Dear Seeker,

"We can never hope to be free as long as any part of us struggles with, or suffers over what others are doing, have done, or won't do with their lives."

~ Guy Finley

Excerpted from "Let Go and Live in the Now" (pg 137)

Special exercise: "You should..."

Anytime we meddle in someone else's life -- either inwardly via our thoughts or outwardly via our actions -- we're simply avoiding seeing something about ourselves, period. ALL attempts to fix, correct, control, or otherwise modify someone else's behavior -- whether it's your spouse, child, friend, or colleague -- keep you from seeing that something in YOU has been disturbed. As soon as you catch yourself saying the words "you should [fill in the blank]" immediately turn your attention away from the other person and onto yourself. What is making you say that? See if your concern about someone else's appearance is really concern about how their appearance will reflect on you...or if annoyance with how someone is handling a job is really annoyance over the inconvenience to you. The more you see the self-centeredness in your seemingly "helpful" suggestions, the more you'll understand why your expectations of others are powerless to free you from yourself.