One of the five principles that has been coming up for me a lot lately is the last one – putting what I know to work, not just in a crisis, but daily.
My husband recently shared an article with me that described a cognitive bias, how we attribute motives to people when they behave badly. Mostly we attribute the worst motives to people we don’t know, that are not part of our group, and make excuses or try to understand more often when it is ourselves or someone we know making the error.
I was sharing this with a friend and talking about how I handle traffic on a road trip. As soon as I see the construction signs, I start affirming that everyone is going to zipper in neatly, that there is room for everyone, and we will make a smooth transition to one less lane, blessing and thanking the other drivers. I have no empirical evidence that it works, but it feels like it does. It could just be that I feel better. My friend said she does something similar in her commute, thinking of reasons why someone made a mistake or rude move and not that they were just being a jerk. She said if it was only a “hacking” her brain, she still felt better and that was the point. She didn’t then carry the anger.
Perfect. Use what we know to create our experience.
Now, how do I apply this to housework? Any suggestions?
Susan Snowden
Unity Board Advisory
