Have you ever felt challenged by others?  This is food for thought for me today.  I have to admit during the past few months, I’ve felt this way.  I’ve felt challenged by others.  Before I write further, please do not take this personally if you know me (such as a acquaintance, friend, family, etc.).  This is so general.  I’ve just been guided to write about this topic, so please do not feel it is about you.  This is about me.

I’m a big fan of the book, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  This book is a wonderful book about the Toltec way.  One of the actual four agreements is not to take things personally.  This agreement has provided me with many growth lessons needless to say throughout my life!

I tend to be a very positive person, so I’ve sometimes felt perplexed as to why I’m attracting certain life lessons.  One thing that keeps coming through is about how I treat myself.  I tend to be hard on myself at times.  I’m a recovering perfectionist–to be exact.  Even as I write this, I am super worried about my grammar and spelling.  It doesn’t end with my writing.  I also am a recovering overachiever.  I have pushed myself to exhaustion several times in my life whether it was due to career/education, work, being there for others, or my athletic pursuits–or often all of these areas at the same time.  I had that horrible dis-ease called “I’m-Not-Good-Enough-itis.”  I emphasize that this was in the past.

So, back to the bit about not taking things personally.  In addition, there’s the idea of sacred mirrors.  Whatever I don’t like about someone is simply what I don’t like about myself–and vice versa.  We are constantly mirroring things back and forth to each other.  So, this feeling challenged by others as of late is really just a mirroring of my own tendency to be hard on myself.  I know when I stop being hard on myself 100 percent, I’ll be done with feeling challenged by others.

For each person, feeling challenged can manifest in different ways.  I used to get annoyed at what I call “rude drivers”–I’ll start with a common, simple analogy.  I noticed though these annoyances occurred mainly when I myself felt rushed or hurried.  So, I don’t hurry any more.  I relax in the car, listening to my favorite music.  Or, I’ll do affirmations as I drive.  I do notice when people cut me off or such, but it has very little charge for me any more.  I just see it as another chance to practice or cultivate patience.

I work with words a lot, so I mainly find that I feel challenged most by others’ words, especially their questions.  My ego can sometimes pick up on the underlying tone of someone’s question(s).  I’m thinking this is just our egos playing a not-so-friendly game of ping-pong.  When I feel myself go into ego, I take a deep breath.  Then, I just send love to whomever I feel is challenging me.  The person can choose to accept my love or not.  However, it seems to really help to shift the energies.  I also like to employ humor to shift the energies.  If that doesn’t help, then, my work is done.  I don’t try to make people love me any more.

It’s hard for me at times to understand life as a human being.  It’s fun to use humor.  I figure I can laugh or cry about things–laughing is much more fun.  In the past year or so, I’ve been asking the angels or Divine to ease my path so I can learn my lessons through fun, joy, and laughter.  This has been a big shift for me.  I will admit that there has been some growing pains with some of this.  Some individuals in my life don’t call me as much.  Some of my friendships have shifted.  I trust that this is part of the learning and growing.  I also send these individuals much love

Feeling challenged can be shifted to a place of feeling Divine love and light.  With intention, it is possible to shift energies quite easily, effortlessly, and immediately.  As mentioned, I take a few brief moments to send love to the person and/or situation that I feel challenges me.  I also change the feeling or thought.  If I focus on the idea or feeling of challenge, then, that is what I will continue to experience and feel.  If I can’t immediately move into Love, I’ll at least get into neutral.  I will change the word challenge to energy exchange or conversation or learning experience.  Once I let the neutral settle into my consciousness, I find it is easier then to shift into Love.

This work took some practice for me!  It was not natural or easy at first, but just like learning anything (think of me learning the guitar right now), practice makes perfect.  Okay, I mean easy, not perfect.  I highly enjoy those commercials for a popular office supplies’ chain in the United States that include an Easy Button.  The Easy Button can be used in challenging situations–I mean, various energy interactions with others.

I feel at times it might be beneficial to have a t-shirt that says, “Caution!  Personal Growth Ahead!”  Wouldn’t that be a hoot?  I mean, we’re all growing and learning.  If you’re not, well, you probably understand what that means.  I don’t want to even go “there.”  I’m still here on the Earth plane, so that means I’m still growing. 

I’m choosing to grow with peace, love, and a few laughs thrown in there too!  (Oh yeah and some good music too!).

Peace Out,

Lisa