If You Had to Live with You...Would You Throw YOU Out?

Do you live with a difficult spouse? Are you in a difficult relationship? Is your child giving you ‘grief’? How about that pesky neighbour of yours, yes, the one that’s always nosing into your ‘business’? How are you dealing with these people? Do you feel like you’d rather go for a walk instead of dealing with their bickering, fault finding and all the other annoyances? Do you feel like you want to throw them out?

We all have difficult situations that we have to deal with and overcome in our relationships with others, especially the ones we live with. But have you ever stopped to consider you? Yes, you. Step out of yourself for a bit and switch roles here. If you lived with you, how would life be? Those bad days; you know, the ones when you got off on the ‘wrong side of the bed’, the moodiness? The hormones are doing summersaults and you feel like you’re losing it; on a high one minute, and suddenly dropping to 5 below. How do you ever keep up with you?

Take some time to examine you from the eyes of another and consider this when you’re complaining about the spouse that’s controlling, negative, arrogant or rude…., the child that does not listen, or is messy…., when you’re agitated with their short comings, their faults and flaws. How about you? Are you portraying these same characteristics that you’re complaining about? Picky, critical, negative, playing the blame game …

Are you trying to change the people around you to suit your liking in order to make you feel happy, comfortable? Happiness and joy truly comes from within. Our discontent of others is really a discontent of ourselves.

If each one of us were to take stock of our lives and focus on changing ourselves, there would be less fussing and fighting. Yes, there are difficult spouses, children and situations? But why not consider changing you first. After all, it is the only power and right that you’re allotted in the earth - the power to change you from the inside, and as you begin to change and radiate on the outside, you liberate others to do the same.

Written by Alicia Isaacs