I’ve spent over 15 years learning, absorbing, practicing and facilitating this work I do; participating in monthly retreats, personal weekly sessions, working with clients, doing workshops, and curating a library of over 10,000 documents and recordings brought through Michael Cavallaro.
Through this work, I have found more peace, joy, and fulfillment than I thought humanly possible. And with all of that if you asked for just one idea that would change your life I know exactly what I would say.
I would give you the first concept in the book “The 55 Concepts, A Guide to Conscious Living.”
“Anything that bothers you is your issue.”
I fought this one with everything I had. I was sure it was only true sometimes. I was convinced that at least part of the time it was someone else that was really the problem. I was indignant that someone would even suggest I could be like that!! I wanted it to be someone or something else. It would be so much easier than changing myself and I couldn’t possibly have these annoying traits! But the more I worked with it, the more I had the courage and willing to really look at myself without massive judgment, the more I realized it was always true.
Once I got past all my resistance and judgment I began (sometimes!) to see it as a gift. This person in front of me who I believed was making me crazy was holding a mirror for me to see what it was that wasn’t working in my own life. They were a friend, the truest kind of friend, who said, “Look, I know this pisses you off but if you don’t change it in you – you can’t have the life you want.”
How many times did I want to smash the mirror? How many times did I want to blame the reflection? How many times did I want to kill the messenger?
What I found though is even if I did turn away from the reflection there was always another mirror, another person, place or thing that would bring the same message over and over again. And sometimes in my ignorance and unconsciousness, I’d scream, “Why does this always happen to me???” But not until I looked inside and changed what was in my life did anything change.
I now realize that anything that bothers me is a gift (though I admit that’s not always my first reaction!) and my choice is to learn from it or have a groundhog day life.
So…
What bothers you?
What bothers you about that?
Where do you do it?
Are you brave enough to look?
Are you willing to see?
Are you ready to change?
It’s up to you!
If you can’t figure it out or are SURE it’s not yours, feel free to email me and we can play with it and see what we find.
The 55 Concepts, A Guide to Conscious Living is still my go-to book for change. As I grow I discover deeper and deeper levels of wisdom in the material. If you’ve known me for awhile you probably have a copy of the book. Time to dust it off and open it up again. If you’ve lost your copy, gave it away or never had one and are just curious it’s available as a paperback, eBook, or audio read by the author. (Be sure to get the 4th edition if you purchase the paperback; it has new material).
If you’re interested, you can access a couple hundred of the documents and audios from the Living Concepts Library at livingconceepts1.com.
So….what’s bugging you?