Teachers teach, and we are all teachers.
Question: Do you pause long enough to know when you are teaching and when you are being taught?
I have been trained to appreciate that everyone I meet is my teacher, no matter the supposed purpose of our meeting. Dr. Patrick Scott came into my life as a teacher. Janice Portaro came into my life supposed as a student. What I know is we have all learned and taught each other.
As you watch the video with Dr. Patrick Scott below, listen to the way he has merged his academic training with complementary modalities such as the cultural and spiritual practice of Huna and NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming). Good teachers continually broaden their offerings. Sometimes the broadening comes from acquiring a new skill. Sometimes, such as in the case of confronting a health crisis, life presents the theater of learning. No matter where the learning comes from teachers must always be willing to be students and students must always be ready to teach.
The second part of this blog was written by Janice Portaro. Janice entered my world as a student and as you will read, she is more than ready to be a teacher for everyone.
“You are drinking the Kool-Aid, and she (my executive coach) has got you right where she wants you,” I was warned when I first started working with the tools of positive thought.
I knew that the comment was intended to have a negative connotation. That somehow I would be lured to my death with the sweet taste of the sugary beverage. Not all believe in positive thought, and some even fear it as some mystical, magical process that will keep you happy (or stuck) in a present situation.
I decided, rather, to receive my warning as a compliment. I was, after all, HAPPY. The only impending death I was experiencing was the loss of my prior thought process that no longer served my best interest—if it ever really did.
By the time I was willing to explore positive thought, here is what I knew about myself:
- Having an analytical mind sometimes kept me sitting on the sidelines, watching others in the action of success.
- Being a perfectionist can mean that most goals are unattainable, so really—why even try?
- Having life experiences of loss (after loss, after loss) can provide a good excuse for not moving forward.
Here is what I now know to be true for me:
Knowing my personality strengths and living them is a lot more fun than seeing all that is wrong with my environment and not knowing how to fix it. Maybe the environment is just grand, after all. One of my strengths is the ability to notice beauty in the world, and now that my eyes are open to them I sure have enjoyed seeing the sunsets in front of me every day.
Forgiveness freed me from victimization. When I was no longer a victim, I regained my power. Internalizing offenses hurt me, it made me shrink, and often times whatever happened was just a reflection of a misunderstood communication. To forgive does not justify a wrongdoing; it frees us from it.
Gratitude made me see what I have rather than focusing on what I don’t have. Appreciation sure is a better feeling than longing and comparison.
Guilt, especially overwhelming guilt, is an emotion that is best worked through. Feeling remorse makes me human; atonement made me wise. Heck, a lot of the stuff I carried as guilt was imagined anyway.
About Purpose
It is not fun to chase one divine purpose as if I had failed at life if I do not find it. Learning that it could be enough to just show up each day rather than to be in a constant state of questioning became my new purpose.
About Happiness
Happiness comes from the inside out and not from the outside in. It seems cliché and easy enough to understand, right? I know I was not alone in putting my happiness in the hands of achieving a goal rather than being happy while taking steps to achieve that goal. Today I dance my way through challenges. That is something that I picked up at a Dr. Success workshop, and if you don’t believe me, just ask my co-workers.
I understand now that life is continual. It will always be filled with moments to savor, to challenge, to teach me. Viewing it through a grounded belief system of positive thought and embracing it for all its beauty is a better place to be no matter what my circumstances. If my circumstances are not so great – who better to be the one to move through it, to improve it – the me who was hiding in a cloud of apathy, or the me who is drinking the Kool-Aid?
