Acknowledging the Parts

I had a great talk with a client tonight on the telephone. We were working on a project to get out his next newsletter. He was arguing with me a lot about things that he hired me to be the expert on. As we went back and forth, I was getting a little frustrated.

Suddenly he acknowledged that 'a part of him' was resistant to the entire process within which we were engaged. As soon as he did that, our conversation began to shift.

He did an amazing thing. He acknowledged that there was part of him that was being a pain in the rear because that part didn't like or enjoy this type of work. Once he did that - giving voice to that part of him - the other parts of him that see and understand the value of our work - stepped in and took over. We got our work done, and moved forward on his project.

We all have different parts of ourselves. Some parts are constructive and others are wounded and destructive. ALL of this is part of us. The key is in acknowledging the various parts and CHOOSING which part(s) get to be in control at any given point in time.

All of us have many facets to our personalities. ALL OF US. The trouble makers can be vocal and persistent! It is up to us to decide who gets to 'run our show.' If we give in to the loud, destructive parts, our lives will be a mess. If we listen to those parts, and then have the healthier parts of ourselves run the show... we will be much better off.

Denying that those unhealthy or destructive parts are in us... does us no good. They exist for a reason. They are responses to old wounds. Healing them takes compassion and time. In the mean time, we need to listen to and learn from them, and then let the adult, mature and healthier parts of us make our decisions and run the show.

Take inventory on the various parts of yourself and see who's hanging out in there. You might make some amazing and useful discoveries!