Quitters Must Gain Some Skills Too

The skill of building empathy for self and others is a

 good way to widen the circle of truth.   I am beginning to realize that there are mainly two

 kinds of truth, the one with the lower case “T” and the one with the upper case. Some

 people can see why immediately. Others probably will be thinking about it, and the rest

 won’t ever care. So you know to whom I’m addressing these thoughts.

So here’s the main idea:. Addicts are lacking something and it is NOT the cigarettes, or

 whatnot.

As you now probably know, nobody would poison themselves with a toxic substance

 unless there is a deep lack inside. Some of our basic needs have not been met. As a

 global culture we are beginning to understand that.  And of course some will never get

 it. The point is, we can work on those kinds of skills to better meet our needs, and the

 needs of those around us.

We can actively relate to the kinds of people who will care for us most. And we can

 teach ourselves empathy skills in order to bring around better people into our circle,

 the ones who are themselves empathetic and will care for us because they see a rare

 quality in us , the striving for a better world and a better life.  They will want to be

 part of what we are because they are like that too.

Quitters can be wise people to the extent they know what to gain as well as what to quit.   

Empathy is a prime skill because of the reasons I just mentioned.  

 ALL of us could use a master class in how to be more empathetic people.

There seems to be a grand movement among the “one percent” of this world…to

 eliminate empathy wherever it can…in public life and within ourselves. Many  of us

 who moonlight as activists in the “making a better world” sense… grasp that and are

 fighting valiantly to stem the tide.

And I at Beautiful Quitters am declaring myself as one of those people. I want a better

 world. I want to raise consciousness around what we need to eliminate in our lives and

 what we need to replace that with, or just “get” if not replacing anything. “Anyway we

 can make it baby, keep on moving it on!” sang Odetta, the great 60’s American folkie.

The more the worldwide “Divisive” party shatters our hopes and dreams, the less

 empathy may have in the end.

 We can see that in all realms of life, our work lives and public service lives and in our

 most personal private lives. This leaves us vulnerable to being exploited and used

against ourselves, because it robs us of our very integrity and

 with it, the ability to simply be part of the souls around us, the people who breathe life

 into everything and make life itself very meaningful.

We end up thinking that the concept of power is really about our ability and our right

 to beat up on another person if we think we have to.

I won’t go too deeply into it but I think most people get what I’m talking about.

But at Beautiful Quitters, there is another concept of power and that is the power to

 make transformations that will unify us as souls and nice people who have much

 important work to do in this life….

So now I want to talk about empathy and how we  become more skilled at it.

Whenever we encounter someone who has been impacted upon in a certain way that

 we just can’t relate to, the first job is to see them as another person who looks much

 like you in many ways and therefore must go through many of the same obstacles in

 life. With that in mind the idea is to see him as yourself and imagine YOU as that

 other… and then the beginning of insight is in process.

With practice we will begin to understand why they behave as they do. Of course the

 understanding is never perfect, because the ways we really are different from one

 another are always pumped up by others who behave as if they are better than us, 

 and then splayed onto our consciousness like ketchup from a shattered glass bottle!

Many of us understand what I mean by the term “one percent”. The wealthiest of the

 world are calling the shots in illegitimate and brutal and divisive ways. 

Mostly the brutality is never felt by the one percent, but if they are also lacking

 in empathy, they have been brutalized too. So we are all affected by their policies,

 political, sociological and cultural.

But my job at Beautiful Quitters is to point out that for the most part, we are strongest

 in the realm of inner freedom,  realizing the power we have over ourselves to gather

 authentic tools to transform ourselves and by extension, our greater world.

So when it comes to overcoming addictions, I say we must gain more than what we will

 lose. And I think that’s great news!

Please contact me at Averayugen@mail.com