{"id":3033,"date":"2013-12-24T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=3033"},"modified":"2013-12-17T12:11:01","modified_gmt":"2013-12-17T17:11:01","slug":"put-your-ideals-into-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html","title":{"rendered":"Put Your Ideals into Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How do we learn to use our relationships with others to realize a new kind of relationship with ourselves wherein we are able to discover that who we really are is all we need to be? Our willingness to strive to employ higher ideals in our relationships with others rewards us with the Real Life our heart longs for.<\/p>\n<p>Since the usual focus of our attention and interactions with others is centered on \u201cme first\u201d and the fulfillment of selfish desires, there is a great inner life lesson to be learned from working deliberately to put our usual self in \u201csecond place.\u201d By practicing this intention in our interactions with others, we agree not only to change the way we see our relationships, but we have also agreed to be changed by the truths our new relationships will inevitably show us about us.<\/p>\n<p>As you celebrate the holidays together with family and friends, use the following practices as an exercise and a means to self-discovery\u2026 keeping in mind that everything true you discover about yourself enlarges your relationship with life.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Be as alert to what you can do to help someone else in any given moment as you are critically aware of others for failing to notice your immediate needs.<\/li>\n<li>Let anyone who wants to psychologically defeat you have his victory, and do it without revealing that you chose to give him the last word.<\/li>\n<li>In any moment of consequence, be as willing to see that you may be wrong as you are convinced that you are always right.<\/li>\n<li>Do whatever act of kindness you may be moved to do for another person without drawing attention to your deed, or to yourself for having done it.<\/li>\n<li>Look for ways to make moments work to the advantage of someone else besides yourself.<\/li>\n<li>When gathered with friends or family, instead of competing for the spotlight, voluntarily help to shine it on someone whom you know its light will emotionally lift or otherwise encourage.<\/li>\n<li>Even when you know that you are solidly in the right, rather than rub it in, sacrifice your righteousness.<\/li>\n<li>Should a sarcastic or unkind remark pop into your mind to tease, torment, or in any way &#8220;trash&#8221; another person, try swallowing it first to see how it tastes before you dish it out.<\/li>\n<li>Whatever it might be when your &#8220;moment in the sun&#8221; arises &#8212; such as being acknowledged or applauded for a deed well done &#8212; if you have the choice, give the best or better portion away.<\/li>\n<li>Let there be times when you don&#8217;t tell someone everything you know about her problem, even if your understanding of it is better than hers.<\/li>\n<li>When feeling displeased with someone, don&#8217;t show your displeasure, and save any necessary correction for a later time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are times when the greatest strength (and kindness) we can possess is to allow another their weakness without pointing it out or otherwise punishing them for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do we learn to use our relationships with others to realize a new kind of relationship with ourselves wherein we are able to discover that who we really are is all we need to be? Our willingness to strive to employ higher ideals in our relationships with others rewards us with the Real Life&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,7],"tags":[937,305,451,304,1821,791,164,1823,1822],"class_list":["post-3033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love-relationships","category-self-remembering-awareness","tag-christmas","tag-family-gatherings","tag-friends","tag-holidays","tag-ideals","tag-inner-work","tag-kindness","tag-putting-others-first","tag-selfish-desires"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Put Your Ideals into Practice - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Put Your Ideals into Practice - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do we learn to use our relationships with others to realize a new kind of relationship with ourselves wherein we are able to discover that who we really are is all we need to be? Our willingness to strive to employ higher ideals in our relationships with others rewards us with the Real Life&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-24T17:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-17T17:11:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@guy_finley\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Put Your Ideals into Practice - Letting Go with Guy Finley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Put Your Ideals into Practice - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"How do we learn to use our relationships with others to realize a new kind of relationship with ourselves wherein we are able to discover that who we really are is all we need to be? Our willingness to strive to employ higher ideals in our relationships with others rewards us with the Real Life&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html","og_site_name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","article_published_time":"2013-12-24T17:00:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-12-17T17:11:01+00:00","author":"Guy Finley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@guy_finley","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html","name":"Put Your Ideals into Practice - Letting Go with Guy Finley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-24T17:00:57+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-17T17:11:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/12\/put-your-ideals-into-practice.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Put Your Ideals into Practice"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/","name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","description":"Holistic, Mental Health and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16","name":"Guy Finley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","caption":"Guy Finley"},"description":"Bestselling \"Letting Go\" author Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3034,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3033\/revisions\/3034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}