Linear vs circular spectrums

What I get out of my belief system and mindfulness:

I am often asked by people about how to be happy in their job, their relationships and their life. My belief system is partially Buddhist but more so about mindfulness in general.  I have often looked for jobs, friendships and relationships that would be “the one.”  However, the more I look, the more I find that no matter how much I believe one job is better than another, one person is better than another or that “it” will allow me to be happy, it, and I am fallible.  We have every chance to be exactly who we are and what we are right now.  We are that job we don’t like, which someone else would love to have.  We are that person we hate, we are all those things that we despise.  We are all just atoms that dispearse back to some other point when we are finished with them.    We can play many roles and, I would suggest, life necessitates it.

I often talk to people who see their choices as a linear “spectrum” and see it as a flat line that goes in one direction.  There is black on one end and there is white on the other (or whatever).  I ask them to take the ends of it and bend it into a circle so they see that the opposites are very close together and can almost be interchanged.  I’m not saying that Bush and Obama are that close, but they are probably not that different when you look at it:  both human, both “male”, both work in politics, both think they are doing the right thing, both believe they are chosen to lead, etc.

Be willing to feel the fear in new adventures, to make mistakes, and to revel in the changes that result.

It is my responsibility to take the positive in me and let it flow into what I do.  If I don’t, I then encourage negative energy from other’s to build and take control of my life.  Look at  the Dalai Lama; he is constantly smiling.  I am consciously putting out that I want to smile and love life more.  I am open to experiencing all that may bring!