Who are YOU judging?”

 By Aine Belton

As we are moving towards greater unity with shifts that are occurring in the world today, I want to address something that stands in the way of that.

Judgment.

Judgment fosters and perpetuates separation and stands in the way of truth and love.

There’s a difference between having an opinion and being judgmental, I believe. You can disagree with and dislike something/someone and still not judge it/them, for example. Judgment is a harsh energy that is potentially hurtful to the person on the receiving end, and that may even be you if you are directing that judgment against yourself.

Judgment is often used by the ego to prop itself up by self-righteously making another wrong, or as a vehicle of self-punishment against yourself.

Any judgment you hold against another stands between you loving them.

As Mother Teresa said:

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.“

Nor are you capable of doing so, since love and judgment don’t co-exist!

When you judge yourself, condemning yourself for your mistakes, failings and imperfections, you similarly block that love.

The worse you feel about yourself, the less likely you are to heal, change and experience your true loving nature.

Judgments augment and compound that which is judged (in yourself or others) and keeps you (or them) bound and captive to those traits by locking them into reality in a fixed way.

You will always get to be right about what you want to be right about if you decide it so, so when it comes to judgment, realise what you are deciding about a person/situation and that you are ultimately the script-writer at the deepest level.

Those who are least judgmental of themselves are least judgmental of others, and vice versa.

Your judgments ultimately reveal a lot about YOU – your beliefs, thoughts, feeling, attitudes, hidden agendas and shadow selves.

This goes particularly for people you don’t know yet as they become a blank slate for your projections. As I share on twitter:

Be mindful what you decide about someone you don’t know, for it will invariably reveal less of them and more of you.”

Are there types of things you tend to judge – particular traits and behaviours that most bug you?

Now, this may be because they violate some core values that you are deeply passionate about, though it may also be because there are some hidden self-judgments there.

These may not be conscious. The trait that you are judging that is showing up ‘out there’ may be exaggerated or being expressed in a different area and you may not immediately relate it to yourself in any way, or it may be something in your past you have forgotten about, or something hidden and repressed.

Isolate the trait that is specifically bugging you about someone and ask yourself “Have I ever been “xyz” to myself or another in thought or behaviour?”.

If you haven’t yet forgiven yourself for that trait, if it is still alive within and disowned, and certainly if a part of you is judging it, you will project that judgment out externally.

Your judgment of another (or yourself) may reveal a belief you hold about others/the world. If you believe people are cold and uncaring and keep repeatedly experiencing (and judging) that cold and uncaring behaviour, in which case you may want to address that belief.

Either way, what helps you stop judging yourself and others? Love, compassion and forgiveness are all anti-dotes to judgment.

It is impossible to judge when you are in a state of love.

If you are feeling judgmental about yourself, berating yourself and hearing critical put-downs in your mind, know that that is the voice of your negative ego, not your Higher Self.

If we’re to move to a world of more love and unity, begin by relinquishing your judgments of self and others.

Start by letting yourself off the hook once-and-for-all. Be as loving, kind and compassionate to yourself as you can imagine the most loving person in the world would be.

You are not your darkness or mistakes. Explore and own your shadow side, yes, but don’t identify with it as being who you are, and don’t project onto others through judgment.

And if you do, don’t judge yourself for doing so

Acknowledge, forgive, let go and transform.
As you let go of judgment you create the space for more love to enter your life and the world.

When you judge you project your shadows onto others, when you love you project your light.”

Love,

Aine Belton