by Mary Elizabeth Raines, (c) 2014
Bashing others and tearing them down has become very popular in today's society.
Criticism, however, whether spoken or silent, never achieves positive results. Every single time we think a
critical thought about someone, whether it’s a close friend or a distant
politician, whether it’s a family member or a movie star, on some
level we are diminishing their soul.
Chances are the individual being criticized will never be able to identify what is wrong, or even know that someone is projecting negative vibrations their way. Instead, on some level they will wind up feeling dispirited, ill, uneasy, sad, or depressed without knowing why.
Nonetheless, we often feel justified when we are criticizing
someone. Being judgmental temporarily boosts us! We get a little rush when we put someone down. Unfortunately, this rush comes about because we are actually stealing
life-force energy from our personal reservoir, and the price is steep; ultimately, our bodies or emotional systems will pay for this robbery.
Imagine it like this: we have a water tank that has exactly the right amount of water to keep us healthy and clean. Criticism is like overfilling a swimming pool, and then letting the tap run for endless hours. While it may seem to be fun, later on there might not be enough water to drink when we are thirsty. (Author Carolyn Myss writes expertly about this in Why People Don't Heal and How They Can.)
Even beyond what it does to us on a personal level, criticism is one of
the most sutbly destructive vibrations and dark energies on the planet. It
locks both the critic and the victim into an inescapable grid of negativity.
While the critic might actually enjoy the idea of the suffering
his thoughts have created, the end result on the person being criticized does
not reap good results. When someone feels dispirited, they instinctively move into
defensiveness, and they become incapable of acting in the highest ways or making wise
choices. The politician who is perceived as hard-hearted will grow even harder of
heart; the family member whose habits are perceived as destructive will become
even more destructive; the movie star who is perceived as being arrogant will
become even more arrogant.
Even so, it's really easy and, because of the stolen energy, temporarily very satisfying to be critical and self-righteous. Changing our thoughts to those of
a higher vibration is certainly not easy, but if
we want to create a better world, both for ourselves personally, for those we are judging, and on a planetary scale,
criticism has to end.
Here is an experiment: try holding the person you have been
criticizing in complete nonjudgmental
love. Discard the dangerous need to be the one who is right, and release
any agenda to need to change
others.
This new way of thinking isn’t about Prayer Wars, where we pray for another to come around to our superior way of thinking.
Rather, the goal is simply to project love and acceptance towards that
individual just as they are, be it a friend, a family member, a movie star or a politician. (Remember that we are not projecting love towards their behavior. Thinking about whether their behavior is right or wrong is actually off-limits in this process. Rather, we are looking at their soul.)
The Quakers have an excellent term for this that can be used as a visual or visceral aid. They call it “holding someone in the Light.”
Receiving a vibration of love will enrich the soul of anyone who is on the receiving end, no matter how destructively we may think that person has behaved. When a soul feels
loved, it is able to make wiser decisions. A soul that is not threatened and
locked into defensiveness can open into greater kindness and generosity. Imagine how the leaders of countries throughout the world would respond if we held all of them in love instead of judgment!
Being a loving person feels a lot better than being a critical
person, even though it's not as easy, and the resultant good feelings are genuine, for instead of robbing us of life-force energy, such love generates even more positive energy.
Thoughts
are powerful, and if enough people are willing to lift their thoughts into a
higher vibration, we will begin to see miracles on this Earth.
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." --Jesus
“Hatred will not cease by hatred, but by love alone. This is the ancient law.” --Buddha
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