A Human Doing

Spoke with an old friend yesterday.  His wife had to trick him into seeing a doctor, who gave him the news that he was on the edge of a stroke.  This friend is an ultra-hard working, "A"-type person--we all know them.  Both men and women believe that their gender is taught to ignore their own needs, to push themselves to collapse, to put the "job"--whether it be career or family--before their own health and sometimes sanity.  Luckily, my friend has a sneaky, worried wife who took matters in hand--but how many of us take care of ourselves last?
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We are not merely valuable for what we do.  We are valuable in our existance, in our "being"-ness.  And this is one of the hardest things to get people to see.  Hidden behind all of the gender stuff, and the racial stuff, and the political stuff, is the fact that we all get a thousand mesages a day that we don't matter unless we perform. Unless we sacrifice.  And we must, each and every one of us, take responsibility for taking back our souls, for claiming the essential nature of our spirits--which is EXPRESSED in our actions, but not determined by them.
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It is so critical to spend time every day connecting with this vital truth--it is a force within us that can birth infinite energy.  It is the most alive and powerful aspect of our entire.  WE MATTER.  Every single day you need to embrace this truth, to find a way to connect with the sacredness of your existence.  How else can we face our days with courage?  How else can we lift up our loved ones, our mates and children?  Our friends?  How else lift up our communities? 
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Every technique we're talking about on this blog is designed to clear your vision, to put you more in touch with your essential self.  YOU MATTER.  How about a story dealing with someone who puts everyone else first?  The "Women are trained to put their families first" or the "Men are trained to sacrifice everything to support their families" belief/value patterns are quite valuable for the survival of the clan--but we are, I hope, a little beyond that now.  What beliefs might replace those?  And how to emplant those beliefs? Thoughts?