The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz offers a blueprint for liberating ourselves from much of our suffering.
Here are the four agreements:
- Be impeccable with your word.
- Don’t take anything personally.
- Don’t make assumptions.
- Always do your best.
This morning I felt irritation towards someone because they weren’t being impeccable with their word. It wasn’t a big-deal offense, but I let it get to me.
So, I figured I’d write a short post about why this ruffled my feathers (hint: where was I not being impeccable with my own word?), until I typed out the four agreements just now.
It occurred to me that I’d violated #2; I took this person’s behavior personally. And when I did, I effectively made the decision to suffer.
But I’m not generally a masochist, so I put on some kirtan to lighten my mood. That’s all this particular situation took to resolve (I’d already addressed the issue with the person involved).
But sometimes kirtan isn’t enough to shift my state. If it hadn’t worked this morning, I’d have worked through the list that follows.
Things that help me change my state:
- Exploring where I may be projecting my own shit, and then working through it.
- Listening to kirtan music. Govind Das and Krishna Das are two of my favorite artists.
- Spending time physically connecting with trees.
- Doing a burn-and-release or dissolve-and-release (or a shred-and-release) ritual.
- Calling “God” into my heart via The Remembrance.
- Riding the wave (see this post).
Takeaway
If you find yourself suffering, I invite you to contemplate the four agreements (and if you haven’t read The Four Agreements, do read it!). And, I invite you to consider whether you are choosing to suffer…and what might you do to work through your suffering so that you can free yourself of it.
That is all.
