Self-full
Author :
Neeraja
Blog :The Mind's Language
Date: 9/19/2012 9:58:00 PM
Youtube recommended this video to me...ha, go figure! And wow, I really did have an "Aha" moment! I don't know what prompted me to casually click the link to watch the video, but I'm so grateful to my impulse.
I obsess over this tussle between being true to myself whilst being altruistic and doing my duty to others around me. It means that I tend to put others in front of me, when duty and inner-need don't align together. I go back and forth on this topic, never really believing that it is indeed okay to put myself in front of others. But Iyanla explains it so beautifully. I like the way she puts it. Her metaphors bring balance and clarity, with or without the spiritual connotation.
My favorite lines (if and when the video is removed some day):
"It's inauthentic that you always put other people before you. How you treat yourself is how you treat God. So, you're putting God last. Because you are the representative of God in your life.
In your life, you've got to be as good to you as you want to be to God, in order to be of service to others in the world.
It's self-full (not selfish) to be first, to be as good as possible to you, to take care of you, to keep you whole and healthy. That doesn't mean that you disregard everything and everyone; but you want to come with your cup full.
My cup runneth over. What comes out of the cup is for you all, what's in the cup is mine. But I got to keep my cup full.
So many of us think that we're going to get brownie points in heaven, like we're going to get to sit in the box-seats section if we just give and give and give and give. The course of miracle says, when you give to others to the degree that you sacrifice yourself, you make the other person a thief. When you start sacrificing yourself for other people, you make them a thief, because they are stealing from you what you need and they don't even know it."