‘It is not a shame to be knocked down by other people. The important thing is to ask when you are being knocked down, “why am I being knocked down?” If a person can reflect in this way, then there is hope for this person” – Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee, known all over the world for his combination of martial arts and acting, is as super human as they come. He was able to do 1,500 push-ups without stopping on two hands, 400 push-ups with one hand and 200 with two fingers. He was also a master of consciousness and among other miraculous feats, healed a broken back through meditation. His words, in this instance, carry tremendous wisdom.
“It is not a shame to be knocked down by other people” can be expanded to “It is not a shame to be knocked down in life” provided the person can reflect on why it is happening and what can be learned from it. When a person chooses to reflect this way, every happening becomes a lesson and opportunity to grow and become stronger, but it is a Choice.
Choice: Victim vs. Creator
If I choose a victim orientation, then I am choosing a place of powerlessness and all the energy for action comes from anxiety and fear. I am at the effect of the world around me; things are happening TO me, and I am powerless to stop it. I am helpless. As the creator, however, anything that comes to me is FOR me. The creator orientation is a focus on vision and desired outcomes and all the energy for action comes from passion.
However, there are many situations in life that seem so unfair and feel so deeply punitive and personal. It becomes easy to slip into the victim orientation because it feels so natural. It is what society conditions us for. We are indoctrinated to view victimhood as a viable path. The short-term payoff is sympathy and attention as the victim is the focal point of the drama triangle and it makes the victim, counter intuitively, feel important. The victim gets to tell themselves it is not their fault and, most importantly, the victim gets to make someone else the villain. It can be incredibly addictive. Some people spend their entire lives in a victim orientation without ever understanding how limited their lives are because of it. It is the frequency of apathy. Escaping it involves choice.
Choice: Blame vs. Responsibility
The ego loves to blame others and make itself superior by deflecting all responsibility for situations it labels as ‘bad’. However, if I have zero responsibility for my situation, then I have zero power to change it and that is learned helplessness. To be a creator I need to discover what part of the situation I can claim responsibility for because as soon as I do, I am no longer helpless. Sometimes my part is small but I MUST find it so I can bring forth the courage to change the things I can. And it becomes like pulling on a thread. Once I identify even a small part of what I am responsible for, my perception rapidly changes, and I often gain the vision that I played a much bigger part in events and hence have an even greater capacity to effect change. If I am brave enough, I can take radical responsibility for all of it, and it will set me free. Free to tap into my infinite potential as the Creator of my own destiny. And whatever that may be, at least it will be my choice. It is the frequency of courage, and it is a subtle shift into a state of higher consciousness.
This is what we practice and teach as we trudge our own road of happy destiny.
The Way
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