Positivity

We live in a world that endlessly bombards us with messages that we are not good enough. I am not going to empower those messages by listing them, but I’ll suffice to say it benefits the corporate machine to keep us running to the next thing that will make us feel better, even though it won’t.

Often it takes a serious, life changing hardship (or in my case more than one) to help cut through the corporate noise and see what really matters. What matters to me is:

• keeping my little family of three together
• having a safe place to live
• eating good food
• maintaining good health and improving where possible.

Even without a television and all of those commercials and 24 hour news cycles to watch, the creep of corporate America still affects me and causes me sometimes to think about what I don’t have instead of celebrating the fact my family continues to maintain its core principles.

We are all on journeys trying to do our best, and many of us are in cultures that don’t support our efforts. When my family gets sidetracked we always go back to Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements. I certainly can’t say it any better or differently, so here is a direct quote from Don Miguel Ruiz:

The Four Agreements are:

1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Because mass media violates The Four Agreements regularly, I am tuning out next week. Even though my tuning out will only involve the news from the Internet and radio and not looking at the advertisements we receive in the mail, I am hopeful that the creep of corporate America’s “you are not good enough” message will diminish.

How about you? What are your core principles? When you get down to it, what do you really need to be happy? How is corporate America helping or hurting your efforts? What can you do to take more positive strides toward your core principles?

Finally, remember that it is about the small, positive or negative steps we take and how they add up to a great big something, as I discuss here: Why Now? Five Reasons To Start.

Comments

[Mandy]

Thanks for this post! I really needed to read this today!

[Jen]

Great post! I love the 4 agreements! Having clearly defined values and living by them makes life simpler, though it it hard not to stray occasionally. Thanks for the tune-up. :)