptions. With that, I did the best I could. Those who hurt me. They too, given where they were in their lives, given their personal wounds, struggles. They too did the best they could. As Don Miguel Ruiz would say, we are all rubbing on each other's wounds. But those universal wounds. Can we hold compassion? For self? And then for other? Can we see the universal humanity? Can we forgive and let go?

Posted by Tom - NeuroArkitect Guide at 2022-05-13 14:21:07 UTC