There are obviously many chapters in the Foundation manual – there are pieces on relationships, on money, on business, on family, on sex, on your body… If you can think of an area in your life that could use some attention you will find it in the Foundation manual.
And there is this whole chapter on how to deal with mean people. And it happens to be the one I never allowed myself to really hear. I put the meanness out of my universe completely assuming it only effects mean people and so won’t have any effect on me. Cute – not bright!
Needless to say that created some interesting situations and I learnt only by making some huge mistakes that being kind isn’t enough. That you always also want to be really aware of who you are dealing with.
The thing is mean people do not have any problems being mean, it’s a normal way of operating for them. While kind people almost never expect that somebody could do them harm, after all they would never choose that themselves.
One of the things Gary Douglas says is:
“People do not need a reason to be mean, they are mean just because they can.”
Huh? This one really took time to soak in. Once you get it, you get it though. And once you do you won’t ignore it either.
I’ll listen closely for this chapter in just a few days, I’m sure I’ll hear something completely different this time. Things have shifted for me tremendously. Where I used to be making myself wrong when others were just downright mean to me in the past I now see clearly what is behind their conduct.
Do you have people in your life who will do anything to bring you down even though all you ever did was to really be there for them?
Would being aware of who you are dealing with in any circumstances create more ease for you in your life?