The two facedness of our existence isn’t something to be mourned but instead celebrated. It’s essentially the manifestation of our dark and light selves, our yin and yang.

Nobody is all good or all evil. No matter how you think of yourself there are other opposing facets of your personality that are a balance to one another.

Spend a few minutes thinking of what you regard as negative aspects of your personality. Go away now for five or ten minutes and write a list of any and all things that could be considered as negative about yourself. Once you’re got your list, on a new blank sheet create a list of all the positive things.

When your finished I would expect that you will find that many aspects of the “bad” list are echoed on the “good” list. What is one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Who’s to say that greed is bad, but the hunger a business leader feels is good?

This is a natural balance, your life journey is to identify these aspects of your personality and grow those that your enjoy but be aware that removing the elements you dislike will cause some other disharmony.

Look at the lists and realise you are neither wholly despicable nor entirely admirable. You are both these things and these two facets of your personally create the entire self.

Image: Sky Mirror | Play by striatic

Empathy is the ability to put myself in the shoes of another person, to imagine not only what they might be thinking, but also what they might be feeling.

It means being aware that others feel sadness, anger, joy, fear, emptiness, despair, pain and pleasure, and have their own needs and desires which are as important to them as mine are to me.

Being emphatic means being in tune with another person, allowing myself to be touched inside by that person, and recognising that they are also like me.

Communicating empathy can nurture the growth of intimacy and genuine relationship.

Photo: Empathy by Pierre Phaneuf

Accepting responsibility means recognising that my behaviour is always a matter of my choice. Sometimes the choice may be very difficult, but it is always my choice. I do what I do because i have decided to; nobody is making me and nobody else is responsible for my actions.

Accepting responsibility means being honest about my mistakes and being willing to change.

Accepting responsibility means recognising that I have an impact on my world; that what I do has an effect on others, and that there are consequences to my actions.

Accepting responsibility is being willing to ask for help rather than to expect it, and being willing to take care of myself when help is refused or unavailable.

Accepting responsibility means being the active author of my life, according to my values and standards, rather than blindly following, without thinking, the path of least resistance.

Photo: Army by soldiersmediacenter

Whilst reading something completely unrelated to the context of this site (Mark Hurst’s Powerless over infinite data?) I came across the following statement that resounded so deeply with me I had to share and discuss it:

“We are programmed for scarcity and can’t dial back when something is abundant”
Portals by Lee Gomes writing in the Wall Street Journal

This is an extremely powerful idea, not just in the overwhelming amount of data and information we have to almost constantly process in a modern technological society, but also relating to our lives as human beings.

The core of that idea is, we’re used to not having enough of something and so when we get offered it we grab it with both hands. Much like we do all too much food with high levels of sugars & fats - our ancestors needed those to survive and they were relatively rare so we learned to be greedy when they were on offer. Now-a-days, fats and sugars are abundant but our bodies and psyche are still programmed to eat as much of that once scare commodity as we can.

To my mind this is as much resistance to change thinking as it is greed. So often we are scared of change - and success will mean a change - that people actually plan for failure albeit subconsciously. It’s a safety mechanism, you may not accept this at face value but consider:

• Being successful at school might have made you more of a target to bullies or brought other mostly unwanted attention.
• Being too successful might make you a geek or a nerd to your peer group.
• Achieving success in the work place could make your co-workers behave differently towards you, talk about you behind your back, etc.
• Creating a successful business might make people think you only care about money and not about the important things in life.

Right now things are a constant for an individual, and although we’d like them to be something better, we’re alive and comfortable with the way things are (even if we aren’t actually truly comfortable with our surroundings, relationships or careers) so we place obstacles in our own way to ensure that we don’t have the success we deserve or that our skills merit.

We are used to scarcity and are scared of abundance when it comes to success, but not when it comes to food or information. We need to swap those things around, consume only what we need and require, and build the success that we can enjoy.

Being successful is not making someone else less so, being rich doesn’t make someone else poor, being loved doesn’t make someone else hated. Money and love expand - the more there is, the more there can be.

Embrace your success today.

Photo: Love Luck Success Protection by Mary_gaston22

Being vulnerable means accepting my limitations, my weakness, my feelings of hurt.

It means accepting that I cannot be in total control of my environment, that life will always bring both surprises and disappointments.

It is recognising that others are not there to serve me, that they are of equal value to myself, and that if they happen to be different from me in a way that disappoints me, that my disappointment is part of my vulnerability.

As a human being my life will always include sorrow as well as joy, pain as well as pleasure, death as well as life. It is therefore not only acceptable to feel vulnerable at times: It is inevitable.

When I am feeling powerless and terrified, I am feeling vulnerable. Violence is not an antidote to vulnerability: Love is.

Paul Wolf-Light

Photo: Vulnerable by ldleeuw

• Your life is blossoming in total perfection
• Your life is unlimited
• Your life is your wondrous creation
• Your thoughts are creating a perfect life

Photo: I’m getting a buzz by *Micky

• Your body grows healthy and vital
• Your body heals itself
• Your body is a beautiful expression of your spirit
• Your body is beautiful
• Your body is healthy
• Your body is in perfect harmony with the universe
• Your desires and goals are good
• Your desires are coming true
• Your energy flows freely
• Your goals can be reached
• Your heart is full of love
• Your heart’s desire is coming true
• Your joy is felt by everyone around you
• Your learning is full of joy

Photo: Pregnant warrior with deer-hooks by dizznbonn

• You love the world and the world loves you
• You naturally attract loving relationships into your life
• You now forgive and release everyone in your life
• You now release your entire past and you are free
• You realize your goals
• You receive abundance
• You receive everything you need
• You use your power wisely and well
• You want joy and expansion
• Your being radiates clear energy
• Your body functions perfectly

Photo: an old lady with an umbrella in Ravangla market! by Sukanto Debnath

• You deserve to be prosperous and happy
• You do your work well
• You don’t have to try to please anyone else
• You don’t have to try to please others
• You have a lot to offer and everyone recognizes it
• You have a wise and loving friend within you
• You have all the qualities you admire in others
• You have ever increasing health and vitality
• You have everything you truly need
• You have inner resources
• You have the courage to ask for help
• You have the power to realize your goals
• You like people

Photo: My Live Earth by Noël Zia Lee