An inspirational story about W. Mitchell

There is a Serenity prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous that goes like this: “God grant me the Serenity to accept things I cannot change, the Courage to change things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.”

It seems like knowing exactly what you can change and what you cannot change will give you peace of mind. Recognising things that are changeable allows us to change them immediately. And recognising what is unchangeable will give us another gift, the gift of acceptance.

Some things we just cannot change.

More times than not, it‘s very difficult to change other people it’s easier to change ourselves. More times than not, we cannot change the reality that we see around us but we can change our perception of that reality. And when we change those
perceptions, things around us start to change themselves.

Sometimes people who are dealing with terminal illnesses know that it’s not as easy as recognising that “If I change my internal state I will get well.” Sometimes that happens but it involves change at deeper levels than we currently understand.

To illustrate this there is an inspirational story about W. Mitchell who in his book “It’s Not What Happens To You, It Is What You Do About It That Makes The Difference,” talks about being accountable for everyone of his actions. He talked about where he was in several accidents and in all of these accidents he had to under go many operations and approximately 2 years of medical recovery, after which he went on with his life. Even though now he was called “ugly” and disfigured, he told people that he had forgotten how unacceptable he was and he forgot that there was anything wrong with himself. Because he had
forgotten that he was ugly, other people did too.

“You see what I learnt,” he says “during those two years that it took to me to fully recover, to learn to dress myself again, to drive again and yes to even fly an airplane again, what I focussed on in life is what I get. And if I concentrate on how bad I am or how wrong or how inadequate I am, if I concentrate on what I can’t do and of how much time there is to do it, isn’t that what I get every time?

And when I think about how powerful I am and when I think about what I have left to contribute and when I think about the difference I can make on this planet then that is what I get. You see I recognise that it is not what happens to you, it’s
what you do about it.”

Now W. Mitchell is a giant of a man and a very important teacher. But his story does not end there at all. He talks about when he was in his second major accident and lost the use of his legs permanently, that when he was tying to learn to use his new wheelchair, he met a young man that wasn’t doing too well emotionally and physically. This former athlete’s world ended when he lost the use of his legs. Confined to a wheelchair, he could no longer ski or climb mountains.

Mitchell decided to talk with this fellow patient of his and this is what he said: “One day, while trying the best I could to think of something to say that could help him, that might make a difference, I went over to him. I told him that before I was paralysed, there were ten thousand things that I could do. Now there were nine thousand. Sure I could dwell on those one thousand things and spend the rest of my life doing that or I could focus on the nine thousand that I have left. If, in my lifetime, I am able to do a few hundred of those things, I’ll be one of the most remarkable people on this planet. You see, it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do about it that makes the difference.”

And like most winners, Mitchell spent most of his life looking for the learning in everything. His philosophy is very simple:
“The only losers are the people that don’t get into the race. The only losers are the people who don’t stand up to be countered. The only losers are the people who don’t try to make a difference.” Mitchell Official Website: http://www.wmitchell.com

So getting your life to hum starts from within you. Shape or be shaped by the environment, the choice is yours and now is the perfect time. Where you are is the perfect place. All that you have, is all you need…….for now.

Self-worth, Self-esteem and Happiness

There is an illusionary triangle that happens between the idea of self-worth, self-esteem and happiness. We seem to spiral downwards into depression whenever we are missing one of these and whenever we’re not happy it is because our self-esteem is a little low.

If our self-esteem is low, we are not happy. We feel our self-worth dropping down as well so we don’t hold ourselves in very high esteem. Sometimes this may happen because of moods and a bad mood is often the resason for blaming others. Very often, however, blaming others causes bad feeling to us as well and the more we blame others, the worse we feel.

So one of our most common and widespread prejudices is that every person has a fixed and special characteristic that they are
kind people or evil people, clever people or stupid people or cold people or hot people. But people are not like this. We can say of a person, only that he is more often kind than evil, more often cold than hot, more often clever than stupid.

We always divide people like this but this is no less wrong. If there is animosity between 2 people, both are to blame. Any number that is multiplied by zero, however big will equal zero. So if there is animosity then, it is the animosity of 2 people towards each other and it exists in both of them. So if you are in a self-deprecating system, in other words you are fighting with yourself what happens is that you are trying to tell yourself that you are no good. You are trying to tell yourself that you are not worthy of all the good things that you want to receive from life including love, not just material things but things that may involve emotion from other people as well.

This includes respect. So we deny ourselves even the gifts that are within ourselves, the treasure that is within ourselves. We are like many-faceted gemstones. Each side represents a different aspect of ourselves. We have our emotional sides with different feelings and responses, we have our competencies and strengths, our hopes and desires, our destructiveness and negativity, our selfdoubts and resentment. We also possess a drive for power and knowledge, a desire to serve and a wish to connect with others.

So our spiritual side requires that we know our many sides. We need a working relationship with our thoughts and feelings so that they can be appreciated, respected and understood. So when we tell our stories to each other, as friends, we let them know and we get to know ourselves even better and that is where a community of likemindedness serves to empower us as well and that’s where friends and family become very important. So choose very wisely who your friends are and who are the people you want to discover yourselves through. Whether you are with them in meditation or playfulness or physical activity or people you simply have conversations with.

In that way you become more amd more honest and more yourself. It is human to make mistakes and feel incomplete. Perhaps if we were all smooth like glass we can perfection of ourselves. But each person is actually a process. We are not things but events and happenings and the events are still unfolding and these are creative and spiritual adventures in life. We have somehow learnt that openness to criticism is dangerous and perhaps we thought someone would not like us if we were wrong or that we would get hurt or belittled. So when we live with our higher power, we can stand up for ourselves and a person has a right to make some mistakes obviously. We grow more if we allow ourselves to leeway(?) or simply being in process. Tell yourselves that you will not ask to have the power of perfection, you will only ask that you will not be alone in the process of living your life.

Places And People That Heal

Sometimes we come across people who are kind and gentle. They are in effect, living angels, coming at the right time, when you needed them the most. If you meet these people along the road of your life, the way to recognise them is this. They’re not looking to prove their point, they’re not looking to change your point of view, they’re looking to enhance you. They’re looking to make you feel better about yourself.

These people ask more questions about you than they are answering questions about themselves.

It’s almost as if they’re angels in disguise. There are places like that as well, places that are flooded with these people who are everywhere. Some people find them in places like Arizona, India and Northern Nepal or at the foothills of a mountain, they could be anywhere. Some people have even gone to Indonesian islands like Bali to find places that heal.

Wherever you find a healing place, you will also find that suddenly, without any apparent reason, that part of you that had been tense on the inside starts to melt and you start to feel a little sleepy. That’s the body’s first reaction in calming you down and beginning the process of healing, it makes you feel a little sleepy and allows you to finally do a little bit of
resting.

Sleep is body’s best natural antidote to the toxins generated by stressed muscles. In the presence of healing individuals, the sleepiness is also felt and then translated into a warm subconscious comfortableness with that individual. These people are rare, unique and they are hard to find. They do not often reveal themselves. When you find such a person, try not to hurt them and try not to let them go.

Around them, people make dramatic progress in life and in spirit. They leave you with little or no choice but to grow. Dead giveaways are ‘something’ in the resonance of their voice that is ‘attractive and calming’, children love them, their eyes seem to penetrate into your soul and they love to play and have fun.