Reflect often and be aware of your attachments and beliefs……….with this awareness we are able to see how our attachments have created our reality and how our belief system makes all of our decisions. It also helps us to see how we are influenced by the judgements and beliefs of those around us. It is said that we see the world as we are….not as it is and so we must examine our beliefs, our rules, and guidelines to ensure that they are still serving us not controlling us. People who don’t reflect often become so attached to their beliefs, that it distorts their perceptions, and so they work to make life conform to what they already know, creating a prison of their own making.
They translate what they are hearing so that they can express it with knowledge they already have….never leaving their comfort zone. When we look at life and translate as it goes along, we miss out on living it. Yet if we listen to life, we allow ourselves to learn, grow and take on new information. The knowledge we gain in life has to be used as a tool, a guideline, that we can set aside from time to time. Then we can just be in the moment, and experience the power of now. We do ourselves an injustice when all we do is let our current knowledge translate everything we experience. Seeing the world through our preconceptions….ensures that we miss out on the living.
Don Miguel Ruiz Jr. said “Our point of view creates our reality. When we are stuck in our beliefs, our reality becomes rigid, stagnant, and oppressive. We become bound to our attachments because we have lost our ability to recognize that we have a choice to be free of them. When we look at ourselves in the mirror, we often hear a narrative in our mind of what we see, a definition of self in the form of an identity that is based on our “agreements” – the thoughts and beliefs that we have said yes to. This identity stems from ideological beliefs that have come to us over a period of time from our family, culture, religion, education, friends, and beyond. The more attached I am to my beliefs, the more difficult it becomes to see myself for who I am at this moment, and the less freedom I have to see life from a fresh perspective and perhaps choose a different path.”