Everyone has made mistakes in the past. Most of us make them daily. Yet, instead of accepting and integrating our mistakes as part of being human, the immediate reaction is rejection. That mistake is already part of us and it exists for a reason. Making a mistake does not make us a mistake. Eventually mistakes would make us wise, but only when we choose to learn from them.

There is somehow a unnatural reaction of disgust towards the mistake that it is used to belittle others and ourselves. A constant reminder that we are not good enough. It begins in childhood and never ends. As children we feel an immense frustration when facing lack of understanding due to an even more natural mistake made due to lack of experience and knowledge. And yet, in adulthood we have the same critical attitude towards ourselves and others. 

Making a mistake is as human as it is unavoidable. To use a mistake against a person is refusing our humanity, which we believe to be imperfect. One can never be perfect and there is no point in trying. You will be your best, perfect self when you overcome the fear of being yourself, accepting your talents and flaws.

By Nira Lall

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

Illuminating our life’s purpose and living the reality of who we really are is a beautiful, freeing concept. Many of us devour personal development books, articles and podcasts to help us stay grounded in the knowing that we are powerful creators. In reality, getting and staying on this path can be overwhelming, dark, and at times miserable. It’s important to acknowledge and embrace the darker aspects of our experience, including our pain, as a vehicle for learning and deeper understanding.

This “pain” can show up as sorrow, despair, feeling stuck, need for control, anger, perfectionism, the voice of our inner critic, physical ailments, our wounded child self, and so one. There are countless faces of pain in our lives and it’s important to get intimate with all of them.As a culture and within the pop psychology movement we often deem our pain as bad, which is just another act of chipping away at our personal self-worth. Making any part of oneself “bad” can be felt as an act of deep betrayal by the psyche.

This article is not a call for us to live in our pain for a prolonged period of time...

Sam Mitriani, AlterNet
Waking Times

In most of the liberal discussions of the recent police killings of unarmed black men, there is an underlying assumption that the police are supposed to protect and serve the population. That is, after all, what they were created to do. Maybe there are a few bad apples, but if only the police weren’t so racist, or didn’t carry out policies like stop-and-frisk, or weren’t so afraid of black people, or shot fewer unarmed men, they could function as a useful service that we all need.

This liberal way of viewing the problem rests on a misunderstanding of the origins of the police and what they were created to do. The police were not created to protect and serve the population. They were not created to stop crime, at least not as most people understand it. And they were certainly not created to promote justice. They were created to protect the new form of wage-labor capitalism that emerged in the mid- to late-19th century from the threat posed by that system’s offspring, the working class.

We’re always in the pursuit of happiness.

Affecting the world and those around us with our words, actions, and thoughts. Being effected in return. Every day another opportunity to do it right. To “walk our talk.” To live in a way that harmonizes with the rest of the universe, both internal and external.

It’s about breathing, eye contact, staying hydrated, and being aware of posture.

If I’m unconscious in the moment, caught up in fear (future) or worry (past), my spine slumps over, chest caves in,  and breathing becomes inconsistent. I’m spiraling. Deeper and deeper. Into a space that serves no one, not even myself. It is in this place that I have effected those around me in a negative and traumatic way.  I’ve pushed loved ones away, lashed out in anger, distanced myself in every way possible so as not to deal with the emotions I have locked away in my soul.