{"id":1038,"date":"2023-07-20T21:35:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T20:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1038"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:35:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T20:35:28","slug":"in-their-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/archives\/1038","title":{"rendered":"In Their Shoes&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">This week I have been told that I am \u2018inconsiderate\u2019 and \u2018unable to put myself in other people\u2019s shoes\u2019 by a close family member. It is a familiar pattern of criticism but certainly I think it\u2019s important for me to reflect on it and see where my truth lies within it or indeed outside of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">I know that I could turn to a friend or two who would say the exact opposite and hotly defend me to boot but that\u2019s the way of the world anywhere isn\u2019t it? There are always places where we can validate or oppose our views and beliefs, looking outside is simply seeking confirmation rather than creating a knowing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">So what is the truth within me? Once I would certainly have heard those words and believed them to be true; shamed and chastised myself for not being a good and kind person. Now I see them differently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">There is truth in them but not within me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">There is truth in them for the teller, their perception and beliefs mean that my actions and speech show those values or lack there of. I have not chosen the path that would reflect consideration for their feelings, logically that would indicate my inability to see their point of view, to step into their shoes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Except of course life is far more nuanced and complicated than that. I have made conscious and thoughtful decisions as to why I will not choose that path that would be \u2018considerate\u2019 and indeed in the depths of that decision is, in my view, a consideration far more powerful and important that encompasses their well-being, their freedoms and my love for humanity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">I hope one day those will be seen but I recognise that it may also never happen. That I have to hold being judged whilst living my path with faith in my own integrity and also a humbleness to be able to accept that there is every possibility I could also one day be shown wrong in my perception.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Meanwhile I stand in my truth, which is to protect the freedoms of mind, body and soul for all of my family and for all of humanity.\u00a0 I do that without grandeur but with the small day to day decisions and choices that can seem so unnecessary, so petty, so inconsiderate without the bigger picture that I have in my eye-line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">So in the end I am grateful for the criticisms, they have forced me to reflect and have helped me clarify even more clearly that I stand by those values in the face of a thousand words of judgements. I will bear the bruising of those words because I know, in this moment, I am making the best and most considerate of decisions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">First published on social media on 24th January 2022<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week I have been told that I am \u2018inconsiderate\u2019 and \u2018unable to put myself in other people\u2019s shoes\u2019 by a close family member. It is a familiar pattern of criticism but certainly I think it\u2019s important for me to reflect on it and see where my truth lies within it or indeed outside of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/archives\/1038\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;In Their Shoes&#8230;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,1],"tags":[450,448,311,58,32,170,254,452,330,449,116,12,393,20,451],"class_list":["post-1038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gratitudes","category-holistic-health-emotional-healing","category-personal-moments","tag-bruises","tag-consideration","tag-empathy","tag-family","tag-freedom","tag-honour","tag-humanity","tag-humble","tag-integrity","tag-judgement","tag-kindness","tag-love","tag-perspective","tag-truth","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1040,"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions\/1040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/soulreflection.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}