My Holiday Wish…
By: Michele Thill
Tags: Consciousness, Holidays, Conscious Leadership, Wellbeing, Mindset

By Craig Adderley from Pexels on canva

Will you join me?

As we are in December, the month that many celebrate Christmas, I’d like to celebrate freedom. Like Christmas in July — which is the month that here in the U.S. we celebrate Independence Day, I’m for celebrating our Freedom in December. Independence in December? Festival of Freedom?

Something like that…

Why? It seems like we are in times when many feel we are losing, or may lose our freedom. How can we? By freeing ourselves of the chatter of our mind.

And the drama in our life. Let’s bring in some peace as we end this year.

With that in mind, I wanted to share a small but extremely powerful book with you. One that I read years ago — which helped me then and continues to help me now.

As tension mounts with uncertainty and as we continue to move through life in the unknown, this book can be beneficial in bringing us peace.

The Four Agreements — A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, and indeed it is. Written in 1997 by Don Miguel Ruiz, read by me in 2015 as the life I knew came to an end. These agreements helped me create a NEW life.

When you hear these agreements, you might think that they are common sense, and they are. That said, how many of us will find that we are not following — might even find it challenging to follow.

I will admit that I’ve had moments where I forget, it comes so naturally to do just that, but I am at least aware and mindful. I’ll stop, reflect and either offer an apology if needed or at least run through what I would say/do next time.

#1: BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD

“Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.”

Within the chapter on this, Ruiz gives examples showing us the power of words and how it affects others. In one, he writes about the young girl whose mother had a really bad day at work, came home tired and overwhelmed. This mother was kind hearted and loving, but it was an emotional day and she just needed some peace and quiet.

Her daughter, so happy to see her, danced around singing loudly, so much so that it made the mother’s headache worse. Finally the mom snapped and told the daughter she loved so much to “Shut up! You have an ugly voice!” The daughter not understanding the circumstances did just that, she never sang again. And the girl became shy around others.

In that moment, a new agreement was made: The girl now believed that in order to be accepted and loved, she must repress her emotions.

I have shared with you messages from others such as Bruce Lipton and Dee Wallace that our beliefs are developed by the age of 7 as our brains are in the delta mode. Like sponges taking everything in. And how as we grow, those beliefs become limiting beliefs. (correction: theta mode not delta).

In that moment, that girl believed what was just misused words in a moment.

“Impeccability of the word can lead you to personal freedom, to huge success and abundance; it can take away all fear and transform it into joy and love.”

#2: DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY

“Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.”

When someone says something about you or calls you a name, it really is a reflection of how they are feeling about themselves, or have felt about themself. This is also given their model of the world, which is based on their first 7 years.

We live in a world, as Ruiz puts it, “Where humans are addicted to suffering at different levels and to different degrees, and we support each other in maintaining these addictions. If you have the need to be abused, you will find it easy to be abused by others.”

You might think, who needs to be abused? Those that struggle with self worth. And where does a lack of self worth stem from? The first 7 years of our lives and what was modeled to us.

I work with customers in my day job and some can be rude at times. But I realize it’s not about me, they are in fear and are hurting in some way. Makes my job easier to not get caught up in the drama of working with the public.

I love the thought given by another source that when someone points one finger at you — there are three pointing back on them.

You not only live with the knowledge that you can’t control anyone but yourself, but that no one can hurt you. Hurt comes when you place meaning on whatever is said or happening. Things happen, but you cause your own suffering by thinking it should not happen or should happen in another way.

Take back your power, live in the space of freedom and peace following this agreement.

#3: DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS

“Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with other as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.”

We live in a world where we assume and then believe it to be true. We also take things personally and misunderstand and this creates much drama which is not needed.

We only see what we want to see — and hear what we want to hear…

How many of us assume that those closest to us should know what we want or how we think. Just by our actions, we think others know but have we ever communicated our thoughts and feelings?

Have you heard something that you don’t understand and just assume based on your experience what it means or what is needed? We assume that others see life in the same way that we do. And dare I say that we model our life based on our first 7 years of life?

When you assume — you make an ass out of u and me…

I hope you can see the importance of asking questions and being clear in your needs or wants. This will change your relationships with others, whether people close to you are even strangers you are dealing with.

#4: ALWAYS DO YOU BEST

“This agreement allows the other three to become deeply ingrained habits. It’s the action of the first three. Do your best in any circumstance in your life.”

This agreement also speaks about not holding any regrets, self judgement, frustration or guilt in yourself. These agreements are not a one and done — they are a process.

A daily process. And when you slip, as we all do, it’s about the awareness of what you can do or say differently next time. It’s catching yourself and embracing this NEW process.

I’d like to add that this is also about realizing that everyone is doing their best given their model of the world. I love this thought, which I first heard by Neale Donald Walsch.

It has brought me a lot of peace to look at people in this way.

How easy it will be to follow these agreements has everything to do not only with your willingness to change, but how you were raised those first 7 years. Your model of the world. What you learned from your parents, family and the environment at a time when your brain was in that delta state.

My wish is that we spend some time looking to better ourselves. And in doing so, it will bring in a sense of control (as we can only control ourselves) and peace by tapping into our power within.

As you follow these agreements, as Ruiz writes, “This is the mastery of intent, of spirit, of love, of gratitude, and of life. This is the path to personal freedom.”

If you are NEW to me, let me introduce myself:

Please join me on Facebook, for the NEW Minutes with Michele where I do a Monday evening Live based on my published articles. Replays are available.

You can also find me Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, My Website.

And I encourage you to read the work of my fabulous writer friends: Trista Ainsworth, Gurpreet Dhariwal, Amy Marley, Aurora Eliam, CMP, Kathryn A. LeRoy, Ph.D., Desiree Driesenaar, Selma, Keno Ogbo, Melissa Bee, Dipti Pande, Francine Fallara, Sandra Szubert, Erin King, Karen Madej, Ann K Frailey, Sumera Rizwan, MaryJo Wagner, PhD, Britni Pepper, Chowa Sekai, Ksenia Sein, Alison Tennent, Livia Dabs, Neha Sandhir S, Lanu Pitan, Sherry S, Agnes Louis, Chris Hedges, Paul Myers MBA, P.G. Barnett, Terry Mansfield, Rasheed Hooda, Henery X (long), Timothy Key, Tim Maudlin, Bob Jasper, John Ross, Joe Luca, JeffHerring.com

Always celebrating, Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Founder & Leader of ILLUMINATION

Until next time ~

Sending you light, love — and the power of a book.

Be Well,