Agreements, binding contracts and all sorts of other nonsense

The second agreement: “Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, of their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.” ~Don Miquel Ruiz

It’s a two way street. Make yourself aware that just as much as others do what they do because of who and what they are, so do you. It’s being brought to my attention daily. Mainly because of my work environment, but also in personal relations. Anytime I have the urge to react to someone’s opinion about me or action towards me, I have to mull over not only if I want to react, but how I choose to react. Who and what I want to be. How do I want to share myself with others. Much more important ( to me) than what the other person actually says and does. After all, I can only do me, I can only be me. I can’t “do” the other or make the other be whatever I think or feel they should be.

Since I have gained so much more awareness of all this, another thing is coming into my field of attention. Yes, what others do has nothing to do with me, but if others' words and actions are impacting me negatively despite that awareness, I have to allow myself a way out. Now that’s the tricky part to me. Because I have to financially support myself in a way that is still not my first choice, I am in that boat where I actually do not get to choose who I spend a tremendous amount of not only my time, but my energy with. The holiest of all currency to me personally. I know people value money and material things. More people are beginning to value time as a currency nowadays. But truly, my energy, the essence of my being, is the only currency I have. The only currency I am trading in exchange for whatever is given back to me.

…let it sink in.

I have made tremendous strides in my personal life to not give myself away frivolously anymore. I am of such value that I am no longer able to spend myself on bullshit. I also have made tremendous strides in my work life. Making choices that require sacrifices that the majority of people I know are not willing to make. Because they still value all the other so-called currencies so much more than the only one that matters. The currency of one’s own energy.

So I have put myself in a holding pattern right now. There are things happening in my life, that I am on the fence about if it’s worth spending much of my energy. As always, I am "work in progress". Only because I know that one’s behavior has absolutely nothing to do with me, does not require me to put up with it.

Quote from "The four agreements" by Don Miquel Ruiz http://www.miguelruiz.com