Empowerment | Born to Be

Interchanging the word “Facebook” with the word “War” in the personally preferred Edwin Starr version of the hit Motown classic for my title has been a fun exercise for the day! I have to thank the Weekly Writing Challenge for instigating this little musical intrigue in my easily distracted mind. Now down to business.

I once sat in a teaching by a Tibetan Buddhist nun that compared Facebook to the ultimate ego indulgence. A place where egos run rampant with their over identification with self. Where attachment to an “identity” grows stronger with every random post about what so and so ate for dinner or how annoying that guy was for cutting so and so off in traffic. If I had to pinpoint the one thing that I learned from teaching people how to empower themselves it is that we have a choice in how we treat ourselves, others, and even in our use of a social media tool whether its Facebook, Twitter, or the next big thing.

I didn’t even use Facebook until around 2008, and I am even “of” that generation. I resisted it until I could find a way to make it work in a meaningful way for me. When I was training to be a life coach it was important to do your own personal work so you could help others authentically. A big exercise we did was inventory our “incompletes” and make them “complete.”

This is where you interject, “What the heck is she talking about?”

Thank you for asking!

Incompletes- those little energy suckers (or BIG) that sit in the periphery of your mind, loaded up like a Twinkie with emotions such as guilt, shame. The emotions never expire much like a Twinkie and its filling- and they clog up your life, unknowingly, like a backed up airplane runway. You want to take off but “hello!” Traffic strikes again.

That’s when I met Facebook. There were so many people in my life that I wanted to apologize to, make amends, let them know, “I am grateful for how you showed up in my life,” but couldn’t because how could I find them? I got on Facebook and like an illuminated sky on a crisp spring morning I cleared my runway of all those stuck airplanes that were weighing me down. So the question remains- is Facebook the “scourge” of the internet?

There have been lots of posts about how everything is a choice, even Facebook (including mine). So guess what? For me it all comes down to perception! I literally made Facebook “purposeful” and chose to engage with it in a positive, meaningful way where I could heal some old self-inflicted wounds and enrich my life. And boy did it help me breathe. To that note, I’d like to sing a rousing “Happy Birthday” and give my gratitude for the lightness I feel in my heart today due to this rocking scourge of the internet. Perception is a shaky topic because people stand by them like they are a part of their body. But when I can acknowledge and own the power it plays from the ignorant mind to the purposeful mind, I can determine its role in my life rather than allow “it” to determine me.

In the perfect words of Clark Griswold, “Alleluia! Where’s the Tylenol?!” Thanks Mr. Griswold for that perfect ending.

Let’s Rock Big Love!

“In the present circumstances, no one can afford to assume that someone else will solve their problems. Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged.” – The Dalai Lama, at a Universal Ed for Compassion and Wisdom Conference in Sidney earlier this year.

In my meditation this morning I heard these distinct words-

“You are not a consequence.”

The first thing I had to do was find the more direct definition for consequence, and go from there. From Dictionary.com we get:

con·se·quence

Noun

A result or effect of an action or condition.
Importance or relevance: “the past is of no consequence”.

I loved the statement the minute I heard it in my heart. The statement oozes accountability and authenticity which are primary tenants in understanding how perception plays a role in our lives. I have often said in my writing that it is important for us to understand how to use the mind to work for us, rather than continue the charade of allowing the ignorant mind to use our precious opportunity of life.

So where do you stand?

Do you see your life as a playground of choices that you get to make every day including your own self perceptions, or do you live your life as if it were a place of consequence?
Do you view life as a result or effect of an action by another?
Are you and your experiences the consequence of others or of your own mind?

Lots of big questions? I know, I can’t help it! Something I realized this morning in this meditation as part of this statement on consequence is that my whole existence is the result of a desire to help others. The root of my existence is not to be kept and harbored but to be shared and lived with others.

We are all a result of a desire to help others.

Years ago I was watching this episode of the show ER- I loved that show. This one particular episode Eriq La Salle’s character, Dr. Benton, had to do some volunteer work at a mobile medical station in the middle of nowhere Louisiana. As a black man he was experiencing racism that he hadn’t normally experience, and as an educated man he himself was behaving like a classist that did not want to be there doing this assignment. Maybe easier said- he was pissed and angry, yet these people needed medical care. In the end of the show he had experienced a kind of spiritual awakening, where he realized how important it was for his work as a doctor to be used as a means to help people heal- that it went deeper than his ego linked with his ignorant mind initially led on.

At the end of this episode I cried so deeply for like an hour, because in my heart I could not imagine doing anything except helping people heal and I knew it was an innate part of my existence. We are all a result of a desire to help others. We are all a result of the desire to love ourselves wholly and in turn love others from the most expanded part of our being. No matter what we do in this life, we affect people and every moment is an opportunity to offer kindness. Every little act is part of being accountable and acknowledging that we do not need to be victims of consequence, but part of a life that owns our mind and how it affects the world around us.

“LET’S ROCK BIG LOVE!”™ Jessica