We all try to figure people out.Why did he do this?Why does she want that?We spend a great deal of time looking outside for answers.We think that we have to find some hidden secret to understand.Yet when we put all our attention on the outside, we miss the richness of information on the inside.By putting our focus and awareness "out there" we forget our most valuable resource.Our own feelings.Our own energy.Our own bodies.When we look inside we find that we learn a lot about ourselves and others.Perhaps we notice that there is something unsettled inside us when we are with someone.That unsettling feeling might be their nervousness, not ours.By paying attention to our own feelings, our own emotions, and our own energies, we get to know ourselves much better.By understanding our own motivations, our own reactions, our own desires, we can understand what someone else in a similar situation would be feeling.We can shift our perspective from ourselves to the other while still paying atention to what's going on inside of us.Our bodies feel in an instant.Yet our minds confuse us.Pay attention to feelings that arise from deep inside and we have a road map for what is happening on the outside.And as we understand ourselves better, we can see those around us with a clearer vision.
~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant