Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about about people in my life. The mental exercise that I gave you with the first post on this blog titled “It’s better to have 7 people who love you than one million people who just like you” is making wonders for me. I told you in that post to start thinking who are those seven people in your life that you love and that love you no matter what. It’s a simple mental exercise that you can do while you are having a walk, riding a bus or waiting in a line at the post office. It is so simple that most people would not even take it seriously. However, I hope you do. You can read how it helped me here. In short, results of doing this mental exercise are following:
💛 You feel loved.
💛 You feel safer in the world, because you know you are not alone and there are people in your world that love you exactly as you are and so you feel safe to express yourself and when you express yourself, you are happy.
💛 You start to appreciate those people even more and while you are appreciating them, you yourself feel appreciation. Which is a beautiful frequency to be in, and life then show you even more things that you can appreciate.
💛 You feel connected and you also feel inspired to connect with those people and so you maybe send one of them a message and you go together for a drink or a walk and share things from your lives with each other, which makes you feel even more connected, loved, understood, appreciated. And your friend feels grateful for you and blessed that s/he have a friend who love them as they are.
💛 You are walking around feeling happy and loved and you exchange smile with a stranger and that stranger will walk their way with a smile on their face and maybe exchange smile with another stranger and that stranger will come home from work and instead of being grumpy, he will hug his kids and his wife who was thinking of divorce will remember that she loves this man and she will hug him instead and maybe they will start talking about things that matter to both of them later that day, as partners, not as enemies. (I totally made that story up, yet it is totally possible. A smile can go a long way.)
💛 With all of those good feelings in your body, you are actually healing yourself, as there is oxytocin (hormone of love) flowing through your body and washing away the extra cortisol (stress hormone) that your body produced while you were angry at some asshole.
I could add even more benefits. But I want to invite you to try this mental exercise and write me a note at anita@anitapuksic.com how it benefited you or leave me a comment bellow.
So, let’s go to the next level of this mental exercise.
While thinking about those 7 people in my life, I started wondering who are the people that made an impression on me during my life and what about them was so impressive to me.
I noticed that there was one thing that was common to all of them. They weren’t trying to impress me. And maybe I have to thank those people who were trying to impress me for whatever reason, that I even started thinking about that. There were people in my life who tried to impress me with their knowledge of things. And while at first I admired them and wanted to posses the secret knowledge they seemed to have, I was repelled by them when I saw them looking down on people who did not get the importance of their mission and they behaved towards them as though they are second class citizens. I have felt like I should apologise for their behaviour. There were people in my life who tried to impress me with the names of important people they know or the boards where they are one of the chairmen. And while they might have been times in my life when that would impress me, in the last years it just made me sad when I saw those so called grown ups measuring their own value by the VIPs they know and missing the opportunities to actually connect with people that were in front of them and de-valuing the importance of people that stand by them. I hope I have learned something from their mistakes (btw, this is one of the lessons I wish we’ve learned from Covid-19 pandemic – how the most important people in our life are those we return back home to).
So, who are the people that I find impressive?
💛 People who have been through a lot in their life and they have every reason to hate life and people who caused them harm and everyone who reminds them of those people, yet I see them shining their love to everyone they come in contact with. And they even have compassion for their abusers. (Most of my friends and clients are in this category and I feel so honoured by their presence in my life.)
💛 People who had well paying jobs, but decided to go work where they make less money, but feel their life has more meaning and they go to work without a knot in their stomach and they give their best to people they work with. (I had a chance to meet a teacher like this this year and she had such a beautiful peaceful presence and collaborative spirit. I am so happy for her students that they are blessed with such an example of peaceful, soulful leadership.)
💛 Powerful women at the leadership positions, who are grounded in their feminine, look beautiful and are compassionate with their co-workers and people they serve, yet they still have a sense of authority and everyone respects them. (I am volunteer at an organisation, where I met two women like this in leading positions and it is just wonderful to be in their presence and to speak to people who work there, as they all love the team they are part of.)
💛 People who apologise after they screwed up. Those I admire so much, because it takes courage to apologise (Sorry seems to be the hardest word). And for courage we need love. It shows such a strength of a person to be able to apologise, it shows how much they care and how big is their heart, it shows the person they apologise to is important to them. It puts them into a totally vulnerable position. Yet they do it. (My man has this ability to honestly apologise and damn, if more men would know how apology actually shows strength and how manly it is to admit the mistakes, we would have way more happy couples, way more happy families on this planet, and way more women with weak knees when they observe chevaliers like this).
💛 People who are way more experienced than I am in a certain area, way more known for their expertise, who are professionals at something I am just tip-toeing in and when I tell them I am about to do this, they believe I am capable of doing it and give me their blessings. And I do the thing and I am satisfied with my result and I receive awesome feedback from others which makes me excited to do it again. (There were many people in my life that I shared my dreams with and things I am about to do and they told me I am not experienced enough, not credible, that I don’t have the right schools to do it and I believed them and postponed my dreams to later, when I am enough, all while I watched people with even less experience than me do the things I wanted and they were successful at it. It was one of the hardest lesson I had to learn, but so much more joyful when I actually learned it. Those who are insecure in themselves, not in their power and therefore afraid for their position, will try to overpower you and bring you down. But really great people see the greatness in you and hold the space for you so you can see it as well.)
💛 Parents who tell their kids “I am not feeling well and it is not your fault”. I don’t have many friends with kids, but those who have them are truly amazing parents. They of course all say they could be better, but I truly admire them for their honesty with their children and willingness to learn from them. I am also impressed by all the parents who are present with their kids. I can totally see that quality radiating from them and it is so calming.
💛 Artists, actors and performers who are honest with their audience, even though they had their share of attacks that come when you share your work with public. It is so impressive that they are still capable of showing up, being present and letting the art work through them. (I had a chance to listen to the conversation with a poet this summer. She spoke so bloody honestly about her work, her working process, the way she is treated from different people, and there was something so powerful about her honesty, that I was on the verge of tears while listening. I felt like she is seeing into my soul, talking straight to me, yet she was holding space for all of us there in the audience.)
💛 People I meet while I walk with my dog. We have small talks here and there, yet those small talks have an undertone of “I see you. It is nice to see you. It is nice to connect with you. It is nice to shine in your kindness.” I am totally impressed by those people who are able to do the small talk in such way. It is like I am collecting little starlights of connection with fellow human beings, that make my everyday, normal life so freaking great.
💛 People who do their work with peaceful presence. Like zen masters. It is just wow. Some people can cut a piece of fabric and you observe it and it feels like you are witnessing something sacred taking place.
Okay, enough for today (I said to myself that I will limit my posts to 1000 words, but now I am closer to 2000). The more I think about people I am impressed by, the more examples are coming to my mind, the more I feel like I love love love my life, this planet, human beings, everything, to the point that I want to cry from joy.
Who are the people that you are impressed by?
You are welcome to share in the comments. (If you are shy, just think about it, take is as a mental exercise, I promise you will have great results from it).
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With Love,
