“Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.”
~Stephen Covey

 Awareness

~Anthony de Mello

A prisoner lived in solitary confinement for years. He saw and spoke to no one and his meals were served through an opening in the wall.

One day an ant came into his cell. The man contemplated it in fascination as it crawled around the room. He held it in the palm of his hand the better to observe it, gave it a grain of two, and kept it under his tin cup at night.

One day it suddenly struck him that it had taken him ten long years of solitary confinement to open his eyes to the loveliness of an ant.

When a friend visited the Spanish painter El Greco at his home on a lovely spring afternoon, he found him sitting in his room, the curtains tightly drawn.
"Come out into the sunshine," said the friend.
"Not now," El Greco replied. "It would disturb the light that is shining within me."

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"Whatever we are waiting for - peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance - it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.”~Sarah Ban Breathnach

 

“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.”~Abraham Maslow

P.S:

I am who I choose to BE.Nathaniel Branden said“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”

The third step,according to me, is the desire to change . The fourth is the willingness to bring about the desired change through inspired action.The fifth step is to pat oneself on the back for the transformation….without waiting or looking for someone else to give approval.

Namaste,

Bhagya

 

P.P.S: The difference between awareness and judgment….

Awareness says “How wonderful that the prisoner in solitary confinement became aware of the loveliness of an ant!”

Judgment says,“Great !! Instead of one prisoner in solitary confinement… there were two.I wonder if the ant survived for very long in that tin.”

There is always a choice between awareness and judgment….