Karmic Muscle Group: Virtuous Intention
Today’s Exercise: Speaking Virtue Into The Being Of Another
- Choose a friend or co-worker in whom you see a virtue that does not often get recognized. It can be “hard working”, “honest”, “caring”, “thoughtful” – pretty much anything.
- Spend two full minutes thinking about how you see this virtue in the person and contemplate as many examples as you can as to how that virtue has appeared in that person in your experience.
- Tell the person that, at least to you, they are the very manifestation of the virtue that you see. “Betty, I just wanted to tell you that in my world you are the poster child for grace under pressure. I mean it, you are like grace come to life.” The point is to make the verbal association “you = virtue”. You have to speak the virtue as the person’s identity and make sure they understand that they are that for you.
- You must be 100% truthful and authentic in your statement.
- Tell one other friend or co-worker that you have declared your virtuous friend to be the manifestation of the virtue that you see and make the case for your claim.[hr]
Training Note:
Behavior arises out of who we think we are. Sometimes other people will tell us that they see certain things in us. This will resonate with us because we see it too, although possibly not as clearly as an outsider to our own mind does. Once it is spoken, however, it becomes a part of our acknowledged reality and we begin to behave accordingly with even greater presence of the virtue as our motivation. Speaking virtue into the being of another empowers people. It makes them happy to be known for their virtue and it also calls them out to live into that identity. You cannot speak a virtue, however, into a being that does not already possess it. You must see it and then call it out for the person so that they can see that this is how you know them. This energizes the virtue and gives it strength in the being of others.[hr]
Karmic Benefits:
- Brings Virtue To Life: The best of who we are is often buried under a lot of mental static. But a person who sees a virtue in the being of another has the power to call it out, bring it to the surface so that it becomes unimpaired. An unimpaired virtue brings benefit to everyone.
- Empowers Another To Become Virtuous: People are often on the fence about themselves. Why not push them off the fence by acknowledging the best things about them. If we do this for each other everywhere, we will soon be living in heaven right here and right now.
- Causes You To Relate To Another As A Person Of Virtue: To call out virtue, you must first be able to see it. This requires that you knock the cynical crust off of your own eyes. The more you have x-ray vision that spots virtue in others, the more you get to live among virtuous people. In the end, this exercise builds merit in both directions. [hr]
Share Your Experience:
Leave a comment when you have completed the exercise.
