Navigating Difficult People

Everyone comes across someone in their lives who can be triggering.

The nervous system's immediate response is fear,

Anger,

Or other emotions which can be difficult to turn down or turn off.

Today's meditation is about discovering the who,

Why,

And what of the people you come across from which you have the most to learn.

That's right,

Your triggers are treasures.

The most challenging relationships we have as humans are about teaching and evolving us consciously to choose love.

Yes,

You can see them through the lens of all that is,

But it's practice and not perfection we obtain on earth.

To see it through the mind of all,

God's lens,

Or the source eyes,

You must accept everyone for who they are as human and soul.

This is the lens that will remind you who everyone is,

You,

Yes,

You.

We are one,

So that means even the most horrific person has a connection back to all that is.

Ones of this nature are the ones who have lost their way and sit at the bottom of the awareness ladder,

A tool to help understand what levels of consciousness are and their meanings.

Let's begin our journey together by taking a step towards understanding our oneness.

See everyone you love as an extension of you,

Your family,

Your friends,

The co-workers you like,

And the people you come across every day.

Imagine you are sitting in a room together about to watch a play,

And the entire audience is filled with the people who you know and those who you like or love.

On stage,

The characters are the people you find the most unbearable to be around,

But you would like to know more about them,

So allow curiosity to come into play as we go into our meditation to allow a meaningful vision of what is helpful to navigate our difficult fellow members of Earth.

I invite you to begin to slowly relax the body and mind,

Connecting to every breath you take,

Every sensation,

And feeling every emotion that arises.

Letting the power of the mind tell the body where to go and to help put it into a state of awareness of understanding bigger and more expansive concepts.

Free the mind of limiting beliefs and let yourself be one with all that is.

Taking a nice deep inhale,

Followed by an exhale.

Breathe into the knowledge you are more than physical,

But truly metaphysical.

With another deep inhale,

And exhale.

Focus the attention on the mind's eye as you breathe.

The space between human and soul that gives you access to deeper truths and understandings.

Deeply inhale,

And deeply exhale.

Follow along in this guided visualization as we become the observer and watch the play unfold in front of our mind's eye.

For those of us who are visual learners,

It might come easily and effortlessly to see the play unfold,

But remember we have our other senses,

Our sight,

Our smell,

Our taste,

Our touch,

Our feeling,

Our knowing.

So if the visuals don't come,

Allow those other parts of yourself to imagine for you and with you.

Picture on the stage as if a big giant bear has just entered this play,

And immediately we realize that the bear is wearing a bear suit.

It's not actually a bear,

It's someone playing a part.

They're a character in a show,

And they come home from work and take off their mask.

Why would they travel with the bear suit on?

That's a question we can ask ourselves.

Why do we travel with our human mask everywhere we go?

We often take it with us to every situation,

And to us,

In spirit,

We see it as silly too.

Of course this person would not walk around or commute from work with the bear suit on,

And yet we do it all the time.

We take our bears with us,

Our human emotions,

Our angers and frustrations,

Or we hibernate.

We go into hiding,

We don't want to talk to anybody or see anyone,

And we carry those masks along with us,

And it's only when we start to come home to ourselves that we can remove the masks.

It is in our higher conscious awareness of all that is that we are able to see,

See through the mirror of expectation and frustration and anger.

But let's unwind and rewind from the scene we're watching.

In the next part of this play,

We know that this is a little boy.

That same person who came into the room with the bear costume is now a little boy,

And he's sitting on the floor with a colorful carpet,

And he's playing with a little red fire truck.

And the TV is playing in the background with just some gentle white noise,

And he's not really paying attention to that noise.

He's focused on his fire truck.

And in comes a character,

And we come to realize,

As the observer in the audience,

Must be this little boy's father.

And he comes home from work,

Hangs up his jacket,

Comes over to the table and sits down,

And there is a woman who we come to see as the wife.

She is wearing a lovely outfit and a lovely little strand of pearls around her neck,

And she's got an apron on,

And in her mouth she's smoking a cigarette,

And she places something on the table as the man begins to open a newspaper.

He has yet to acknowledge the little boy sitting in the room playing with his red truck.

And he does this every day when he goes to work.

He comes home and does not acknowledge the people he loves.

He simply folds into a world of the newspaper,

Reading about the gossip and the wars and the tragedies,

And consuming that,

Instead of focusing on the love that he has for family.

And we rewind again,

As that scene closes,

And another stage is set up,

With a tiny little room and one big bed that everyone shares.

There is no food on the table.

There is a mouse climbing up the wall.

There is dirt on the ground,

And dirt on the face of everyone in this space.

They're poor.

They're struggling.

And they do have each other,

But they forget the magic of family.

And so they fight and argue,

And feel trapped inside this little room,

And instead they could go outside.

There is a beautiful park across the street,

With trees and grass.

There is a little bridge with a little tunnel underneath.

All sorts of magical places,

But they stay stuck in their little room,

Arguing and fighting,

Not knowing how simple it is to go outside,

To find some peace,

To stretch your legs.

And so they miss out on all the beauty of the world,

In favor of the darkness.

And as we sit as observers,

In a time in this planet when more and more are awakening to their divine source,

To the understanding of their connection to all that is,

They're making that choice.

But long ago,

Several hundred years back and even further,

We hadn't yet come to that realization.

And so therefore,

Each and every person living on this planet has a whole host of lives that have been carried through into where they currently reside.

And they bring that,

Like a suitcase,

Into their story,

And that becomes the mask,

The bear,

That comes with them wherever they go.

And only those who are ready to shed that mask will come to realize that they are in the play,

And also outside the play.

They can observe it,

And rewrite it,

And change it.

