Blessings At Work

CHANGE IN OWN THINKING SHOWS CHILDREN OF GOD

Andrew Harvey, author of “The Hidden Journey” and “A Journey in Ladakh,” had a mystical experience in the early stages of his spiritual journey. He felt his body fill with soft light and then began to hear a voice. He knew it to be the voice of Mother Meera, his teacher.

She said, “You cannot transform what you have not blessed. You can never transform what fi rst you have not accepted and blessed.”

How many of us are trying to transform our lives, our work and our organizations without fi rst blessing them? What does it mean to bless something or someone?

One definition of blessing is to “make holy.” In your work, do you see yourself as holy, as connected to the divine? Do you see God in others? Do you see some kind of higher purpose or transcendent energy working through the organization?

One of my spiritual practices is to try to see everyone - including myself - as a child of God.

In my better moments, I am able to see that each person is on his or her own journey of faith, and that they are doing the best they can.

In order to bless someone, we first must suspend our negative thinking about them. This is not to condone unethical or inappropriate behavior, it is simply to avoid labeling and namecalling - even if only in our minds. The workplace can offer real challenges and opportunities to practice this kind of nonjudgement.

“Judge not, lest ye be judged” (Matthew 7:1).

When someone does something that upsets or frustrates us, the knee-jerk response often is to judge and label that person. Butwhat if we could take a breath and remember this person is also a child of God? I try to remember to say to myself, “Just like me, this person has known suffering. Just like me, this person wants to be happy.”

Often in the workplace - as in other parts of our lives - we wish we could change the people who appear to be preventing us from meeting our goals. If we are in any kind of leadership role, we are expected to bring about change and transformation in individuals and in our organizational sphere of influence. The fi rst transformation has to begin in ourselves. This transformation requires moving from a mindset of judgment to a mindset of blessing.

As an experiment, think of one person in your workplace who is mildly annoying. Don’t begin this experiment with someone in mind who makes you really angry. Start with someone easy. See them as a child of God. Picture them as holy, as having a divine spark within. Have compassion for whatever might be going on in his or her life that might make this person act in a way that annoys or upsets you. Then bless him. Perhaps you can say a prayer, or simply wish that person well. See what happens. That individual might or might not change, but if you change your mindset, your feelings about that person might get gentler, and that could havesome surprising eff ects on your relationship.

I once worked with someone who was very unpleasant in meetings. He would pound the table, look threateningly at someone who disagreed with him and raise his voice angrily when he wanted things to go in a different direction. Most of the other members of our team felt very intimidated by him. We all were angry at the way he treated us and also were resentful because he seemed to miss a lot of work.

After reading what Andrew Harvey said about Mother Meera’s teachings on blessing, I decided to try the experiment of seeing the divine in this man and to bless him. I tried to hold this mindset on a daily basis. About a week later, when our team was in a meeting again, our colleague shared with us that, a few months earlier, his sister and her husband died in a fire, and that my colleague and his wife took in her three children and were raising them with their own children.

He apologized for missing so much work and asked for our understanding.

I’ll never know if my attempt to bless him had anything to do with his new openness, but I do know that all my anger and resentment just melted away. Our team banded together to donate clothes and toys for these kids, who had lost everything. We sincerely wanted to bless this man and his family.

JUDI NEAL OWNS EDGEWALKERS INTERNATIONAL, A CONSULTING FIRM THAT FOCUSES ON SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. SHE RECENTLY ANNOUNCED HER RETIREMENT AS THE DIRECTOR OF TYSON CENTER FOR FAITH AND SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS.

Religion, Pages 9 on 06/29/2013

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