Response AbilityIt is entirely within your power to create an ongoing WonderFul Life, a life full of joy, wonder and great feelings. You don't even have to believe this. You can simply learn and apply some basic truths and you will experience it to be true.There is, of course, a great difference between having the idea that you create your own reality and an ongoing experience of it. Since there can be a nearly infinite number of beliefs, meanings and viewpoints associated with the idea that you create your own reality, I would first like to invite you to focus on a few specifics. I invite you to focus on the idea that you create your responses to what other people say and do. To begin with I am going to offer a very basic principle that I am forever discovering to be true. It is this: What another says or does has nothing to do with you. How you respond to what another says or does has everything to do with you. I am not asking you to accept this principle, I am not asking you to agree or disagree and I am certainly not asking you to analyze it to death. I am inviting you to discover in-depth whether it is true or not. Let us take a fresh look at the subject of responsibility. So often people will tend to shy away from responsibility because they associate or identify it with something they don't want, such as blame, shame and regret. Well, for those of you who would like more joy in their lives, here is a new maxim I invite you to subscribe to. When the definition of a term doesn't make you feel good, redefine the term. With this in mind, let us redefine the word responsibility. Let us define it as the ability to respond in any way you choose. This would include the ability to respond with joy and wondrous feelings no matter what anyone says or does, and no matter what does or does not appear in physical reality. Is that an ability you would like to have? Well, you can.
The Ability to Comfortably PerceiveThe first step in being able to respond as you choose is to develop and enhance your ability to comfortably perceive anything. If you cannot comfortably perceive something you will probably react to it. That is, you will have a response that does not seem to be under your volitional control.An intern in an ER who can not comfortably perceive blood is severely hampered relative to his ability to effectively respond to the situation. A lover who is not comfortable with something their mate says or does is crippled relative to their ability to respond in a joyful manner. A worker who is not comfortable with things that happen at work is not a happy worker and a driver who is not comfortable with someone cutting in front of him in traffic is a menace to himself and everyone else. Thus it behooves all of us to increase our ability to comfortably perceive. Many of the "WonderTech WonderFun Exercises"TM I developed focus on increasing the ability to comfortably perceive anything. In order to be able to respond as you choose, it is imperative that you are able to bring any happening into the realm of fundamental neutrality. In other words, remove any negative judgment, protest or resistance to any happening. You can, at will, view any occurrence as simply one of the things that can occur, one of the things a person could say or do. You can see it simply as something this person is creating. You can even admire what a great job they are doing of creating their current attitude or viewpoint. You can see it simply as one of the things that could be created and one of the infinite number of ways in which one can create or experience life. The "WonderTech WonderFun ViewPoint Exercises"TM directly exercise your ability to do these things.
RelationshipsNow let's take a new look at relationships. I offer for your consideration the following definition of a relationship.A Relationship - How you choose to respond or relate to what another is being, doing, creating and having. This again refers to the idea that what another says or does has nothing to do with you and how you choose to relate or respond has everything to do with you. It all has to do with Response Ability, how we choose to respond to what occurs. Ultimately the choice is always ours. |
