Choose the Company You Keep

'Like attracts like', is a saying that represents well how like-minded people will naturally respond to each other. It is important to scrutinize our own behavior so that we can attract those who will share our behaviors and beliefs. On the same point, it is crucial that we consider who's company we keep.

Do you want a healthy lifestyle and to attract goodness to you? Our circle of friends and family might help, improve, or hinder our efforts. Can you learn and improve your thoughts and life by the people that surround you? Do they hold you back from achieving your goals and dreams or do they color your world? Chances are that if they are the type that criticize, gossip, envy, are pessimistic, and engage in negative behaviors, they are not headed in your same direction. They will not help your soul to flourish.

This is not encouraging the behavior of superiority over others. One person is not better than the next, but some lives prosper while others' don't. Just like it is important to keep associations with those who can help us grow, it is also important that we mirror those behaviors. Are we encouraging, optimistic, loving, not faultfinding, overall helpful, and not jealous of others? We need to be conscious of our own behaviors as well. With conscious thought we can learn, guide, or keep away from people who are not good intended.

We never stop growing and learning; the idea is to continuously self-improve.

Transmit Friendliness and Kindness

It is so easy to see fault in others, but so difficult to see our own shortcomings. We walk around gossiping, complaining, and criticizing others. I often wonder if we think that we are so perfect that we subconsciously believe that we are above others. I have seen people criticize others, yet they engage in the same exact behavior that they complained about. Is it true that they are unaware that they do the same thing or is it that they feel that they are justified for whatever reason?

It is sometimes easy to gossip about others and find fault especially when we find those souls who feed into that negative energy. It is difficult to take a moment and try to understand the individual's actions or beliefs. Sometimes we can’t even explain why we don’t like a certain individual. It usually arises from some impression that we formed and then construed an idea around it.

When we gossip about others or take the passive behavior of just listening, it oftentimes hurts the party who is the subject. That party may become angry and engage in the same behavior and we have now created a cycle (and not a good one)!

True that we can’t like everyone, especially when that person is mean or even hostile to us. In that case, it is best to attempt a neutral stand and let it go. Oftentimes, if we sow the seed of friendliness, friendliness is what will grow. And, as we engage in some form of empathy with those that irk us, we will find that it becomes easier until it becomes habitual. In this manner, there won’t be a desire to gossip, criticize, or even dislike others.

We can transmit kindness to the world around us, so lets do it!