The push and pull of ALL things in life can teach you some amazing things about your relationships, yourself, your work and life. Can you be honest with yourself for a few minutes and find some hidden treasures you've been seeking? Read on...
Try this idea on for size: I love you...and...I hate you; usually at the very same time!
You turn me on. You repulse me. Not true.
Try this idea on for size: You turn me on...and...you repulse me; usually at the very same time!
It's a tidy way to divide the world. Two camps. Black vs. white with no gray. It's not true now. It never was. It can't be. It's more honest and much more revealing to be both for AND against...usually at the same time. Wishy-washy is MUCH closer to the truth of you, of me, of all of us.
Polar opposites teach us about the boundaries of everything in our lives. They show us the edges or limits of our likes, dislikes, relationships, work, family, personal habits and everything else. It's either thumbs up or thumbs down, right? No. One thumb up and one thumb down is the place of potential insight. Let's make this really practical and less oblique.
Think of someone you love with a capital L-O-V-E. Got it? Good. Now focus on a maddening personal habit they have that drives you nuts. Something like humming off key, leaving toenails clippings in bed or always needing the last word. Got it? Good. Now take your LOVE image of them and super-impose the annoying habit. See the two things as NOT separate, but an essential two pieces of a whole. Annoying habit + love = THEM.
Take a moment to reflect honestly. Do you feel more love for them or less after doing this simple exercise? Notice there is MORE love available to you, not less. Both weird and neat, huh?
You can take any extreme opinion and judgment and look to its opposite for internal relief from the stress of hanging out in a polar extreme. It's cold and unfriendly at the poles.
Timely tip: We're in the maddening season of the New Year's Resolution. You'll hear people stake their claim in either camp: "love 'em OR hate 'em". If you'd like more freedom for yourself this year why not test out the "POWER OF AND" at New Year's? Give yourself permission to both love them AND hate them--at the same time. Then you'll get a glimpse into what makes you tick and do (or not-do) what you've resolved.
Happy New Year!
Warmest wishes,
Rudy Hunter