Keep Your Arms and Legs Inside the Ride…

Each day we have the opportunity to interact with people all across our life. Family, friends, colleagues, strangers, vendors, even that occasional person we see who fits into none of those categories. All these people come in a variety of shapes and sizes, demographics and various combinations of experiences, beliefs, mindsets and habits. Whew! It can be daunting to keep it all straight, figure out how to talk and work with everyone, how to live and experience the world with all this in our sphere of influence. On top of that add our own ideas, beliefs, mindsets, habits and prejudices which makes human relationships an extravaganza like mush mash in which we navigate and operate every day.

When I read this quote, it helped me remember that what all those different people in our lives want is to be loveD and accepted for who they are, and what we want as well. People are people, with similar needs, wants desires and boiling it all down means approaching and interacting with people from a place of love and acceptance. Giving them the freedom to be themselves, being our own genuine self, and doing that each day.

Some days it is harder to do that than others. We do stupid things, people do stupid things and our emotions can get the better of us both. We have been programmed that someone must be right which means the other person must be wrong…yet the world is not that black and white, clear cut with clean edges or consistent lines. Living, working, loving and sharing our lives with people is anything but clean. It gets more grey and blurred everyday, which brings us back to a good standard thought. Give people the gift of unconditional love and acceptance, approach our interactions with them from that perspective and things will go better, get better, and be better.

Sounds great, but that is not how we are always treated…I get that. I know that, yet we may have to rise above and treat someone with respect who has disrespected us. We can only control two things – our actions and our attitudes. When you figure out how to control more than that, write a book telling others how to control the world and you will be a bazillionaire! Everyone wants to know how to get people to do what we want them to do. Its’ not easy, yet the simple act and mindset of treating people like we want to be treated – with love and acceptance – has the power to change things. Acceptance, it is the final stage in the five stages of grief, which remember is a circular roller coaster we ride for a long time. Today on your roller coaster ride, choose love and acceptance, see what happens…and be sure to keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times!