The importance of feedback and sharing

It’s interesting how someone can have a certain perspective on how things are — and the other person in exactly the same situation can have a different take on it. It is sometimes amusing and sometimes frustrating. Especially when the person concerned insists that his perception is correct and completely refuses to budge or see that there might be another way to see things.

One of the key strategic activities of the spiritual path is to listen. In fact, I sit with a few kindred spirits every week on Skype. Skype is so amazing. We sit — all of us coming from different continents — and yet for those two hours we feel so close together. We go beyond the physical and feel each other. Each one shares what is happening in his/her life and the others supply “vision” to the energy of the person. It’s incredible what can come up.

It never ceases to touch me how others can see stuff in me that I was not aware of — or aspects of me that are just looming on the horizon.

That is the essence of spiritual life. To develop clarity. To develop vision. There are so many forces in this world. And so many forces within oneself. One can live life as a
“puppet” of these forces. Or one can be keenly aware what is happening and make choices on where one wants one’s life energies to go.

The second way is far more exciting. Because the feeling is that one is in control of one’s life. One is “awake.”

It’s always good to have friends one can trust. Especially friends with clarity of thought who truly care for you. Sharing what one is going through lends clarity to your process — and listening to feedback expands horizons of consciousness.

The worst is to get stuck in the mind where the thoughts just go on and on in negative circles which bring you nowhere and kill the light that is needed to move ahead.

Keeping things positive and light is always a good way to go. A few days ago I watched a video with my son: When We Were Kings, about the 1974 fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. We watched this after the recent Pacquiao fight. I found the documentary gripping. It was even more interesting to read that after George Foreman lost the fight, he got depressed — then he picked himself up and won the world championship again, the oldest man, at 45 years old, to do so. Then he came out with the best-selling grill in the world — the George Foreman Grill — making him very rich. He reinvented himself. And when Muhammad Ali went up to receive the Oscar for Best Documentary Film, Foreman was even there helping Ali up the steps.

Foreman felt depressed, but he picked himself up. From a negative perception of life, he moved forward into the realm of possibilities.

That is a good way for each of us to go. I just recently hired someone for an important position. I told her: “Dream big. I need you to commit to the project deep enough — at soul level — because that’s the level where great ideas and guidance can come.”

We go forward. But we go forward with depth. When your going forward hits the soul level, joy is inevitable. Divine help is inevitable.

So we move forward, we share, we listen to feedback, we dream big — and keep ourselves positive. We endeavor to be aware of the energetic “landscape.” We need to be aware of the forces in us, and the forces around us. They interplay with each other. It is preferable if the choices we make are choices that are aligned with the highest truth, the highest good.

If we follow this path, we are so not alone.

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I can be reached at regina_lopez@abs-cbn.com.