To kick off 2014, this month’s Bloggers for Peace Challenge is simple: Choose just one thought to focus on this year to bring more peace into your life and by extension the world around you. I chose the 2nd Agreement in Don Miguel Ruiz’s life-changing book The Four Agreements as my focus.

Whatever happens around you, don’t take it personally… Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world.

Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. What they say, what they do, and the opinions they give are according to the agreements they have in their own minds…Taking things personally makes you easy prey for these predators, the black magicians. They can hook you easily with one little opinion and feed you whatever poison they want, and because you take it personally, you eat it up…
– an excerpt from the book, The Four Agreements.

It’s true we do cause ourselves a whole lot of needless suffering because we make everything about us. When it really is not. Now don’t get me wrong, I know that this is easier said than done because I’m nowhere near this as yet. I take a shitload of things personally. So I know that to achieve this state of “water off a duck’s back” it has to be a daily practice.

Ruiz continues:

Even the opinions you have about yourself are not necessarily true; therefore you don’t need to take whatever you hear in your own mind personally…Don’t take anything personally because by taking things personally you set yourself up to suffer for nothing….When we really see other people as they are without taking it personally, we can never be hurt by what they say or do. Even if others lie to you, it is okay. They are lying to you because they are afraid.

There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally. You become immune to black magicians, and no spell can affect you regardless of how strong it may be. The whole world can gossip about you, and if you don’t take it personally you are immune. Someone can intentionally send emotional poison, and if you don’t take it personally, you will not eat it. When you don’t take the emotional poison, it becomes even worse in the sender, but not in you.

As you make a habit of not taking anything personally, you won’t need to place your trust in what others do or say. You will only need to trust yourself to make responsible choices. You are never responsible for the actions of others; you are only responsible for you. When you truly understand this, and refuse to take things personally, you can hardly be hurt by the careless comments or actions of others.

If you keep this agreement, you can travel around the world with your heart completely open and no one can hurt you. You can say, “I love you,” without fear of being ridiculed or rejected. You can ask for what you need.

…this is where true peace begins.

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This challenge was created by Kozo over at everydaygurus.com
If you haven’t heard about it please click here to read more.

Just tag your post with B4Peace and copy your URL to the Linkz collection at Kozo’s place.

But wait…there’s more: Anyone who completes all twelve Monthly Peace Challenges in 2014 will receive a Free B4Peace T-shirt.

Good stuff, right?.