Happy Tuesday !
I hope you are having a great start to your week.
If you know me, then you know that I'm an optimist, but I'm also a realist. As such, I don't like focusing on problems, rather my mind is more tuned into their causes and possible solutions.
This got me thinking about an interesting imbalance in the world.
It
is impossible to go through our day without hearing about an endless train problems.
- The daily news would have nothing to report if not for problems.
- In politics, both sides blame each other for our problems.
- There are problems in our economy, our budgets, our lack of finances or how we spend.
- There are problems with our equipment, our clothing, our diets, our health, and our relationships.
It can be
overwhelming.
Now compare that to those people you hear who are striving for personal growth (not financial growth). It's a much smaller voice, isn't it?
It really is much easier to see the speck in the eyes of others than to see the plank in our own eye.
We are surrounded everyday by amazing people who are committed to solving problems. In fact, those who are
the most successful in helping others to see are those who have first gone through the process of removing their own planks from their eyes.
We know this is a true principle. We can all nod our heads in agreement. But is the solution self-improvement? Not exactly. This is where many get tripped up.
Personal growth is NOT the emulation of behaviors or the speak of self-improvement. That only produces fakes,
pharisees, and fundamentalists. The plank is only removed in humility, by doing soul work, by owning our shadows. It's real, interior work, not exterior superficials. It's vertical, not horizontal work. Only then can we truly help others and solve problems.
Since we all want a better world, it comes down to each one of us.
- Will we love others and ourselves enough to invest in the transformation of our souls?
- Will we do the
hard work of "going-back" to where our "sum" went off course?
- Will we move the locus of the problem from the outside to the inside?
If so, growth will be the by-product. Comfort will find its way to the oppressed. And those who are captive, will finally be free.
Instead of watching the news, take that time to do soul work. See what happens.
k
