‘When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.‘ I like this quote by Lao-Tzu. I’m enjoying the book called ‘Tao Te Ching- the book of the way’.  It brings me back to simplicity and is quite a spiritual read. This particular quote I can associate with my teacher as well as other areas of life – with my friends, my colleagues or family for example. I have compared my teaching to that of my friends and colleagues. I have felt as though I’m not as good a teacher as them too. There is a security in comparison; perhaps I feel I’m doing something aspect of the job better than they are whereby I feel great about myself. Or I may feel like they are doing a better job than me and so I feel I should improve in that area of teaching. Either way, when I compare myself to others, I’m living from the outside in, rather from the inside out and I there is no peace to be gained from living from the outside in. Peace and harmony come from within. ‘It is the centre hole that makes the wagon move.’ (Another quote from The Master’).

Eckhart Tolle in his book ‘The Power of Now’ believes we should ‘surrender to what is. Say ‘yes’ to life and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.’ This quote resonated with me as I don’t often surrender to what is. I give out about stuff-the kids, my job, family, the weather- and wonder how things might different if it were not so. I think its a learnt and well practised behaviour by me. So I’m going to try to embrace this surrender and start to say ‘yes’ rather than ‘its a pity’.

This week I am going to try to embrace these quotes in my life. Do you want to give it a try? Lets see what happens……