Lucid Living: Are You Playing the Victim?

A large part of learning to live with lucidity is to understand the roles we chose to play in our own lives. There are many events in life where it can be easy to fall into victim mentality. Many people in the world today play the role of victim because this is the general dream of the planet at this time. In American society, which is the culture I am most familiar, we are surrounded by victim mentality. There are lawyers that will help you play the victim in any situation. You can watch numerous soap operas filled with victim portrayals. Or you can just listen to all the complaining that goes on throughout the day, at home, at work, your neighbors, your friends, etc. Basically if you are complaining about something, then you are acting like a victim. If you complain that you do not have enough money, then you are playing a victim of your life's financial set up which is made up of all the little choices you have made, such as where you live, what you drive, how you earn money, how you spend money, etc. If you constantly complain about your husband, what you are really expressing is, "I am with this person who I do not enjoy living with and do not agree with his/her expression of life, poor me." Living with lucidity means that we have enough awareness to realize that we choose our roles to act out.

Even in situations beyond our control we do not have to play the default role of victim. You lose your job. Don't complain about your boss or the company for the rest of your life, move on, get another job or go work for yourself. You have a chronic illness. There's no need of complaining about it. Playing the victim role here will only make you feel worse. Focus on what you can do and appreciate the gift of life.

Playing the victim can come in so many subtle ways throughout the day. Do you complain about things you "have to" do? Is it work, school, or helping your son with a school project instead of going to a beach party? Realize that you never do anything that you do not choose to do for one reason or another; so why not enjoy what we choose to do instead of focusing on what else we could be doing.

When you act like a victim you are essentially giving away some of your personal power. You are stating to the Universe, "I have no power over this". You are playing the part of "poor me" and guess what the result of that is? Remember, the type of energy you put out into the world will attract more of the same.

I challenge everyone to notice the ways in which you act like a victim, and to begin making different choices in your expression of life. Also, notice how you might be enabling the victim role in your friends and family. Do you feed their victim mentality by listening to their stories of how the world is doing them wrong, or how their life is so terrible? Pay attention to your thoughts and words and see what role you are playing.

live lucid-

Laura Barrette Shannon

*Please feel free to post any insights in this area of awareness on the www.SpiritualApprentice.com forum in the Playing the Victim section of Lucid Living.