live the four agreements

Always do my best, always do my best, always do my best.

Just reminding myself :)

I’ve been keeping my four agreements in the front of my mind. Don’t make assumptions is a current theme. I’ve been asking a lot of questions that I would not have in the past, instead of letting my mind create dramatic and complex stories. Along the same lines, I’ve acknowledged uneasy feelings and been super-communicative (ie: http://www.43things.com/entries/view/2009322).

I’ve not been doing the affirmations, but plan on restarting within the next day or two.

I’ve also started reading Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz with my partner (http://www.43things.com/person/Jradosky), in which there is a lot of four agreements “stuff.” In chapter two, for instance, Don Miguel expounds on the idea and effects of domestication.

Finally, I bought the Four Agreements Companion (http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9781878424310). I’ve not started it yet, but plan to once I’ve finished The Mastery of Love.

:)

the four agreements, at least in some form, every day. Passing judgment is so rampant, it starts to drive me crazy.

I think about the Four Agreements for someone else. Today I’m thinking about Mikaela. Specifically, I’m thinking about a quote she put in one of her entries. “Today, I agree to be the warrior I am meant to be. The warrior has awareness. The warrior has control.” Good luck to everyone (especially Mikaela).

It’s the only thing I have control of, my attitude toward life. It’s more than Four Agreements thing, it’s a life thing…

I reread The Four Agreements, which should make the whole “live the four agreements” thing even easier, as it’s fresh in my mind.

Not unexpectedly, I picked up on different lessons in the book this time around. To help me really live these agreements, I thought I’d create some affirmations using text from the book. The entire last three chapters, The Toltec Path to Freedom/Breaking Old Agreements, The New Dream/Heaven on Earth and Prayers, would be suitable as one giant affirmation, but I thought it might be too bulky ;)

I copied the text below into my journal last night and read them out loud first thing (before I even got out of bed) this morning. They’re not word-for-word from the book; I edited them to be more affirmation-y. They’re written separately here so that I could include page references, but I read them as one out loud:

• I am awake, I see the sun, I give my gratitude to the sun and to everything and everyone, because I am still alive. I have one more day to be myself. (pg. 119)

• Today, I agree to be the warrior I am meant to be. The warrior has awareness. The warrior has control. (pg. 117)

• I open my eyes and look outside. I see love coming out of the trees, love coming out of the sky, love coming out of the light. I will perceive love from everything around me. This is the state of bliss. I perceive love directly from everything, including myself and other humans. (pg. 124)

• I see myself living a new life, a new dream, and I am free to be who I really am. (pg. 124)

• I have permission to be happy and to really enjoy my life. My life is free of conflict with myself and with others. (pg. 125)

• I live my life without judging others. I can easily forgive and let go of any judgments I have. I respect myself and everyone else, and they respect me in return. (pg. 125)

• I love myself just the way I am, I love my body just the way it is, and I love my emotions just the way they are. I know I am perfect just as I am. (pg. 126)

• I live in the state of grace, the state of bliss, the dream of heaven. (pg. 126)

I love that last part, “I live in the state of grace.” Sigh.

I believe that reviewing these first thing this morning helped me with two other “things” of mine: kick ass at work and create and stick to a morning schedule with my son. I managed to avoid a couple specific, and what would have been emotionally-driven conflicts at work today, and AC and I got out of the house with time to spare :)

I plan to read the above passages each morning, from my bed. What a lovely way to start the day!

So I happened to make a suggestion to a coworker that assuming a client was issuing an apology simply to earn favor with our agency may not be the best approach to take. There was an assumption that the client was not sincere with his apology. I said that perhaps the client was sincerely apologetic, only to met with a snide remark about being perfect and what do I think he really meant. I said I didn’t know, that I would like to think he was sincere with his apology. With that being said, it’s up to me to not take the coworker’s comments personally. It’s really, really hard and I will make it work.

To remind ourselves daily of our incredible connection and our ideal to live the four agreements, L and I got tattoos this weekend.
http://frekur.blogspot.com/2007/02/its-hurty.html
http://flickr.com/photos/mikaelamartin/sets/72157594518548057/

Live the Four Agreements. That was the plan for our tattoo. After much deliberation and discussion with our tattoo artist, Paul (from Gallery of Living Arts in Lansdale), we finally figured out how to do it.

The flower and bud combination on the lower right quadrant of the cover of the book, "describes the agreements quite well. The first agreement, ‘Be Impeccable With Your Word’ is the big one, and the other three agreements really hinge on practicing the first. So, the fully bloomed flower represents this first agreement and the three buds are the second, third and fourth."

Hells. Yeah. :)

Everybody’s working their own path, doing their own thing using the four agreements or not using them. It’s not up to me to how people “do their thing”, it’s their life.

If it weren’t for the Four? I’d be dead after this weekend.