Why My Negative Judgments are the KEY to my Growth...And so are Yours

I used to think of my judgments as wrong because that is what everyone always told me--DON’T JUDGE or STOP BEING SO JUDGMENTAL.

Unfortunately, telling me to not judge is like telling me not to breath. I might be able to sustain it for awhile, but eventually I just can’t help it. It's how I have been conditioned, and it's how I continue to see the world operate.

Plus, I no longer want to.

I want to EMBRACE and CELEBRATE my negative judgments. (Crazy, isn’t it.) 

I want to do so because they are the key to my growth. 

I want to let them out (albeit alone), rather than suppress them, or should on them, or distract myself from them because I know that they are telling me something important. When I get curious about my judgments, rather than judge my judgments (quite a paradox), then I can develop a better understanding of what is going on under the surface. 

Once I can go under the surface and seek to understand the origin of my negative judgments, then I can unlock what is missing inside of me which will allow me to transform my relationship with myself and my relationships with others. 

And you know the super cool thing that comes next--I become LESS JUDGMENTAL.

Do you know the saying, “What you resist persists?”

That is exactly what I am talking about. When I resist my negative judgments, and try not to have them, they just keep coming back, and coming back, and coming back because I haven’t dealt with the hidden unmet need underneath.

Yet, once I embrace the judgment, explore it, find it’s root cause, and get creative for how to otherwise meet my needs, then the judgments slowly disappear.
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Want to try it?

In gratitude,
​Theresa 

P.S. One of my mentors who teaches Non-Violent Communication went to teach a workshop to a group of monks, who all thought that they didn't need his workshop because they said, "We don't judge."  At first he was a bit lost, and then he asked, "Well, why don't you judge?" And the monks response was, "Because judging is wrong."  My mentor then smiled and said, "Okay. We can get started." 

Courage. Compassion. Connection.