Hey Brooke! What I love about your work is that you’ve shared B-I-G pivotal thoughts that really changed my thinking about life, others, my “problems”, etc. Like “It was meant to happen the way it did” … “Nothing has gone wrong here” … “I can feel any feeling” … and a ton more. They always seem to pop up at the perfect time! 🙂
I wanted to share one that I picked up from somewhere in my reading (Steve Chandler, maybe? Byron Katie?) – but has been really pivotal and it pops up ALL the time for me. It’s this… “The Universe Only Sends Me Teachers”.
I first started thinking this when my Mom came to visit for 3 weeks. Instead of “I have to change her so I can feel better” or “She’s killing herself with smoking and drinking. What do I do???” – I thought “The Universe only sends me teachers. My Mom is here to teach me something. What is it?” And in just sitting with her, I discovered she was there to teach me to love unconditionally … her and myself. How to stop judging and start engaging. How to listen openly. What I thought was going to be an excruciating 3 weeks was an incredible experience for me. It completely changed my relationship with my Mom. (And LOTS of people in my life since then.)
Whenever I find myself trying to change people or situations to feel better … that thought pops up… “The Universe only sends me teachers”. And that “teacher” can be a family member … traffic when I need to be somewhere … an unexpected letter from the IRS … bad weather … whatever.
I just think… “Okay, cool. The Universe sent this to teach me something. What is it?” And then I get curious and there’s ALWAYS something to learn. And 100% of the time it’s something about me … my thinking … my beliefs … my skills … my abilities. The teacher gets to “be” however they wish to be – and I grow and get the benefit of the lesson. It’s a win/win. 🙂
Seeing circumstances (people, things, situations) as “teachers” has really helped flip my thinking from “I must change you” or “this can’t be happening” to appreciating the “teacher” and thinking “you’ve shown up to give me value and growth. What is it?”
Anyway, just wanted to share. It’s kind of my go-to thought at times – and thought it might help another. 🙂
