Seeing The True Spiritual Essence In Others

In 2005, for what seemed like seven very long months from the time of his diagnosis, I nursed my father through pancreatic cancer. Even the hospice staff complained that he was a difficult man, so the challenges weren’t only my imagination.

We’d all hoped for a miracle, and although I don’t usually read for myself, I did do a reading when he was diagnosed and was shown that he had six to twelve months to live. My own reading confused me initially, but I have since learned the symbology of Tarot in relation to one’s mortality, when it literally shows that someone is being called home – home to spirit.

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves ~ William Arthur Ward

My father did allow a colleague of mine, who is a master at his healing modality, to come to our home and give him weekly body alignment sessions. My healer friend picked up great bitterness and resentment in my dad, despite me never having given him any insight as to my dad’s emotional or mental state.

After the second healing session, the healer gave me some wise advice, which I have never forgotten: “try to only see the true spiritual essence which is your father.” Once I truly understood this, it empowered all of my relationships with a heightened level of consciousness and awareness. I realized a lot of the more negative emotions that other express, and that we tend to take so personally, can literally be layers of fear built up over the years.

I have found the relationships we experience with others on a daily basis to be one of the most challenging dynamics, whether it’s with a child, spouse, boss, parents, friends or all of these together.

Every time someone else pushes our buttons, they are admittedly expressing their own inner discomfort inappropriately. We can take it personally and feel victimized, or see it as a lesson to heal and grow. Whatever the reaction may be, our ‘buttons’ are directly linked to our emotions, our thoughts and our beliefs, and that is why we take them so personally.

The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love ~ Meister Eckhart

The healer who helped my father also taught me a technique to use when my father, or anyone else was ‘pressing my buttons.’

I was taught that nobody could actually press my buttons if an emotional charge didn’t already exist within me. For example, if I have no emotion toward the color green, I could imagine my father to be green, and when he began to press my buttons, I envisioned him as a green energy and I remained neutral and unaffected.

Take a closer look at what ‘buttons’ are being pushed inside of you. Become aware of the feeling or thoughts stirred inside of you. Notice your reactions.

It may sound rather childish, but I have envisioned many individuals as green when I think they might be about to attempt the pressing of my buttons and it’s actually helped a lot!