Page 145 - The Truth Landscape Format 2020 with next section introductions-compressed

"Isn't accepting responsibility the same as accepting blame?" … Responsibility always looks forward, always to the future. Blame always looks backward, to
the past, to blame someone who is guilty. Apportioning blame and guilt will not free your mind of negative emotions.

Responsibility gives you back your control, self-reliance and pro-activeness. Blame makes you feel angry, resentful and frustrated. Someone bumps into your
car at a traffic light. Of course you’re not at fault. But you are responsible for the way you react. You are responsible for how you conduct yourself. You can
show anger and other negative emotions, or be mature, calm and controlled. The choice is yours. And how you will feel is determined by how you decide to
react, not by the circumstances. Responsibility or irresponsibility, positive or negative, happiness or bitterness; the choice is yours.

Clean your windows

When I first heard this, I was still in negative mode. I reacted quickly and from ignorance. I would find myself saying "If you knew what that other person did
to me, you’d never expect me to accept responsibility." But here is the key lesson I learned. The perpetuation of negative emotion in your mind is enough to
sabotage your chances for happiness. Even one negative emotion of blame or anger can interfere with your peace of mind indefinitely.

To illustrate this critical point, imagine that you have just purchased a beautiful house in your dream location, with wonderfully peaceful panoramic views,
perfect in every detail. There is only one problem. The windows are so coated in dust and grime, you cannot see out. If everything in this house is perfect
except for those dirty windows, what would happen if you did not clean them?

The answer is that you would eventually forget what a beautiful view you had inherited, it is likely that the house would not seem as appealing. You can’t see
the wonderful view for the dirty windows.

Your world is full of people who are just like that new house. You may be one of them. Possibly they are intelligent, good-looking and well-educated, .and
may seem to have everything going for them, but their lives just never seem to contain the reality of happiness contained in their dream. Almost always this is
because they are holding on to at least one negative experience from their past for .which they are refusing to accept responsibility. They are still blaming
someone or something for a hurt they have suffered.

Generations of people from all cultures, many of whom have reached and past middle age are still angry and resentful over something that happened to them
in childhood. These unresolved issues of bitterness affect their relationships with their spouses, their children, their colleagues and their friends. It shows itself
in psychosomatic illnesses, and in the most extreme cases, can even lead to early death.

There are thousands of psychotherapists have become very wealthy on the back of helping people to deal with these unresolved emotions of anger, guilt and
resentment. The cure comes when he or she can identify what is holding him or her back, face it honestly and release it. You can accomplish very much the
same thing by identifying any feelings of negativity you have toward anyone, accepting responsibility for the situation and releasing it. Page145