Your Own Personal Ganesha

Seems like everywhere I turn the folks around me are going through major upheaval in their personal and professional lives.  Lots of peeps I know are on the edge of making large changes that honestly they don't want to make.  Big decisions, holding tough ground, and fighting for their rights in places that they don't particularly want to do it.

And they're coming to me with it.  (which, honestly, I love).  I'd Love even more to be able to take out a magic wand and *poof* these problems away.  It's really sort of what they're asking me to do.  "here's all this crummy stuff.  Could you please hold it for me?  Better yet, could you please please make it stop, and just make it go away?"  It would kind of rule to have that ability.

Makes me feel a little like Ganesha, you know, the round bellied dude often referred to as: the Remover of Obstacles.  As if he's going to throw giant boulders out of roadways or something.  Many of us think of him exactly as that.  If you've got a problem, you go to Ganesha and ask him to take it away.  He sits at the doorway to temples, taking problems off your back so you can go in and have a beautiful experience of some sort.

But, there's another way to see things.  As explained at a John Friend workshop I attended in my Anusara days.  Ganesha does sit in the doorway, but he actually IS an obstacle himself.  He's the gatekeeper.  Instead of taking away the problems, he checks to see if you are strong enough, have enough wisdom, courage, compassion, self-love etc to take on the magnitude of solution really required to solve the situation you've encountered.

So instead of asking him to take it away, we can go and ask for the help we need to be strong enough to move that darn boulder ourselves.

I really like that idea these days, because my problems are my problems.  If I come to you with them for perspective and validation or whatever that's great, but they're still mine.  And essentially,  I still have to be the one to woman up and deal with them... with as much courage, love and integrity as possible.  I'm tired of selling myself short and giving up my power to others expecting them to fix things for me.

So I'm thinking that's my new take on helping friends too.  I'll gladly listen.  I'll gladly validate.  But most gladly I'll do my best to build you up so that you know you can deal with this yourself.  Because, honestly, you can.  I absolutely believe that!