Imagine that your bathtub is overflowing. The water is coming in faster than is being drained out. The floor is flooding............and what do y our do? Well, you could either mop up all day................or.....................you could turn off the faucet. Getting right to the cause will do it every time.

Yet, have you ever found yourself irritated about someone or something in your life and tried like crazy to change that someone or something so you would not be irritated? You might devote endless fruitless hours looking for and getting advice about how you could change that someone or something someway so as to get rid of your irritation.

Like quitting a job or leaving a situation that you think is the cause to your irritation...................only to feel just as irritated with a different job or situation. Sorta like............mopping up all day.

Hey! You are the faucet. You are the cause to whatever or whomever you think is irritating you. And until you get 'that', your strategies for change that are focused on you being a victim rather than the cause of your irritation will be futile. Sorta like..............mopping up all day.

A victim mind-set is old-age reasoning that seemed reasonable at the time, passed on by well-meaning uninformed generations.

• Like thinking that the earth is flat.
  
• Like women are to be treated 'less equal' than men.
  
• Like thinking that the sun rises and sets, the illusion being that the sun moves.
  

It is unreasonable and an illusion that someone or something is the cause to your irritation. You are the faucet; you are the cause. It is your irritation about something about yourself that until addressed keeps appearing as someone or something. Somewhere within your being you know that. Remember? Of course you do. Want to be reminded more often until you don't need to be reminded anymore? Well, what do you think this newsletter is doing, chopping liver?

Here is your assignment:

With a ballpoint or felt tipped pen, draw a happy face on the inside of your thumb. Look at your thumb and confirm the following with as much conviction you can muster;

Today I will remember to not forget each day
I bring on my irritations and I can make them go away.

Look at your thumb during the course of the day. The more you are reminded that you are the cause to your irritations and therefore the source of your peace and harmony, the more you will dis-empower the internal mechanism that reinforces an old-age victim mind-set and access more of your innate ability to bring about peace and harmony where irritation once was.

If you decide to take this assignment, don't be surprised to find yourself more accepting, patient, forgiving and understanding of yourself, and therefore of those relatives, personal and business relationships and situations that appear to irritate you...without even trying.

The someone or something that appeared to irritate you may or may not change and may or may not remain in your life. It matters not. Your dominion over an illusion of victim hood will guide and direct you to experiences of greater peace and harmony.

As a matter of fact, you can expect it. Wanna bet? Be sure to replace a fading happy fact on your thumb when necessary and re-confirm the following: Today I will remember to not forget each day I bring on my irritations and I can make them go away.