What's Your Blind Spot?

For almost four years, I’ve been guided by my friend and spiritual counselor Tricia Barrett, who I first met when she was running the green juice detox cleanse at the integrative medicine practice where I worked. With a boatload of life experience, hard earned wisdom, and a Master’s in intuitive medicine, Tricia has gently and relentlessly refused to let me stay blind to how I create and recreate my own suffering.

You know those scenarios you repeat in your life? The same abusive, alcoholic boyfriends who take all you have to give, give little in return, and then walk out on you? The same co-workers who steal your brilliant ideas without crediting you and then get the promotion you deserve? The same way you attract mentors who help out, and then when you succeed, reject you and break your heart? The same way you set a goal, get excited about achieving it, start going after it, and then give up before you go there?

You get the picture.

Meet Your Blind Spot

Any time something happens repetitively, chronically, over and over again, you can bet there’s a blind spot underneath it. You may be tempted to fall into victim mode. (“There he goes again – another asshole who just uses people!” “There they go again, my lying, cheating, stealing co-workers who lack integrity!” “There it is, happening again, those mentors who get so jealous of my success that they can’t be excited and then have to reject me.”)

You may blame everyone else and think “Poor me! Why do all these crappy things keep happening to me?”

But the only thing those scenarios all have in common… is YOU and something you don’t see – your blind spot.

My Separation Story

One of my own blind spots revolved around a story I had recreated in my life over and over and over again. In fact, I’ve blogged a lot about it, because it taps into one of my core childhood wounds, the feeling of being rejected because I was “too smart,” “too pretty,” “too whatever.” (You can read about the loneliness of leadership and the poem dedicated to the outsiders that I wrote when I was 14.)

Over and over in my life, I have played out the same story. I get shut out when I succeed. Others got jealous if I made straight A’s, got the guy, won the award. Then in med school, I got chastised for being too vigilant with the care of my patients and making the med students look bad. (They have a term for it – “gunner”- which always hurt my feelings because I never set out to make someone else look bad, only to do a good job and care for the patients.)

The pattern continued until I played this separation story in my mind like a record. If you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself. Nobody else cares about doing exceptional work as much as I do. And most painfully – unless I dim my light and dumb myself down, I’ll wind up rejected.

Sheesh! OLD STORY!

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Michael W.

3:51PM PDT on Jul 15, 2012

Lucky if you have someone to guide you, to find that blind spot!

July 15
send a green star

Mary B.

11:23AM PDT on Jul 12, 2012

I think another name for blind spot is liveing thru an invisable belief. Because your living the evidence, that makes it 'true', but if you shift your focus to something unrelated, the evidence of whats real also shifts so that the new focus shows it's evidence. The old focus is still there with all it's evidence so you can always go back to it.Reality is way more fluid than we've been led to believe.

July 12
send a green star

Caitlin F.

1:27AM PDT on Jul 10, 2012

Interesting

July 10
send a green star

g d c.

3:48PM PDT on Jul 9, 2012

hmmmm....

July 9
send a green star

Julie F.

9:25AM PDT on Jul 9, 2012

GREAT post! thank you.

Siti R.

5:30AM PDT on Jul 9, 2012

thanks, will re-post!

Marianna B M.

1:26AM PDT on Jul 9, 2012

noted

Kathryn H.

10:06PM PDT on Jul 8, 2012

This article got me thinking about certain things that do seem to happen over and over and I say "not again"!!...blind spot!! Time to stop being the victim and make some changes. Thank you

July 8
send a green star

Marie W.

9:24PM PDT on Jul 8, 2012

Hide light under a bushel basket?

irene f.

9:28AM PDT on Jul 8, 2012

At this moment I know it´s me who chooses men that have nothing to give - so I just don´t date. I know that I´m the one that confronts injustice in the workplace and left alone when it´s necessary to speak up,
And today I know I have to go a little deeper if I want to change this and get moving.
Thanks