Picture Credits – Jeannie Selda
“What if the beliefs that keep you safe,
by definition keep you from your personal expansive heaven?
What if your heaven lies beyond beliefs?”
– Jennifer Hough
Something happened this week that was such a great reminder to remain humble, and know that we are all human. It also reminded me that we are all human and any beliefs that anyone is better than you or I, are simply old beliefs.
This week I was on a beautiful cheer-fest for Money and You with my dear friend Doria Cordova with well-known thought leaders from all over the world. It was a privilege to be included.
The leaders that have taken Money and You are all incredibly humble and so smart…..and you probably know their names; Jack Canfield, Ken Honda just to name a few.
And, there was a leader who was there that behaved a little differently than the others. He also did not exude the humility of the rest. And I realized that he had stuck beliefs and was being righteous, and that I had beliefs about how he should be.
I found myself feeling annoyed. Then I realized that I had a belief that we should all know better ……and in that moment, for 5 minutes, I got annoyed because I was tapping into a societal belief that “all thought leaders should know better”……ha ha, jokes on me.
That belief is a societal one that I was being taken out by. And it wasn’t even my belief.
Know what I love doing? I love re-languaging quotes by Maya Angelou, Thoreau, Buddha and beyond to reflect the laws of physics. Because often what was believed then or in that era, isn’t quite fully accurate to what we know now.
Hold your beliefs gently. Don’t be so quick to be right. Even the smartest people you know put their pants on one leg at a time. Even the people you love the most can have a bad day. Even a relative you revere has foibles. Even bodies of work (personal development, spiritual organizations, and religion) are fallible.
The greatest way to tap into deeper truths is to see if your body and mind have peace when you hear information being passed on to you! If you get righteous, you aren’t there yet.
I am always humbled by how many times my willingness to ‘seek to understand’ first, has led to softening in long-held beliefs. And when that happens with others, I just fall more in love with them.
I’m more interested in embodying love than I am in being right about my position…..which usually involves beliefs or thoughts that come from someone or something else so that I can protect myself.
What if the beliefs that you adhere to aren’t even yours?
What if they were invented by the many people before us so we’d have guidelines to keep us safe, help us get things right, and know what we’re doing?
Imagine dancing directly with consciousness without the need for contemplation and, in the present moment, there is only what is in the ‘highest’.
Stay curious. Seek to understand first (thank you St. Francis for that one).
Food for thought.