Want to know where you are called to improve your life? I don’t mean called by your boss, or your spouse, or your parents, I refer instead to the call which is inside you; the call no one else will ever hear, the call which is perhaps beyond being articulated because you do not even know you are hearing the call. This inside call is the product of all the self improvement you have been doing in your life: being more kind, more aware of the needs of other, more kind to yourself.
This call is heard when someone says something to you which hits a hot button deep inside.
Let’s say someone suggests you are not trustworthy. If you have been as impeccable with your word as you know how, and this challenge comes to you, it hurts! Ouch. Our first response is usually anger, anger that your integrity would be challenged. This sets up a series of steps which may be easily climbed, or not. The first step is self evaluation: am I out of integrity? Then there is the step of releasing the anger you felt, then there is the slogging through all the memories of what you might have done to elicit such a charge. Beware! The personal ego has a very clever defense system. It might hide the very answer you seek. Here is another possibility; what has been said, may actually reflect the other persons view of themselves, and have nothing to do with you at all. But the pain is still as real.
If that accusation continues to echo in your head, there may be something to it. Be gentle with yourself and the answer will come.
