"Are you being held hostage in life by what you like and dislike?"
Eknath Easwaran (Words to Live By)
This week’s challenge is to observe and become aware of your reaction when things happen in your life that you like, dislike, expect or not expect. When you dislike someone, or something how do you respond? Do you reject, avoid, get angry, justify or ignore the situation? When you like what’s going on, what is your reaction? Are you happy, open hearted, understanding, accepting or maybe giving more of yourself.
Many of us have clear likes and dislikes and often our response can be automatic because we have had these pre-set ideas not just now but maybe even years. This week’s challenge is to look at these preferences when it comes to:
Food, home, clothing, music, entertainment, people, etc.
This is also an exercise to observe if our dislikes make us rigid and inflexible. Often when one is rigid in one area most often one is rigid elsewhere as well. A person who is rigid is happy if everything goes the way he likes it, otherwise, he is often unhappy over something. If you find yourself rigid, can you loosen the grip just a little, can you be more open.
“The way we respond to small matters reflects the way we will respond to larger matters of life.”
Eknath Easwaran (Words to Live By)
Also, are these set-preferences still valid or is this related to a childhood experience that has been carried into your adult life without questioning if it still relevant in your life. We need to remember that childhood, ten years ago or yesterday is all in the past. We are living in the “now.” Ask yourself if there is any benefit to holding on to this experience and has this been holding you back from enjoying your life today. If so, it's time to let it go.
