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Having Been Wronged
Today’s topic is resentment. Most people will deny that resentment plays much of a role in their emotional lives, but people’s emotional histories are full of resentment. If your history has emotional weight at all, this is resentment. The original meaning of the word was to feel strongly. Whenever we become stuck in any form…
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Our Mistakes
I analyze what I did wrong in the situation for the next time it happens. That is not helpful, as the error cannot show us the correct way of doing a thing. This is perhaps one of the biggest logic errors most people commit, but without reflection we can’t help it. The instinct takes over. The…
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Broken Translation
A big part of our current thinking is shaped by our academic education. Most of us were educated to get our facts straight to be sure we do not make errors. This is not helpful. It’s harmful. The hyper vigilance locks us into a rigid mode of awareness. And to fear punishment when we do,…
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Change What You Imagine
The inner watch dog can be brought up to speed by the same process that lead it to be confused. When you realize that you are reacting instinctively not to something concrete but rather to things you imagine, you can change what you imagine. Your real life is what you imagine it to be. The…
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Be Open
We imagine what we choose to imagine and what is chosen for us to imagine. Our imagination is a model or map of our reality. No matter what we choose we will have reference points. Landmarks. Where would having resentments for our landmarks lead us? Hating our life? Down a narrow path afraid of side…
Category: Resentment
Clinging to a sense of having been wronged. Who doesn’t feel wronged these days? The core instinct that makes wrongs register so lastingly in our minds is very narrow in it’s range of responses. So when we act on this vigilance it gives us only the choice of destruction or avoidance.
We disrespect our senses and the only means we have for really understanding our senses. This facility to make sense of the senses is called imagination and its impact is very real. We resent things as we imagine they happened, or as we imagine they might happen. There is a third option. Since we are inherently open and connecting creatures, we can see that there are patterns and processes in life that we can focus on. Let the ‘mysteries” of the universe inspire us. What sort of life would this lead to?
“Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment” Dale Carnegie (American lecturer, author, 1888-1955)
“Resentment or grudges do no harm to the person against whom you hold these feelings but every day and every night of your life, they are eating at you” Norman Vincent Peale (American Protestant Clergyman and Writer, 1898-1993)