What Are You Prepared to See?

One day, driving along the beautiful coastline here in southern Spain with an acquaintance, an area reminiscent of the Santa Barbara coastline in California, my acquaintance went to great lengths to tell me how terrible it was of the government to permit the billboards along the road, that there were a great many overflowing trash receptables, that areas of the mountains had been gouged out for quarries, leaving them naked and violated. She expressed her horror of this. All of that was, in fact, quite true, but at the same time there were endless vistas of breath-taking beauty to be seen all along the drive. One had to literally and studiously avoid looking at them, in order not to see them.

On another occasion someone I knew was talking to me about the terrible lack of foresight in this country inasmuch as very few stopping areas along the roads are provided for those who wish to take photographs of the panoramic views spread in front of us on our drive. This was mentioned rather frequently, while very little was said about those spectacular views.

A more extreme version of the above examples looks more like this (and we have all seen this happen in our lives):

• that person is blind and therefore can't be hired for this job or is _____________
• that person is over 50 and therefore __________________________________
• that person/group is Catholic and therefore _____________________________
• that person/group is socialist and therefore _____________________________
• that person/group is Jewish and therefore ______________________________
• that person/group is a democrat and so _______________________________
• that person is fat and so __________________________________________
• that person/group is Chinese/Russian/American/French and so ______________
• that person group is Muslim and so __________________________________
• that person/group is vegan and so ___________________________________
• that person/group is Buddhist and so _________________________________
• that person/group ... fill in the blank

Much more than about stereotypes and prejudices, this is about what you are prepared to see. Just as in my first example of the person who only saw garbage in places where there was also great beauty, and was literally blind to that beauty right next to the garbage, so too are we as global citizens all too frequently convinced that all there is to see is something negative about any kind of person or group because of those preconceived notions and hence we are blind to all the other parts of them, which almost always carry within them something of beauty. It was Emerson who said: people only see what they are prepared to see.

What are you prepared to see? Please consider this very carefully as you go about your day today and every day.

Also see my new website: www.gabriellakortsch.com where you may read quotations or download excerpts from any of my books.

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch:
 
Rewiring the Soul

Click here to download the first chapter.

To see the Table of Contents click here

Reviews From the Back Cover:

"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre

"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself 

"The human being's directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery." Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

Praise for The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

“All humans seek the illusive touch of another's Soul, which opens us to the sense of belonging to something bigger than the self. Dr. Kortsch has given us the true "tao" of relationship in this brilliant exploration of emotional tapestry. We will be grateful for this illumination of spiritual partnership for generations to come."
Chris Griscom: Spiritual Leader, Author (among others) of: Ecstasy is a New Frequency

“Eloquent and comprehensive, showing how your primary love relationship may be a sacred vessel that transports you and your partner to a place of mutual healing and expansion.” 
Robert Schwartz: Author of Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born 


The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self 

My new book: The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self, is just out. Click here to download an excerpt. 
Here is a paragraph from the Introduction:

It is your right to live a life of love. It is your right to understand that loving yourself first is not a selfish way of behavior, but one that allows you to live that life of love. However, it's highly probable that you never got the instruction manual explaining exactly how to accomplish this. Possibly your family - and it may have been a loving family - considered loving the self an act of selfishness. Or perhaps the members of your family simply didn't practice loving the self, and of course, what you didn't see - what was not shown to you - while you were growing up, meant that you just didn't learn how to apply it to yourself. The closer you are able to move towards loving yourself, the closer you will be to living a life of love - quite independently of whether you are in a love relationship or not. A life of love can be lived with or without a partnership, because a life of love implies that you know that it all begins with you by loving the self. The more clearly you understand how to love yourself, the more clearly you will see that it is very hard - if not impossible - to love others in ways that are unrelated to fulfilling any of your needs. Loving yourself first is - for so many of us - one of the hardest things we will ever learn how to do. But know this: the benefits affect you in every particle of your being - body, mind, and soul - and are greater than you will ever be able to imagine.

Note: If you are wondering why this blog is now only appearing on alternate days (excluding Sat/Sun), it is because I also post on my other blog on the others days. That other blog is Rewiring the Soul so named for my first book. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.