Day 192 - A Year to Clear - Observing and Allowing Mistakes

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Lesson 192: Observing and Allowing Mistakes

Today is about making a mistake and doing nothing. That’s right… Nothing. So don’t try to fix it or manage it. Just make the mistake, allow whatever feelings to brew and let that weather pass through. It’s all about observation today.

First of all, it’s a tough act to do nothing when you make a mistake. My gut reaction is to fix it straight away. I don’t usually make mistakes because I have this sort of perfectionist mentality - that I need to try and get it right the first time so there is no points of failure.

As I trace back on my Wednesday, the only thing I forgot to do was check on a report. I had a pretty blasé attitude towards it but I wouldn’t say it’s a mistake I actually care for. Another thing I did was misinterpret a friend’s message that he was cooking dinner for himself, so I had dinner on my own and he actually wanted us to have dinner together. I mean, it didn’t really bother me either because it was a misinterpretation of a text.

I think this exercise would be more useful if I made some major mistake that wronged someone or wronged myself. I know how guilty and bad I would feel in those situations. Plus if I wasn’t allowed to fix it, those feelings would just brew until I could do something about it.

I get that the exercise is to allow awareness to come into play. I get that it’s a lesson that mistakes happen and it’s about acceptance. To do nothing would actually make me feel so uncomfortable. I am always the type to fix my stuff ups.

How did you go with this exercise?

Day 192 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - How Does Group Thought Create...

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Lesson 192: How Does Group Thought Create...

Today is thinking about how group thought can create cult thought. Notice today if you agree with something if it’s the group thought that has swayed your choice or if it’s your ultimate true self responding.

When I have a good think about this, I realised that you can really drive yourself crazy over analysing the fact that what you perceive to be true might just be the way you’re conditioned into thinking something is in fact true. I think if you’re more of an open person and go and educate yourself on topics, or just go about life to learn and become more knowledgeable, then you can differentiate what your true values are. I think we’re all taught in certain ways of right and wrong through school and through parents. There is nothing wrong with this as we all need some form of foundation to build our outlook of the world. I think as we grow older, it’s that choice we need to make for ourselves to really understand ourselves and where we stand, in order to understand how others live. It’s not always an easy task when you get set in your own values sometimes.

Anyway, back to today’s lesson. I didn’t do much except for work and watch Smallville and Westworld. The only thing I agreed with on a group thought was that the New Zealand prime minister is an amazing woman. What I admire about her is that she’s had a baby without being married to her partner, she has given birth during whilst in power, she’s enacted bills to change the livelihood of parents, her baby’s name incorporates Maori culture which she asked local tribes to submit suggestions for and she’s really for the people. I think a lot of people really admire her as a leader. I think for me, it’s a true feeling as well as a group thought because she has values I have. I like that she’s like a regular person but in power. It’s when someone understands the struggle of their people that really resonates with me as an individual. I like people in power who can connect with their people in that way rather than just going about their political party’s agenda.

What did you find today which was a real true thought of yours and not just the group thought?

Day 191 - A Year to Clear - Being With Imperfection

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Lesson 191: Being With Imperfection

It’s important to note that we all have both negative and positive thoughts as well as traits. Traits are tricky because it’s really based on perception – in my opinion. We have high emotional days and next minute it can be low. I wouldn’t say we are always in happy states all the time. Today we are to be with our imperfections. To me, this means taking on those not so good thoughts and understanding that they don’t necessarily make us the person we are.

So today, I had some shitty things happen at work. My imperfect thoughts were that of anger and I felt like management could do a better job essentially. Thoughts circulated around like “gawd some of these decisions suck” “why do I work here?” “who makes these decisions?” “they don’t really care about us”… it goes on and on. At the time, I didn’t really think in a spacious way. This whole course always talks about facing the weather that comes, but applying awareness as to why you have that thought, and how you can turn it around. Let’s just say I did not apply awareness at all. I just wanted to be angry. The point is, we aren’t always going to be perfect…. And that’s okay! It’s this acceptance we need to make about ourselves that we have imperfections and to not be so hard on ourselves. We all make mistakes and it’s about learning. My lesson today was that sure I was angry, but was there another response I could have taken? I definitely could have taken a better approach and I’m aware of that. I can learn from this situation.

What was an imperfect action you had today?

Day 191 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - Group Thought Can Be a Means of...

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Lesson 191: Group Thought Can Be a Means of...

In a group setting, the collective can either raise or lower the vibrational energy. Today we are to look at electronica creating cult mentality and that can be a dangerous thing. This is about knowing yourself.

I think with anything in life, there is always someone that has a thought, they lead with that thought and then they spread that thought. That one thought can effectively influence a few people to begin with, then a group, then possibly a mass following. That’s how religion starts, protests start, political thoughts start, governments start… pretty much anything and everything. We all believe in something that was previously enacted by someone else whether it be a one thousand year old notion or a new thought. Sometimes, we even have our own thoughts that influence other people, creates discussion and could spread like wildfire – which is how most things go viral online.

Going back to the lesson, that cult thought is a fabric of the Western world. We can very much get lost in it but it can also guide us in life. I’m not saying it’s a good or bad thing really. We all can both follow as well as lead. Sometimes we follow a mass following to some new music artist that’s hot right now, and other times, we seek out that unknown voice because we’re sick of being inundated with the same influences.

I think the point of the lesson is, don’t get caught up in just mass thought. Remember what you like and how you think. Don’t conform just because everyone else does – not saying that’s wrong in any way. I think it’s about remembering that you have your own mind and voice and you don’t always have to go by the masses. It’s okay to have a differing opinion. It’s okay to voice that opinion even when no one else agrees with you. You can simply be your own person.

Day 190 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - The Experience of Group Thought...

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Lesson 190: The Experience of Group Thought...

When you are on the internet, do you feel more connected or sometimes feel the disconnection? Do you sometimes get angry and frustrated on it? Or do you feel quite happy? If you spend some time away from it, do you notice the difference in yourself? Do you actually feel better?

The experience of group thought can be both uplifting and distracting for me. I like being surrounded by people of the same interests. There are times when I can comment of things that sparks some discussion of opinion, or on the other end discussion, it goes against my values and things get heated. I would rather keep things positive in my life so I don’t usually go into arguments often, but that’s just the nature of the internet.

If I do take a break from social media or the internet, I would generally be filling my time with something more useful in my life. I would be learning, reading, socialising with friends or doing something towards my spirituality. I think I make good use of my time. I think I feel better being away from it because I’m not investing emotion into social media. It’s more relaxing to stay away from it than to be on it, sometimes. I think I would rather have experiences with people in real life than to keep it all online. The energy of people in real life is much better than what I get online. How about you?