“No, it’s mine.”

“No, it’s MINE.”

My friend and I were downstairs chatting when we heard her kids yelling. Then, we heard a huge crash. Glancing at each other, we ran upstairs to find her oldest boy, Jake, standing by an overturned toy box. His younger brother, Sam, was clear across the room. Trains and legos littered the floor. I knew what was coming before Jake raised his hand and pointed at his younger brother: “Sam did it.”

Oh really? I looked at Jake in disbelief. It didn’t matter that he was the closest one to the toy box and had obviously dumped it over in anger; his first instinct was to blame his younger brother. Kids will be kids and these kinds of little fights happen a dozen times a day. Eventually, when he confessed to being the one responsible for the mess, his mom gently lectured him on why he should take responsibility for his actions. When he asked her why he should, he wasn’t being sarcastic. He honestly wanted to know why responsibility is important.

RESPONSIBILITY AND HONESTY

The first step to self-responsibility is to be honest. When we’re honest, we can start to clean up our own messes, messes that may be much bigger than legos and toy trains.  We should be honest because if we don’t, then we won’t be able to build any kind of meaningful relationship with ourselves. It goes without saying that we won’t be able to have real relationships with others. The only way to create real relationships is through honesty – and that starts with the little things, such as toys on the carpet.

RESPONSIBILITY AND SELF LOVE

Another reason we should be honest is self love. Without it, how can we look at ourselves in the mirror? We can’t. Self-esteem can only really develop in an atmosphere of honesty and with honesty naturally comes self-love.

DEVELOPING RESPONSIBILITY

What if you want to develop more responsibility? Try keeping a journal about ways that you could take more responsibility for your life. One of our Ho’oponopono audiowave meditations can help you develop more responsibility, and with that, more joy and self love. Ho’oponopono can teach how to take no less than 100% responsibility for your life and to live with more awareness.

Photo By: Jörg Reuter