Do you like to be thought of as patient, tolerant, and willing?
Yeah, me too. (Though I must admit, patience isn’t exactly one of the virtues I’ve cultivated over the years!)
This week, to kick off my Lead From The Heart Program I’ve asked participants to make a list of what they’ve been tolerating in their physical body and environment (remember, our mindset can be influenced by internal and external factors).
This has been such a POWERFUL practice for me, I knew I had to share it not just with my group participants, but with you as well. This is just one of 5 areas we are exploring in order to come more into alignment with the Inner Voice.
Why does tolerating create so many problems? What does it cost us?
First of all, toleration is a lower energy vibration than say, acceptance. Toleration shows up in thoughts and mumblings like:
- “It shouldn’t be this way, or I can’t stand this, but I’m willing to look the other way and ‘take the high road’” (either because I don’t want to deal with this yet, or I’ve got more pressing things to deal with). This leads to resentment and loss of energy and power.
- ”When __________ happens, then I’ll _____________” (which is tolerance thinly disguised as patience and perfectionism)
- ”What do you mean there’s a problem?” (seriously, this is where you’ve become so used to the situation that you can’t even see what it’s turned into. This is the “how to kill a frog” recipe for disaster).
I remember reading that if you try to kill a frog by putting it in boiling water she’ll hit that hot water and just jump right on out (provided there is no lid!). But if you put the frog in cool water and heat it up slowly you won’t even need to put a lid over the pot, the frog will acclimate to the water’s temperature as it heats up, eventually it will succumb to the boiling water and, well…croak (imagine Ellen Degeneres saying that in her deadpan way-it’s much funnier).
Tolerance is a lot like that cool to boiling trajectory. Typically by the time you’ve reached your boiling point you’ve been tolerating something for a loooong time.
When you are tolerating things, people, experiences, environments, even your own physical issues, you are listening to and being led by the little voices. They love tolerating things, it gives them a problem to solve and validates their belief that you are powerless and a victim.
Your Inner Voice knows the Truth though, and knows when you’re out of alignment. While your Inner Voice may radically accept a person or a situation as is, it is through that radical acceptance and honesty with Self that space is opened up to create something new – a different, more joyful result or relationship. This goes way beyond mere tolerance and into pure creation.
Here’s some cool phenomena that happen when you get real with yourself about what you’ve been tolerating:
1. Just by listing these “tolerances” some of them seem to take care of themselves, others, you’ll need to take more action, but somehow it seems easier to do that than before.
2. You will get clearer on what you DO WANT to create in your life, where before you might not have been so clear.
3. You will begin to OWN your power in a way that you hadn’t before.
4. Your Inner Voice will reveal itself you more clearly and you’ll have the courage, clarity and conviction to heed it.
Being ‘patient, tolerant, and willing’ while all virtuous,
can also kill your spirit…slowly.
It really comes down to who you’re heeding while being virtuous-is it coming from the Inner Voice or the little voices? One leads to success, the other…
…Ribbit.
From My Heart To Yours,
Kris
