Judgment Does Nobody Any Good
Being judgy is easy but, like blame, fixes nothing.
Spend any time whatsoever reading or watching the news or browsing social media, and you will see example after example after example of judgment.
Some of it is meant to point out problems and place the blame where, admittedly, it belongs. Other elements of judgment come from seeing some less-than-ideal people receive their comeuppance. Sometimes it’s a matter of seeing what someone else is going through and either judging yourself better off, worse off, or riding the waters in a similar boat.
I do this too. It’s part of human nature. We compare ourselves to people both inside and outside of our lives because that’s what we’re taught to do. Judgment comes shockingly naturally.
The problem is that judgment does nobody any good. It’s not any different from blame in that it determines who is doing wrong from a sense of moral, ethical, or experiential position.
While blame tends to shunt responsibility and accountability, judgment flat-out gives it to the judged. Even when that is you.
While there might be a hit of satisfaction that comes immediately after judgment, it’s only fleeting. That’s because it is superficial.
It takes mindfulness to recognize and acknowledge this
One of the ugliest parts of elections is that they’re all about blame and judgment. Often, you judge someone based on all sorts of good and bad information for their moral, ethical, spiritual, and overall being. Some, admittedly, make it very easy to see where they lack. Frequently this wholly plays on your fears, concerns, and beliefs in lack, scarcity, and insufficiency.
Many, many forces in this society want you and I to be disempowered. They prefer that we don’t recognize the subtle and blatant manipulation, corruption, and steady stream of bullshit. Distraction, manipulation, and all sorts of mechanisms are in place to keep you judging, blaming, and unaware.
There are so, so many examples I could give you. However, that way lies blame and judgment. Instead, I’d rather focus on mindfulness to be more self-aware.
Isn’t that selfish? No, that’s just a false judgment that many of the aforementioned forces want you to make. It is not selfish to be self-aware. That’s because you are the only one who can be.
Consider this – if only half the people in the world have an inner monologue, chances are most people are not self-aware. I don’t know about you, but my inner monologue is usually all about analysis of myself and how I fit into the world around me.
If you’re not self-aware, how do you know what you desire? How do you know who, what, where, how, and why you want to be anything at all?
Mindfulness is the key to changing this. But it can only be used by you when you choose to do so.
Judgment does nobody any good
I can’t change what’s going on in the world at large. There’s nothing I can do to make people give a shit about other people, to be kind, compassionate, and empathetic, or to do anything they don’t choose for themselves to do.
I can judge them for that left, right, and sideways – but to what end? Does it do anybody any good for me to pass judgment? Nope.
All I can control is in myself. Overall, this comes down to what I’m thinking, what and how I’m feeling, my intentions, whether my approach is positive or negative, and my actions. Apart from that, I control little to nothing else.
Accepting this, however, opens the way to doing more. More good for yourself leads to more good for the world at large. You can be there for others when you care to be more present with and for yourself. This is done by being mindful and self-aware.
Judgment of yourself is another matter that does you no good. Great, maybe you’ve judged yourself to be unkind, unworthy, a bad person, or some other negative. Does that do you any good? No. It just freezes you in a time, place, and situation that prevents you from taking control or changing anything.
How do you change anything? Active choices and decisions. This requires you to be in the only time that’s real – now. The present.
When you make choices and decisions, here and now, you are empowered. That’s useful and positive because it means you can change what doesn’t serve you. When you change yourself, you open yourself to helping others choose change. Unlike blame and judgment, this can do good for you and the world, too.
Recognizing how judgment does nobody any good isn’t hard
It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that judgment doesn’t make anything better, you can see how it does nobody any good. Knowing that judgment, like blame, fixes nothing, you can instead work with self-awareness and mindfulness to make choices and decisions to create change and live a full life that lights you up and does you (and through you, those around you) good.
This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.
Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. With a broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.
Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.
The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, it can spread to those around you for their empowerment.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the five-hundred-and-sixty-fifth (565) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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