Part 3 – I’ve Never Been Here Before
Every morning we wake to a new day – a new version of our children, of our work, our lives, and of ourselves. Truthfully, none of us have been here before.
The remarkable reality that surrounds us often gets cluttered with a regiment of rituals, in service to getting through the day with relative ease and grace. Mundane patterns of thinking, seeing and acting fog our senses, and we ignore the true beauty that unfolds eternally before us.
I am a Child of Light
Growing up, I was constantly shocked and disappointed that no one saw the light, beauty and love that was my essence – my being. Now, I wasn’t articulating this quite in this way, when I was a child, however, the absence of acknowledgments of who I was – the essence of me, wounded me deeply. And, so I learned to think differently about who I was supposed to be, in order to get the acknowledgments that would prove my existence had merit and value. I learned to forget that my truest value was in my being my light, not in being proficient at dimming my light.
The people around me all were immersed in the mist of a reality based on having too many responsibilities, too much to do, and too little resources to handle the overwhelm. I was a casualty of a dysfunctional environment, as were every single person in my world. No one is to blame.
Positive discipline, requires the utilization of Intelligence! You are reading this newsletter because you are part of a wonderful organization – Maximize Your Talent. You are committed to Emotional Intelligence and you practice cultivating it in your life, your work, and in your relationships. My question to you is: What would shift if you were to enter each new day from the perspective that this is the day you are given – unlike any other? This would mean that you cannot rely on the thinking, feeling, or doing of your previous days? You’ve never been here before, so you have to look at things with a fresh perspective.
My experience is that every single one of us is a child of the light, and that cultivating emotional intelligence allows us to see within ourselves, and those around us, the light and delight that is always present. The practice of positive discipline then requires us to shift the paradigm – the one we’ve relied on for too long – the one that dismisses anything that is not pragmatic, reasonable and efficient; the one that takes the fun and connection and the delight out of so much of the day.
What would you need to shift in order to wake up looking forward to the first glimpse of your children? What would you need to shift to look forward to all that will be unfolding in front of yoy? What would you need to shift to experience fulfillment from the perspective of: "I’ve never been here before!" It is all in the perspective, isn’t it? It’s all in the willingness to open to being in your life with everything you desire available to you now – and in every moment you willingly wake up into a new, fresh beginning. I’ve never been here before!
When Art Delorenzo invited me to write about positive discipline, I initially focused on how to get children to behave through the practice of treating them with respect, dignity and kindness. But, we are all children, and we all desire respect, dignity, kindness and fulfillment. In order to bring this reality into fruition it takes the practice of positive discipline with ourselves and with those around us.
When we willingly practice bringing positive perspective into our own lives we bring it effortlessly into the lives our our children, our friendships and into our work environment. Delighting in the possibility of Never Here Before is a practice that only requires openness and curiosity, with just a pinch of courage to break the cycle of living as if we know how it’s going to end. We don’t!
Enjoy the adventure!
