Who will I learn from today?

There are a lot of loving people in the world and some difficult people out there too. 

Loving or difficult, everyone we encounter offers us a lesson on being human. 

As we encounter other people, our brains make notes on what to do and what not to do in our own human experience. We experience love and want to be more loving. We experience kindness and want to be more kind. 

Bring to mind the people who make you feel safe and loved. What do they remind you of, teach you, or show you about being a loving human?

Now bring to mind some people that are difficult to interact with. What makes these encounters difficult? Is there something to learn from them? 

Some of you may be reading this with a tight jaw and gritted teeth, thinking “there is absolutely nothing I could learn from that mean so-and-so!” 

Oh, but there is. 

We learn from them how not to treat people. We learn where our trigger points are. We learn how a behavior like theirs makes people feel. We learn what a dysregulated nervous system looks like. We are reminded of how foolish it looks to act like that. We get reminded of what we don’t want to say, do, or believe. We learn how to tap into our inner resilience around them. We learn how to have our own back. We learn where we need boundaries. They remind us how much we appreciate the loving people in our lives. 

They actually offer a lot of lessons to us.

So, next time you encounter a difficult person, try thinking a thought of gratitude - you just reminded me of who I don’t want to become, thank you.

Gratitude for the learning experience can help us diffuse our inner angst of encountering difficult people. 

Could you wake up every day and say with a spirit of adventure, “who will I learn from today?” This can help us shift our defensive attitude into seeing life as a student of Human School. We are souls here having a human experience learning every day. Everyone offers us a lesson. We don’t have to live afraid of conflict if we embrace it as an expansive learning opportunity. 

Life is one big experiment. Some days go well, some are challenging. Some people are delightful, some are difficult. All of it is a learning experience that gets us closer to seeing our own inherent worthiness and the inherent worthiness of every other human. Even the difficult ones. 

Try replacing angst, frustration, and offended with an inner sentiment of, “hmmmm, that’s interesting, thank you for showing me how not to behave.” That line of thinking can help move us out of victimhood and into a student taking notes on who we want to become. All of it is data collection.

Use the data to help you become the loving, peaceful, kind human you long to be. You will feel better about yourself, people will want to be around you, and what you want will start to come your way. It works every time.

Good things ahead,