Quote:
A focus on you or me?
"Our deepest need is for the joy that comes with loving and being
loved, with knowing we are of genuine use to others."
-- Eknath Easwaran
Are you more self-conscious or other-conscious?
Watch your motives for the day. Are they generally about you (your own desires and needs) or are they about others and their needs? There are no right and wrong answers here.
We must guard, though, that we aren't using service to others as a means to get our own ego needs met. If we are, we would be wise to meet our own needs first so our interactions with others are not primarily self-serving.
"We are able to be of service to those who suffer only to the extent that we have been able to transform fear in our own lives."
-- Robert Sardello
- Higher Awareness
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This spoke volumes to me. For many years I focused on service and didn't practice self-care. I didn't know how. Today I try to live
God-Centered which I believe to be me, doing and being the kind of person my God would have me be in today. All I can do is try, by helping you, I help me. Yet I can't give away what I don't have,
and if I don't take the time to fill up, then I am running around on
fumes.
Even in recovery, I can still look outward instead of taking the time to look inward and deal with my own stuff. Recovery isn't a one time deal. Just because I go through the Steps once, doesn't make them a done deal.
If I am focused on what others are doing in my life, I forget that when I do that, I often put my life on hold. I am no longer living, I am existing.
As it says, there is no right or wrong answer. Sometimes the best way to get out of self and me is to help someone else!