They don't have to stay in the play,

And they don't have to watch the play.

They can simply get up and leave,

Or quit the show.

So let's all journey across the street.

There's a whole other play going on,

A whole other show.

As we file into the theater,

Immediately this feels different,

It feels lighter.

We hear music being queued up,

We hear laughter,

And our minds begin to wonder what this is.

We feel excitement and joy,

Stepping into this new theater,

This theater of the mind.

And as we look around,

We realize not everybody came with us from the first theater.

Some people were ensconced in the play.

They related to the characters and the story that was unfolding on screen and on stage.

They could not look away.

But as someone who is connected into that nervous system,

That feeling of being triggered or anxious,

You knew it was time to go.

And some followed,

And some stayed.

But even still,

The theater begins to fill with new faces,

People you've never met,

Who also are understanding their connection to Source,

Who are ready to see a new story unfold and discover who they are.

And as the curtain begins to open,

We see a big,

Bright,

Beautiful rainbow.

The lighting makes it seem as if you are ensconced in the rainbow,

You're part of the story.

You're not just an observer,

But you're on the stage.

And out comes on stage a version of you who sees that rainbow,

Who begins to dance in that sunlight.

And you realize immediately,

This is not just a play,

This is a musical.

There is music and laughter and fun and joy.

As you begin to see yourself tap dancing and others join you on stage,

Dancing through life,

Accepting what is,

Enjoying the moment.

And then we realize there is a story,

There is a plot here.

And as joyous as it is,

There is the villain.

The person who comes in and ruins the fun and stops the music.

That is your worst enemy,

But greatest teacher.

They're there to show you how to overcome the nonsense and noise of the human experience.

That always will there be someone to brighten your day and to ruin your day.

That is the yin and yang of earth.

And it's easy to be around those who brighten our day.

We can dance and laugh and sing.

But what happens when the villain arrives?

The hero is thwarted.

And you are that hero who has a choice to allow that person's anger and venom and vengefulness to take you down.

To shut down the sunshine and turn the rainbow into thunder and lightning.

And at first you do.

The thunder and lightning arrives and you feel shut down,

Hiding inside,

Trying to stay safe from the wrath of the storm.

The storm brought on by this person who is your greatest teacher.

They know you need them on an unconscious level.

You need the pain they inflict or the mindful disturbance they cause.

But you know that across the street,

That person struggled in a family that didn't protect them or teach them or show them love.

You know that they struggled with poverty,

That they come from a line of people who have struggled in life.

And they carry those wounds with them like a bag.

You're able to see that now.

Not only because you are the observer of the show,

But you're in the show.

You can feel what they're feeling.

You can experience that yourself.

Without having to physically have the same experience,

Your mind,

Your mental capabilities,

You're able to access that information,

That reserve inside your own mind,

That allows you to know the who,

The why,

And what of everyone.

Who am I?

I am you,

And you are me.

We are one.

Why are we different?

Because I've reached the level of awareness of being both observer and character,

While you remain just the character.

I have pulled back the veil of the illusion.

I have pulled back this curtain to understand our deeper connection.

And so in one moment,

I can merge my mind with the mind of everyone.

Take on an understanding,

See it through the lens of all that is,

And then make choices and decisions that can further me back to the conscious choice of love.

How may I view this person?

What may I say?

What will serve us best?

And when we come to that understanding,

As the observer,

The actor,

And then the director,

Unnoticed until now,

In the back of the space,

Is the director.

A version of you who is waiting to rewrite the story.

Who's got a stack of papers,

A database of information,

Where all of the information of what will serve best resides inside.

Inside of you is the database,

But it's waiting for you to ask in order to receive.

So allow yourself to be guided to the back of the theater,

To the stack of papers,

As we sift and look through and find the page where we know what to do,

What to say,

How to navigate.

And when we find the page,

We start to sing again,

We start to laugh,

We start to dance.

We challenge that narrative that this is challenging or hard or difficult.

We accept it for what it is.

We know that joy is what is needed.

Love is what's needed.

And our singing and dancing brings back the rainbow and the sunshine as the storm begins to move away.

As the villain of your story no longer holds power over you.

Instead,

You choose to rise above it,

To see them for who they are,

The who,

The what,

The why.

And become observer,

Actor,

And director.

And from this point on is a choice.

To stay an observer,

To just be an actor,

Or to choose all three.

Actor,

Observer,

Director.

Mind,

Body,

Soul.

Love,

Source,

All.

In a moment,

We will return back to our consciousness at the level of our human mind.

Taking back just a little bit more information to guide us on this journey of our human self.

To make those choices in keeping with love.

What will serve all of humanity?

The trifecta.

Using the mind,

Sitting with the body,

And connecting to the soul.

Of all that is,

Love.

Love is guiding you.

Love is freeing you.

Love is offering you hope and happiness.

If only would you remember to take its hand and say,

I am.

I am both actor,

Observer,

And director.

And as we return back to our human self,

And we begin to open the eyes,

We remember it is practice,

Not perfection.

We can choose in any moment how to navigate with difficult people.

And some days,

You will remember to be the actor,

Observer,

And director.

And others,

You will get drawn onto the stage,

And sometimes you will be the observer,

And see it as the musical that it is.

Oftentimes,

You may even connect to the director and make a choice from there.

But if you ever find yourself making a choice,

Simply in the moment,

And feeling bad or unnerved,

Remember,

It is practice,

Not perfection.

But we always can make the choice to practice more love,

More kindness,

More empathy,

More compassion,

And to know what is best for all of us on earth.

Thank you for meditating with me on this guided journey.

Thank you for meditating with me on this guided journey.