Quantum Soul Meditations - Preparedness 1. Know Yourself

“Knowing the other, and knowing oneself;

In one hundred battles no danger

Not knowing the other, and knowing oneself

One victory for one loss

Not knowing the other and not knowing oneself;

In every battle defeat”  Sun Tzu

KNOW yourself. If someone said “Tell me about yourself” What would you answer? Would you tag yourself with the “parent”, “partner” “job” “sports or recreational interests” type responses? These are a glimpse at your preferences or perhaps your adaptions, but are they truly YOU.  Perhaps you may feel the Truth of You is too personal to be expressing to others, but what about to yourself.

Have you ever interviewed YOU!!?? What would you tell you about YOU?

What do you believe, hope, focus on, and why?

What is your purpose in life, what is that secret you within YOU that you would like to explore and develop?

WHO are YOU?

When we have a strong conviction of our own self-worth, our beliefs and why we believe as we do; our purpose and direction in Life, then the opinions and journeys of others do not and cannot devalue us. We can observe their choices and perceptions, and our co-creating and co-journeying with them, as simply that - Observations and Perceptions. NOT the reality of who we are, of our own Truth of Self. That is not to say we do not respect and/or have Perceptive Awareness of the journeys of others, but we do not permit their journeys to be a judgement or a detour on our own.

KNOW the “other”.  Mostly we are not singular beings in isolation. Somewhere in our journey we are interacting with others at some level of relationship – family, friend, colleague, associate. There will be times when those interactions require conflict resolution, diplomacy, negotiation or moderation. All too often what we do not consider is PREPARATION. We do not anticipate the potential “challenges” in our relationships with others. We do not achieve Peace, by preparing for War!

Consider two scenarios as examples:-

Scenario 1: The Work place. There is a difference between participating in the office gossip and politics, and being aware that it exists, and using that awareness to prepare, protect defend in advance of potential “battles”. “Guerrilla attacks” and sabotages happen to us in the office because we are not paying attention to the agendas, affiliations, and manoeuvrings of those who may be threatened by our presence. Who wants your job? Whose job do you aspire to? What are the potential consequences of that information? Unfortunately just doing your own job well and being polite or friendly to your colleagues will not necessarily ensure a peaceful work environment. Open your eyes and your ears. Listen, learn, discern, and be prepared. If you know where the potential battle lines will be drawn, who the “opposition” is, then you will have more opportunity to plan for peace, even if peace for you is resigning and finding a more conducive job before someone else influences the perceptions of others towards you. To achieve Peace, be prepared for the potential “Wars” in the workplace by having perceptive awareness of the journeys of others and how those journeys are interacting with your own.

Scenario 2: In Family life, bath, dinner and bed time are often stressful times when the children are small. Both parent and child are tired, hungry, and potentially stressed. The Parent may be juggling work, out of home activities for self or older children; the child may have missed a nap, and due to teething or some other childhood inevitability not be eating well. The BATTLE ground is pretty much set – 5pm – 7pm, the mini wars will be bath, dinner and bed. The Parent while having size and authority, may be no match for tears and emotional guilt inflicted by the child. The saying is “to achieve Peace, prepare for War!” in this case, preparation for War so that it does not occur may be earlier baths with toys and bubbles; feeding the child in the bath while it is happy playing; and not making this the night to introduce or insist on a food that is not liked. Children do not die of starvation or malnutrition because they ate their favourite cereal or vegemite sandwiches for dinner from time to time. Routines are great, hugs and cuddles are better! The “Peace” may be cuddles and rocking off to sleep, rather than the battle of hours of tears and stress, and high blood pressure for parent and child alike. I have raised a multitude of children and trust me not one of them needed rocking to sleep by their 21^st birthday! J

Preparation and awareness of self and others, and the potentialities for “War” will enable you to achieve Peace more readily in your life journey. As Sun Tzu said – if you don’t know YOU and you don’t know the OTHER then it is not War that is inevitable, it is defeat!

If you desire Peace, prepare for War!