Within Earshot

Yesterday, a friend related the following story. He is a basketball player and owns a smartwatch. Every time he plays basketball, he plays with his watch on.

Two days ago, a friend of his said, “Why do you wear your watch while you play basketball? You can break your watch that way.”

My friend’s reply was, “Nothing ever happens to this watch.” However, he was annoyed with the comment. For a moment, he nearly removed his watch, but instead stuck to his guns.

Some short time later, he discovered his watch was broken. He didn’t remember hitting it on anything, in fact couldn’t remember anything that would have damaged it. Nonetheless, it was damaged.

We’ve all experienced the so-called POWER OF SUGGESTION. I write it in all capitalized letters because that’s how it feels to us. We know that the power of suggestion works both ways, but it is the power of the jinx that feels greater…and thus we fear it.

“Don’t say it,” we yelp out when a friend is about to voice a dreaded thought. “Don’t jinx it,” we say. “Don’t jinx me,” we mean.

Surely you’ve all experienced this scenario as well. A well intending friend says, “You know, you have a tendency to do blah-blah-blah.” They are intending to be helpful pointing out your flawed behavior, and yet we feel something less than pleasant. We might feel annoyed, guilty, defensive, or denial.

Instead, we should feel grateful, but the reason is not what you think.

What others think of us matters not. Others’ thoughts do not create on our behalf, despite what that first story makes it seem. It wasn’t my friend’s friend’s thoughts that caused his watch to break. It was HIS! He didn’t adopt the belief when the thought was voiced, he was already within earshot.

When a friend or a stranger points out something about you that stings, thank them for it…or rather, thank the Universe for it. Why? Because it let’s you know that you are within earshot of the thought. It doesn’t mean that it’s true. It doesn’t mean the behavior is wrong. And it certainly doesn’t mean that their opinion matters. It simply means you are within earshot of the criticism.

Abraham talks about vibrational resonance. Well, in fact this is literal. If you do not vibrationally resonate with a particular statement, you cannot hear it. The thought will not be a part of your reality. Even if the friend voices it in your presence, you will somehow miss it.

However, if you sometimes think your behavior might possibly be wrong, someone just might point it out to you. The more it stings, the more you feel that the statement is true.

Again, the behavior is not what’s off. You are simply within earshot of that particular criticism. You’ve thought it enough times that the Universe simply vocalized it for you and using another person’s voice.

The point of the interaction is to simply show you your point of attraction. You now have an opportunity to move away from it.

We’ve all heard it said: “Don’t shoot the messenger.” The messenger is of service, even if they bring bad news. Don’t shoot the message either. Recognize that you were simply within earshot of something you do not desire and now that you know this more clearly, step away from it.