Tuesday, August 10, 2021
When you dismiss or try to summarize another, you limit them – you close off all of their possibility. You limit and deflect what they can teach you about yourself – an important component to all relationships. Instead, be receptive, be open to what they are showing you about who you are. Don’t impose your opinion, your summaries, your will, and your predictions, no matter how much you think you “know” another. It will only reflect the worst of who you are. See how they might be reflecting the best of who you need to be!
Allow those in your life to be free, as they wish, even if your opinion is different, or that they chose “poorly” for themselves. Self-discovery is often a painful journey, and there is no need to deprive them of their own freedom to explore – that may be how they need to learn. I’m not talking about letting others walk all over you, or to harm you. I’m talking about allowing each to choose for themselves those things that help them discover who they need to be in this world. Everyone is just trying to explore the world and to see the reflective nature of it. Life, just like a human being, is not predictive, restrictive, nor definable. Give others room to discover themselves, respecting their unique journey. When you hold no summary, no prediction, or no assumptions (even in people that you’ve known for a long time), you’d be surprised at how much that will aid in their personal growth. Give people space to explore themselves without your opinion, your summary, or your dismissal. Don’t box them into a condensed version of who you believe them to be. Let’s respect each other, open our hearts and minds, and allow others to expand, to grow, to be free. Eventually, they’ll figure themselves out, we all will.