“If you ever get the chance to treat them the way they treated you, I hope you walk away… and do better.” ~ Najwa Zebian
On some level we would all like to think we are always on the high road. How many times have you heard yourself or someone else say, “I hate drama and negativity, I refuse to let that kind of stuff into my space,” only to be followed up with some sort of accusation of blame or gossip about our determined antagonist?
Or, how often do we find ourselves or others placing stipulations around our taking of the high road? “I’m a nice person, until someone disrespects me, talks about my family, talks about my country, insults my religions (insert your trigger of choice here)?”
It seems as though a societal norm is to claim to be a kind, drama-free type of person, but it’s completely “ok” to let all that out of the window if someone does that one thing that you just “won’t put up with.”
Of course it’s easy to take the high road or claim ourselves to be in a “drama-free” zone when we are dealing with people who aren’t pressing our buttons!
The true test (the one that separates a masterful person from one who can easily be dragged into a confrontation) is: are you willing and able to take the high road when it’s hard? Are you willing and able to take the high road no matter what happens or how much the other person thinks they “won” if you do?
Power and the high road go hand in hand
“How people treat you is their karma. How you react is yours.” ~ Wayne Dyer
At some point or another we’ve all succumbed to our overwhelming anger. We’ve all said or done something that has not reflected our highest moral integrity.
In fact, part of learning how powerful we truly are is to see ourselves evolve over time from a person who was reactionary and confrontational into a person who is able to respond to people in the most empathetic and compassionate manner, no matter how triggered they have made us feel.
The first step in taking the high road, is forgiving ourselves for all the times we haven’t, and intending to do better. Once we have made peace with all of the points in our past when we have not taken the high road, we free up the ability to move forward in a more mature manner.
The truth of the matter is the high road is always the most powerful position. Every time we allow another person to draw out of us behavior that does not align with our highest integrity, we hand over our power to them, and affirm to the universe that we require more opportunities to practice not reacting when we are triggered.
Seeing things from this perspective, shows us that every time we are challenged to choose love over anger, is in all actuality the universe attempting to hand us back what is rightfully ours (our power), and to anchor within our energy field our belief in our own selves and the power of love.
What those that have successfully reclaimed their power from all of the people, places and things that have previously been able to draw out of them negative or fear based behavior know that love, kindness and empathy are the attributes of a truly powerful being.
Things like fighting, name-calling, getting revenge, putting down, or blaming are indicative of a person who is afraid of their power being taken away, or of being over-powered… aka an UN-powerful person (or one who does not believe in their own power.)
Eventually it becomes easy…
“Someone once asked me, ‘why do you insist on taking the high road?’ I answered, ‘why do you assume I see two roads?'” ~ Unknown
The beauty of becoming more accepting of ourselves, and aligning with notion that life happens perfectly, and all situations are manifested by us as opportunities to heal or anchor belief in our own power, is that over time taking the high road becomes second nature.
If you’ve ever held yourself back from saying something to someone out of anger, or challenged yourself to look at things from all sides and chosen forgiveness over finger-pointing, you’ll know the true pleasure of choosing the high over the low road.
One of the most satisfactory feelings is in knowing that you could’ve “gone there” (insulted someone or taken jabs at them) and you chose not to. Taking the high road time and again and experiencing what it feels like to truly walk away from something with your head held high, knowing that nothing and no one has the power to make you compromise your own integrity, is how one eventually becomes indestructible.
When others see how powerful and confident we are within the realms of love and compassion, you never know, they may just be inspired enough to choose the same for themselves the next time they are confronted with a choice between the low and the high road.
Image Sources:
two roads
Quote pic-made by Nikki Sapp
woman sitting above existence
