Daily Meditation


from Peaceful Living
by Mary Mackenzie

If you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are overdressed.
–Kate Halverson

Day 153: Considering the Needs of Other People

If you only focus on what you want, you are only halfway there. One of the basic principles of Nonviolent Communication is valuing everyone’s needs equally. Remember that needs are the underlying reasons why we do things.

You might go to the store to pick up food to feed your family. Your need is to feed your family and your strategy is to go to the store. If you didn’t have enough food to feed everyone in your family tonight, would you like to eat your fill and let others go hungry? Or would you like to find a way to meet everyone’s need for food? Most of us would want to find a way to feed everyone in our family.

We are not always able to meet everyone’s needs, but we certainly value them. If we focus on other people’s needs at our own expense, we focus too much on others. If we focus on our own needs at the expense of others, we focus too much on ourselves.

The consciousness we strive for is to value everyone’s needs equally. We feel the power of this consciousness when we realize that there are creative ways to meet many people’s needs simultaneously. Indeed, the Universe is abundant with resources to do this if we are willing to be present to them.

Today, notice when it is easy for you to value everyone’s needs and when you are limited in doing this.

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