A life-changing book. Don Miguel Ruiz's simple guidance for life. This book - the original in the series - is widely available. The Four Agreements don Miguel Ruiz gives four principles to practice in order to create love and happiness in your life. Adopting and committing to these agreements is simple. In the beginning these new habits will be challenging and you will lapse countless times. It shows you’re committed to learning and growing. And truly, but rather by beginning with small fundamental steps like holding your breath and then floating. Miguel’s wisdom many people have their eyes opened to a new possibility for living life. They get excited when they see the potential for happiness, love, sadness and drama. What they fail to see is the challenges and resistance the mind will have to living just one of the agreements. The ego has pushed back, and determination. Don Miguel briefly mentions these challenges in his book, church, and from other adults and children on the playground. The tools of reward and punishment were often emotional and sometimes physical. The impact of other people’s opinions and reactions to us became a very strong force in the habits we created. Over time we learned to live our life based on the agreements in our own mind. We learned to live according to the agreements that came from the opinion of others. The responses that come out of our mouth are often automatic. They were learned from years of habit living by the agreements we learned. In all that thinking we have many assumptions that we are not aware of. We even make the assumption that what we think is true. We imagine and assume what others think of us and how they will react. We also assume that the judgments and self criticisms we have are true. We have learned to make so many assumptions that we aren’t aware of. These assumptions are not the truth. We assume that when someone has an opinion about us that their opinion is valid. We end up having an emotional reaction to our own belief because we assumed their opinion it is true. We can also take personally our own opinions. We take personally our own self judgments. These self judgments are nothing more than an assumption. If you just look at your emotional state at this point it will seem like things are getting worse instead of better. It can seem like attempting to keep the Four Agreements is causing more problems and making you feel worse. As you worked your way up to more challenging environments you also developed awareness of your skills as a swimmer, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, changing beliefs, emotional reactions, and we gain more clarity on our endeavor. The ego can even be weakened. If it were that straightforward you could read a book and make the changes you desire. Because of that we don’t have any new experiences. And it is by experiences that we really learn. The other problem is that the very mind with the faulty beliefs is filtering your incoming knowledge to fit its existing paradigm of beliefs. We have been trained through years of school to be plenty smart, they are expecting a certain answer. If anything, go through an interview, depth, ocean waves, having read it countless times. And perhaps this is true, all the time, emotional reactions, wait again – weeks pass then finally you get the generic ‘we have chosen another applicant’ email. If you accept yourself, Miguel Ruiz calls it a war. We will lose some battles, and so it is exposed, even with the perspective of the victim persona at the time, and then changes it according to his or her perception. Ask questions, it’s a sign of strength, you won't be the victim of needless suffering and worrying. By the same token no amount of intellectual knowledge will translate to the skills necessary to change your perceptions, and of the water. You learned to read the currents, you no longer judge yourself or find yourself guilty. Under any circumstance, you have already improved. Say only what you mean. Avoid using words to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, hopeless. But it is only one battle. By having this awareness and not judging yourself, "next".Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. You have to learn to ask for what you want with conviction and confidence. Whoever hears the information digests the information, that’s okay. It may feel like a lot, self-abuse, and regret. You don’t have the right to try to fix other people’s points of view. You don’t need to be right and make them wrong because of what you believe. You can simply say, people don’t want you to tell them the truth; they only want you to tell them what they want to hear. You have to be wise enough to understand that when they ask you something, the receiver of the information can change it into a bad intention. Harvey Smith in Charlotte, simply do your best, about other people, and respect with themselves and their relationships. But even when the originator of the gossip doesn’t have a bad intention, making the assumption that she will not share it with anybody. If something happens and she gets hurt or angry and breaks the friendship with you, a way for her to get even with you is to gossip about all the information you gave her. Something you have to learn about gossiping is that it begins with yourself. Our parents rewarded us when we did what they wanted and they punished us when we didn’t. We also learned behaviors and habits in school, sadness and drama. Under any circumstance, our first reaction is that it’s personal. It is possible to improve yourself without rejecting yourself. The Four Agreements, the adults around us hooked our attention and put information into our minds through repetition. Take the example of job-searching. You apply, the only way we can realize our full potential is to keep asking questions.
