How do we take responsibility for our actions?
How do we show up when we’ve made a mistake or done something we thought better of afterward?
Do we justify and throw blame on to others?
Or do we go beyond the idea of blame and merely make right what we have done?
All too often in this society, we find that people fear to take responsibility for their actions and words.
We see how people deny or change what happened out of fear.
Fear drives us to hide from the consequences of our deeds.
We fear how others will respond and react to what we have said or done.
We fear it not because of what others may do.
We fear it because of our own judgments about ourselves.
We fear it because we are being too hard on ourselves, and secretly we are condemning ourselves long before anyone else knows what happened.
This is because we are always our own worst critic, our own worst detractor.
We are far harsher on ourselves than anyone else can ever be.
Our fears are not about what others may do.
Our fears are about merely being exposed and being seen for what we have done.
We fear being human.
We fear making mistakes.
Yet when we allow ourselves to be human and make mistakes, we allow others to do the same.
When we become more compassionate for ourselves, we can be more compassionate for others.
And when we all soften into compassion for being human, there is no reason to be afraid to take responsibility.
We are all guilty, so let’s be more kind to ourselves and to everyone else.
~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant
