Doing the right thing

There will be times in life when we will need to make moral judgements. Life will constantly provide us with opportunities to make decisions that test our higher wisdom as well as our petty emotional attachments to issues in life.

Forgiveness is the essence of higher wisdom, it transcends the quagmire of life that pushes us off course. Tapping into our higher wisdom makes the world a better place. A client of mine recently had to make the decision to help a sick relative that she had not spoken to in many years. There had been years of bad feeling and the bitterness had built up.

She felt that this relative had behaved badly and that they had done too many things that destroyed the chance of them ever rekindling any type of relationship.

Then one day, she came to me and explained that she had had an epiphany. We had spoken about personal responsibility in life and doing the right thing in therapy sessions. She told me that even though her relative had been despicable, she was still responsible for reacting in a way in line with her values. She was responsible for her own behaviour irrespective of how her relative had behaved. It was because of this that she had decided that she would go to his aid. She saw herself as a kind and caring person and even though her relative was not kind and caring (in her opinion), she felt strongly enough that his behaviour should not change who she fundamentally was. I found this thinking incredibly enlightened!

I wanted to share this as I am sure there are many readers who may gain useful insight from this blog post and this particular client’s way of thinking. Doing the right thing does not mean you condone bad behaviour but it does mean that you have compassion and empathy and can rise above the menial squabbles that bring us down in life.

Mandy X

Photo by seanmcgrath

Author: Mandy Kloppers

Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.