Automatic Pilot and Labor

Sometimes a part of us must die before another part can come to life.   Madisyn Taylor Daily Om   The Daily Om arrives in my inbox every day and it is included within my morning rituals.  The words for today were about life transitions which is often referred to as death and rebirth.   An example in the writing was about the shift we make often times not even aware.  If our feelings have been hurt or we have experienced an extreme disappointment, we may choose to withdraw into ourselves to heal.  We may pull back from friends or discontinue activities and prefer to be at home watching a movie or reading.  This wall of protection we have made has kept others away and our selves secure.  One day we are healed, however, and we may find confined or restricted.  So we begin to take down the wall of protection and expand ourselves out into the world.  This is a death of who we had become and a rebirth of who we want to be.  Our emotions were triggered and we shifted into a different side of our being.                         Actually, we do this kind of shifting on a regular basis.  We may shift from who we are at home into the self we project at work or who we become in a relationship.  We are not always aware of these movements into different parts of the self.  Unfortunately, we spend so much time on automatic pilot we are not always aware of these changes in behavior.    During a discussion, the subject of judgement and how we are all judgemental became the topic.  When we criticize the behaviors of someone else, we too are being judgemental.  Eckhart Tolle in his wonderful book, THE NEW EARTH, mentions how to stay neutral in the presence of judgement.  He says to just listen and not respond, not agreeing or disagreeing.  We can allow a person to vent their feelings without engaging.  This is an excellent suggestion and it works well once remembered to put it to use.    We have lost the art of listening and we are carelessly forming our response before the speaker has stopped presenting his or her opinion.  These are the times we can slip into neutral, allowing a person to express fully their ideas.  We do not have to expect our selves to have an answer.  The person talking may just need to vent and may not be interested in a solution.   So as we shift in and out of how we need to be, we must slow our selves down, moving more slowly.  When we are giving old parts of our selves up, and creating spaces with new, it definitely can feel like labor.  There can be pain and cravings with unexpected emotions.  It is a process and keep in mind all labors are never the same.