Remember when you were a kid riding the bus to school? And all of the days when everyone worked together and you arrived safely and on time? Maybe you even shared part of your lunch with a friend and she gave you the charm from her cereal box? But just behind those memories are the other days when the bus was late, people were fighting on the bus, or it broke down? What if you ARE the bus and everyone on the bus is you? What if the Bus is your vehicle to peace, happiness and success? Or to breakdowns and getting stuck in neutral?
We are a whole person with our successes, fears, quirks, health problems, loves and preferences. But we often don’t feel whole because parts of that self are not in agreement with other parts, much like the children on a bus. Part of you wants to write a new resume and search for a new job, yet another part finds 100 reasons to read or bathe the dog instead. Part of you wants to finish reading this book, while another part gets intimidated with prospect of facing parts of the self you don’t like and finds ways to stay on the phone too long.
Imagine that you are not just one person but are like a committee riding on a bus. The committee works together, sometimes disagreeing, sometimes agreeing, other times quitting or not showing up at all. Imagine that sometimes one person on the committee dominates, and wins the others over much to the success of the group. But another time, the dominating member drives the bus right off of the road into a ditch where you feel stuck and unable to move toward your life?
We want to achieve happiness, peace, prosperity and love in our lives and yet we sabotage ourselves and berate ourselves afterward. There are three parts of the self right there! Your optimist plans for a great day, your saboteur keeps it from working out the way you want and the critic gets down on you for not being strong enough to wrestle the saboteur to the ground.
But as with all bullies, brute force is rarely the answer. John Lennon used to say, “All you need is Love,” and perhaps you do catch more flies with honey. What if you added acceptance to the mix? As though the parts of the self were parts of the committee or your family? You may not always feel that you love them, but you care about them, accept them even with their quirks and usually find a way to work with them.
When you were a child, you could turn your head and simply refuse to see another child who had made you angry. Maybe there is an angry or lost child within you. Maybe one you have been ignoring and pushing aside, only to find yourself blowing up at inappropriate times?
All of the parts of the self are you, yes, all of you. For better or worse, you are in relationship with all of the parts of yourself. Like other people, you love some of them, like others and totally ignore those you dislike. The relationships we have to our optimistic adult, our inner child and our angry teenager within are all responsible for how our world is created each day. Whether we give them a voice or not, they are constantly creating our happiness or unhappiness, our success or failure. And parts you hardly recognize may be driving the bus, running the show and creating a life that makes you wonder how you ended up there?
So how do we get a great committee on the bus and drive it straight toward our goals for happiness and inner peace? Think of a feuding committee. How can they come to a concensus and follow the guidance of the committee chair? They talk it out, polish up their skills, transform, compromise, work through problems and accept everyone’s opinion in the end, even if they disagree.
As so will you. Listening to the needs of the whole self, finding out where they are “coming from†accepting them and getting all of them on the bus driven by your highest spiritual self is possible. And it may even be more fun than you ever realized.
As with any good story, the life you are creating may cause tears, joys, memories you want to treasure and those you want to forget, but they all make up the wonderful you that you are.
Come with me as we journey into the self and get ready to drive. Each quarterly E-Zine will share new ways to get you all aboard. In the end, I know that you will be more yourself than you have ever been, and loving it! Go to the Newsletters sections to sign up today!