Why We Need Outward Assessment for Living a More Peaceful and Satisfying Life

This is a reposting of my Oct 1, 2021 blog that was unintentionally deleted! 😉 LOL

What happens when we reach a point where what’s going on around us is instantly put through a filter to process its impact on us? Is this a positive or negative event? Is this an act of judgment or a process of sensible and healthy differentiation?  

After the shift in self-awareness on my journey of self-discovery, I had spent months observing my thoughts, feelings and actions and then assessing my choices and results.  I remember when I moved from assessing myself to assessing the world directly around me it was automatic. I couldn’t turn it off and in any given situation, I was immediately evaluating what I liked or didn’t like about it. I panicked that I was sliding backwards into an unhealthy and egotistic attitude and becoming a critical schrew.

The future is fluid. Each act, each decision, and each development creates new possibilities and eliminates others.

Jacque Fresco

Of course, at this point of my journey, I was reading whatever I could get my hands on for living my life in a more peaceful and healthy way when it finally hit me. I was doing what felt natural and came to believe that appraising the landscape around me for threats was a protective action. What I needed to do was surrender to this process and trust my heart. Because the heart is a dependable source of truth.

Of course, I still rushed to my Uncle Joe, my emotional and spiritual mentor, to get some answers. He simplified my struggle and said that judgment was an act of reducing another person or event to validate my thoughts and behaviors and raise myself up, whereas an assessment provided a litmus test for the integrity of my values and objectives, providing guidance in my decision making to help keep me on a healthy trajectory.

When we pay attention to our reactions, it’s undeniable that we feel either good or bad. This is a powerful gift of insight.

This distinction of assessment was the best gift ever and so easy to apply. I knew in my heart that I wasn’t criticizing the people or situations surrounding me but taking note of how it affected me. My awareness had expanded to my outer world. I asked myself things like:  Is this beneficial? Supportive? Encouraging? Healthy? Or is it negative? Destructive? Toxic? Chaotic? We’re born with the truth. We just need to stop and listen to it.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

Marie Curie

Here’s the deal, making assessments of what’s good, and not good for us, is a helpful and essential part of living our best life. Used with care and kindness, it’s a discernment, not judgment. It serves us in making more efficient decisions to minimize or avoid major catastrophes, and produces quicker resolution with negative or destructive people and places.

It’s in our DNA to want a life filled with more peace and satisfaction and joy, and committing to healthy assessment, of our internal and external worlds, makes room both. ❤

Keep it Simple,

Just Teri

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