Shirzad Chamine writes:
You will do you best to not drop a glass. But once it slips from your hand and is broken, any amount of time and energy spent on anger, blame, regret, or worry is completely wasted. If you decide to actively turn the broken glass into a gift, you might closely examine how and why it slipped from your hand so that you can prevent an even more expensive glass from being broken in the future. Or the gift might be that the accident gives you a chance to practice becoming more assertive and resourceful as you figure out a creative way to convince the vendor to replace it for free. Or, you could learn how to make glass objects as a new hobby, eventually not only replacing the glass but also developing a lifelong source of amusement. You get the picture. You don’t always have to actively turn a bad situation into a gift. Your other option is to just let it go and put it behind you without any residue of unhappiness, regret, or distress. It is easier to do this once you really come to believe the Sage perspective that, if you wanted to, you could invest the time and energy to turn the situation into a gift. Once you trust that you have the choice, it is easier to choose to just let it go. Ironically, deciding to just let a negative situation go rather than actively turn it into a gift is a gift in itself: you’re strengthening the Sage muscle that allows you to let go of regret, guilt, or shame. This in turn weakens your Judge and strengthens your Sage for the challenges you’ll face down the road. This might sound like a circular argument, and it is. You choose to initiate either the snowballing, self-reinforcing, and self-fulfilling perspective of the Sage, or the snowballing, self-reinforcing, and self-fulfilling perspective of the Judge and the other Saboteurs. Which do you want to guide you through life?
