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Hi, my name is David McLeod.
Time was, not that long ago actually, I used to be pretty judgmental about people.
I had this habit of categorizing everyone; I would metaphorically put them into different
boxes, I would label them in different ways, depending on whatever I imagined was true about them.
The result of all these judgments over time, something that I wasn't even aware of until
I had done a fair bit of personal growth work, was that I was creating a lot of distance
between myself and a lot of other people.
The effect was kind of subtle and insidious, because as I would categorize someone over
there in the distance with a certain label, I could easily see the same characteristic
showing up right in front of me in someone who was close to me. And so I would begin
to judge that person the same way.
When I did that, I was creating separation, I was creating distance between myself and
those people who were closest to me.
Furthermore, I would find that I'd make the same judgments about myself.
I would find those flaws within me, and as I did more and more inner work, I began to
see that most of my judgments about other people were in fact disowned judgments about myself.
And as I started to look at this even more deeply, I came to realize that I was seeing
aspects of myself that I just plain didn't want to look at.
So, when I caught myself making judgments about others, I would begin to ask things
like "Where is the fat part of me that I'm trying to hide?" Or "where is the arrogant
part of me that I don't want others to see?" Or "How do I show up as insensitive or frightened or controlling?"
As I continued with my work, as I started to do that deep dive inward and begin to heal
those wounds, I started to have compassion for myself.
I began to actually love myself, and I began to feel gratitude for all the people who showed
up to mirror those things to me that I was afraid to look at.
In time, it was easy to see those labels just kind of falling off of all those people.
So now I've developed a practice of reminding myself that I love myself.
And when I do that, I am easily able to love everybody else.
Now this doesn't mean I'm necessarily friends with everyone, nor does it mean that I am
completely free of judgments.
Far from it—I mean, I am human after all.
But what it does mean is that I project, as much as I can, unconditional love for myself
and for all those other people.
I keep reminding myself that I love everyone and everything equally.
I love everyone and everything equally.
This practice helps me to stay connected with who I really am, and to stay aligned with
my inner truth, and to remember that each and every one of us is a unique and valuable
being with a unique and valuable purpose on this planet, no matter how we may be showing
up in any given moment.
I love you, and I invite you to love yourself. I also invite you to love everyone and everything equally.
Thank you for listening.