Getting Your Buttons Pushed

We often talk in terms of “he or she pushed my buttons.” A much more accurate description would be, “he or she did something and then I pushed my own buttons.” He or she did something and then I decided to close down my heart.

What if we decided that there was nothing that was worth closing our heart over and that the most useful thing we can possibly do for ourselves is to keep our heart open.

Imagine a boxer whose strategy is to keep his hands at his side and lean forward. After a couple of broken noses, concussions, and episodes of unconsciousness, he’d realize that his strategy stinks and he’d try something else.

Unlike the boxer who changed, we are sticking with our crappy strategy of closing our heart anytime something doesn’t go our way. And as soon as we do this, we feel like we have been beat and beaten.

We mistakenly think that closing our heart and shutting down somehow protects us. It doesn’t. It just makes us feel lousy and decreases our aliveness and our energy which then helps us to attract more of what we do not want into our lives.

Nobody ever improved the quality of his or her life through closing down his or her heart. It just hurts and makes life painful. But, we do it over and over and over again.

Maybe it is time to stop this crappy strategy.

Looking at it from this perspective, nothing is worth closing over (that is if you want to love your life and be happy, enthusiastic, full of energy and joyful).

Quit pushing your own buttons and stay open.