Most self-awareness books instruct us to value feedback from others. Those of us who are insecure may take one comment and agonize over it, magnify it into truth. A better plan is to identify patterns of feedback. We usually need objective help not to personalize everyone’s random, sometimes self-serving comments.
Patterns are instructive. They show us a mirror image of what we’ve created as a ‘self’ in the world. The good news is that we can recreate, reorganize and reevaluate that image if we have courage. Make no mistake that looking in the mirror of our lives requires courage and maturity. The tendency is to project blame onto the mirror and find external distortions to justify what we don’t like in that image. For lack of that skill, we can numb ourselves and refuse to look too closely.
Just because we don’t acknowledge what’s happening doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening. With those who are avoidant, by the time what’s happening is acknowledged, it’s late in the game and harder to fix. Better to sensitize our GPS systems to identify “off course” decisions while it’s early in the journey.
Mindful, conscious self-awareness is the ultimate GPS system. The corrections can be done just as Garmin does them…”Recalculating” in a non-judgmental, compassionate voice.
From the center of our being, may the gentle, forgiving voice of instruction be the patient teacher and may the guiding hand of Universal Wisdom protect us along the way.