"N" Search of Ecstasy

A coworker of mine and I were talking yesterday. I cant really remember what we were talking about exactly but know that it was on the subject of relationships. She asked me if I had every read any of Miguel Ruiz"s books and I said to her no, I am not familiar with him. She mention to me that she had one of his books at home and that she thought that I should read it, but she had a paper that talked about some of his teachings.

I went with her back to her office and she gave the paper to me. This paper talked about his teachings as written in his book The Four Agreements.

The author feels that everything we do is based on agreements we have made at some point in our lives, whether it be with ourselves, with others, with God, or with life. But although we make those agreements, the most important agreements are the ones we make with ourselves. In these agreements we tell ourselves who we are, how to behave, what is possible, what is impossible, etc. One single agreement is not such a big problem, but we have many agreements that come from fear, isolation, deplete our energy, and diminish our self-worth.

In this book, The Four Agreements, the author reveals the source of these self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and cause us to create needless suffering for ourselves. When we are ready to change these previously made agreements, there are four deceptively simple, yet powerful agreements that we can adopt as guiding principles.

These Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can quickly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.


The Four Agreements

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Dont Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you wont be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

I am definitely guilty of having self-limiting believes. Im not sure where these beliefs came from or when they all started but I do know that I have felt like that for a very long time. Looking at these four agreements I have to say that the things that I do, say, and believe have been completely opposite of these teachings for the most part.

I have spoken words to put myself down on many occasions. Number two says not to take things personally and lawd knows that I always do! When something goes wrong or if someone does something to hurt me, why do I have to automatically assume that its because of something that I did, when the reality of the situation is that this is simply not truly. Well at least not in all cases.

As for making assumptions, as mentioned in number 3, I am always making assumptions and unfortunately more often that not, I assume the worst. Lastly, as for number four, I cannot even honestly say that always try my best. Shoot I cant even say that I try my best most of the time. I mainly just do what I gotta do to get by. I know thats a shame!


What agreements have you made with yourself? Do you think that any of them are self-limiting?

What do you think about this authors philosophy?

This is Superstar Nic

Still "N" Search of Ecstasy and I'm out!

"If you see someone without a smile today, give them one of yours!"