Notes From The Furlough: Day 49

Patterns arise; you notice them, and then release them.

Please discuss. How does this play out in life?

I’ll start us out. Challenges arise in life with regularity. It’s infrequent to experience a space in life when we aren’t being stretched. That’s an intrinsic part of our process—to learn and grow. Sometimes it seems like there are repeats in our life events, scenarios that occur with regularity. Often these experience burps may feel negative to us. It’s likely, due to human nature, that we don’t recognize positive repeats as readily.

The less desirable re-occurrences may lead us to think “Why does this keep happening to me?” This is our cue to initiate self-reflective mode. A past event may have imprinted on our psyche, causing us to subconsciously react to current events with outdated coping mechanisms. When we can see the pattern and track it back to its origin, then we have the understanding needed to liberate ourselves from emotional baggage we’ve been carrying. We’re enabled to perceive, think, and act in new, situation-appropriate ways.

COVID-19 has triggered difficult feeling in all of us—fear, anger, resentment, mistrust, shame, judgment, self-worth issues, and more. These emotions can set off knee-jerk reactions and old patterns. Today’s message reminds me awareness is the key to freeing myself. My new motto is the inscription at the Oracle of Delphi: “Know thyself.”

How about you? How can you promote self-awareness, to be happier and freer?

My book The Sharing: The Owner’s Manual for Being Human can help, if you’re looking for a way to start.