Seeing Our Behavioural Blind Spots

This week’s invitation is a juicy one. It’s the invitation to notice our behavioural blind spots.

I think one of the things many of us find difficult when it comes to living with awareness is seeing the areas where we are stuck in our own patterns, our own neurosis, weaknesses or bad habits.

Because we do not like to identify with or accept some parts of ourselves, they often become blind spots to us. They become marginalised parts of ourselves. Things that we don’t see clearly about ourselves even though other people can often see them easily.

What you resists persists but the seeing is freeing

But identifying these blind spots actually offers us some of our richest insights and our greatest opportunities for growth and awakening.

We all have these blind spots, with some particular patterns being larger for us than others. Just like in a car, knowing your blind spots is important and you have to make a little bit of extra effort to ensure that you see them and therefore know what you are doing.

Because just like when you’re driving your car, if you don’t check your blind spots, you can get into all kinds of trouble.

Anything you resent strongly is also in you

One of the simplest ways to identify your own blind spots is to notice what you strongly dislike in others, what triggers you, what you react to. What we resist in others is often what we’re resisting seeing in ourselves.

In the words of Eckhart Tolle “Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.”

If we take the time to get really curious about this and notice these things, to reflect on how we might be resisting within ourselves what we are reacting to, then every situation is another opportunity to understand ourselves better and become more self aware, more present, more compassionate.

Let the grittiness of life show you the pearls of wisdom

In meditation, we’re training in understanding the mind and our true nature more fully, but sometimes we don’t see everything.

Sometimes it’s only when we’re going about our day that we have these opportunities for the grittiness of everyday life to rub up against us and reveal our tender spots, the parts of ourselves that we have not yet been able to accept.

This week’s invitation: Let your triggers become your teachers

So this week’s invitation is to let your triggers become your teachers. If there’s a really strong feeling of resistance or dislike towards some aspect of another person or a certain behaviour, become curious about what it might be able to show you or teach you about yourself.

There’s very likely to be something there that you can learn about the way you feel about that part of yourself. Especially if this is a repeating pattern of something you react to a lot.

And just knowing that the more we can all be willing to look honestly and gently at ourselves and acknowledge and accept all the parts of ourselves, the more whole, fulfilled and at ease within ourselves we become, and the more consciously and compassionately we can live our lives.

As always thank you for your practice and your presence here in this community. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

With love and respect,
Melli

P.S You can get all my meditations, talks, courses and daily mindfulness coaching with me at Mindfulness.com. It’s free to join so come on over and give it a try today.