I remember sitting in my room one day with the great urge to create something.
I decided to decorate a wall full of pictures, quotes and artwork that I found value in. Stuff I had accumulated from antique stores or adventures with friends. Stuff seemingly meaningless to anyone else, yet wildly important to who I am.
It was honestly a jumbled mess that I kept up for maybe a week, BUT the mission was not entirely hopeless. There was one specific quote that stuck out to me: “looking beyond ourselves.” It was a header of a magazine article, and I had found those words to be so profound, I had to cut it out and hang it up. At the time I didn’t know it would become one of my most treasured lessons.
I kept that paper hung up for the remaining years so that I could fall asleep and wake up to those words.
Even as I’ve moved out of that apartment, I still find myself carrying around that crumpled up quote everywhere.
I began using it when people sought advice, when I meditated and needed self-reflection, I even used it in my grad school writing pieces, while at work, and applied it to my daily life. It brought me back to center, humbled me, and became the theme song to all my actions.
Looking beyond ourselves
Think about it
Envision your daily routine and all that goes into satisfying your needs,
to maintaining your beliefs, to up-keeping who you are.
We have a pretty good grasp of who we are as individuals and as a way to stay true to ourselves, we hold on tightly to our version of the truth.
We learn the importance in prioritizing ourselves, our passions, our interests
however, there is also a balance of considering others,
of respect and patience, that we lose track of sometimes.
Like my crazy art wall, we have many pieces to our lives that we find valuable, yet others do not understand and vice versa, we often do not see the beauty in other’s art walls.
To me, this quote serves as a reminder that there are millions of other people inhabiting this earth AND my upbringing, my beliefs, my goals, my perspective are not the only area of value.
This reminds me that when I’m frustrated and just do not understand someone else’s actions or viewpoints, to take a step back
to look beyond my own thoughts and my own perspective
There are so many times when I just get angry or upset by others, because I am only looking at myself and my own truth
I don’t take the time to recognize what they hold to be true
It is easy to feel like this world is just your own,
that you’re the only one in the right.
It is easy to disregard other’s emotions or reasonings or values;
to just judge everything else outside of us.
There is reasoning behind all action,
There are needs beyond your own,
There is value and truth in all that surrounds you
In order to genuinely see this life, you need to look beyond yourself
