Safety, self esteem, power

Determine which kind of person you are by placing yourself in one of these three categories:

1. Safety Oriented. This person interprets most disturbances as a threat to his/her personal safety or the safety of another.

2. Self-esteem Oriented. This person interprets most disturbances as indications of his/her value to others.

3. Power Oriented. This person interprets most disturbances as a threat to his/her ability to make decisions and control his/her life.

For instance, if a person is standing near a vase that somehow falls and breaks,

1. The Safety issue person will say something like, “I could have broken my foot!” Or “This is dangerous and needs to be cleaned up before someone steps on it and gets hurt.”

2. The Self-esteem issue person will say something like, “I didn’t do it, honest.” Or “Let me help clean it up.”

3. The Power issue person will say something like, “Whom should I tell to clean this up?” or “Someone should have more carefully placed this vase on this shelf.”

Over the next week, watch the reactions of others and yourself to life through this filter/system of categorization.

Ask yourself,If I learn to step out of this typical pattern of response, will I be happier?

Is it possible for me to learn to see my life and interpret it without this “knee jerk paradigm”?

If I understand that I am seeing life through “colored glasses,” why doesn’t that end the process? How do I get to “that level” where I set these “interpretive laws” for myself?

If I try to understand others using this system, does it help me “surrender” to them more and become more compassionate about their fixations, patterns, and habitual responses? Are others so deeply ingrained with certain reactive traits that they cannot be considered completely responsible for themselves?

If someone does not see that a habitual pattern is being activated but instead thinks that the thoughts that arise have clarity as opposed to being canned responses that have been triggered, is that process a kind of innocence?

How clearly does a person have to see the depths of triggered responses before responsibility for actions is fully engaged?

Have I ever in my whole life had such clarity?

When a new situation arises, how much of myself do I show instead of “dragging out the same old trophies from the display case?”

How much of me is “now” as opposed to “then?”