I kinda know Kate Upton…

When Lindsey and I were in Florida, we stayed with Kate Upton’s sister’s in-laws. N­­­­­­­­­ope, I didn’t spell that wrong…

We stayed with her sister’s, husband’s parents (get it…her sister’s in-laws), which, if we’re playing 6 degrees of separation from Kate Upton, is still another degree removed from that of her sister-in-law (or in this case brother-in-law)!

Does this stop me from thinking this “semi” connection is worth talking about? Nope…

A week later I’m standing in the grocery store checkout line with my mom, scanning the magazine covers for anything interesting and there she is on the cover of both Vanity Fair and Vogue! It’s kind of a rush to think that I “know” someone on the cover of these magazines. I point to one of the covers and say to my mom:

“I stayed with her sister’s in-laws when I was in Florida.” Mom was unfazed.

Fast forward a few more days, I’m standing in another checkout line with my friend, Crystal. I point to one of the covers and say:

“I stayed with her sister’s in-laws when I was in Florida.” Crystal commented on Kate Upton, but wasn’t too impressed with my having stayed with her sister’s in-laws.

Why did I find this “loose connection” so fascinating and why did I feel compelled to share it with others as if it were some kind of bragging rights???

I’d fallen into the trap of assigning a value to Kate Upton as a person and my “connection” to her based on the fact that a lot of people know who she is. From a spiritual perspective, I know better than to assign worth to someone based on external measures like success and fame. But I did.

Assigning a value to someone based on external measures means that we’re relating to the world through our ego instead of our soul. *ouch*

When we relate to the world through our ego, we let external measures like someone’s societal status dictate how we see them. The CEO of a big corporation is seen and treated differently than the cashier at Burger King.

Relating through our ego is what upholds separation in our perception of the world around us. It focuses our mind on only seeing the things that make us different from one another and then uses those differences as a rating scale of worth for where we each rank amongst one another.

When we relate to the world through our soul, we’re no longer blinded by these differences, which only serve to divide instead of unite. Instead, we’re positioned to relate to one another through the part of ourselves that makes us One…our soul or spirit.

As these blinders are removed, we begin to see the CEO and the cashier as equal.

I know what you’re thinking, “Alright Shanna, this sounds great, but how do I actually accomplish this???”

First, let’s break down our perception using an analogy from A Course in Miracles:

When we relate through our ego, our mind is only focused on seeing the picture frame, not the actual picture. Instead of immediately relating to the love and light in someone (the picture), we relate to them through the external measures that we see in the physical world (the frame).

When we’re aligned with our ego, we only know ourselves as “the frame” that we’re projecting (our job title, weight, race, clothes, attitudes, beliefs, etc.).

We, then, seek to compare “our frame” with the “frame” that we see in others, as a way of either promoting our self-worth (feeling superior) or demoting our self-worth (feeling inferior), depending ego’s analysis of this “frame comparison”.

When we’re caught in “the frame”, we’re blocked from the one thing that matters—the “actual picture”!

This is definitely an error in our perception that needs to be corrected in order to rela­­te to the world through our soul. Fortunately, like all other perceptions that need to be healed, we have a handful of tools that we can turn to…­­­­­

First, simply recognizing and acknowledging that we’re relating to the world, in this way, is enough to begin neutralizing ego’s desire for us to only see the frame. This shows our willingness to change, which, according to A Course in Miracles, is all we need to begin healing the errors in our perception.

Our willingness serves as an invitation to call in divine guidance to aid us in this process. In fact The Course says that our only role is to be willing to see through a new lens….a lens of love, instead of ego.

Try not to underestimate the power of your willingness, no matter how small it may appear to be.

All of the transformation that I’ve experienced, in my journey, has been grounded in my willingness to root out motivations of ego in order to begin relating to the world through my soul…even seemingly minor ones like my fascination with this connection to Kate Upton.

Next comes your level of commitment to your inner journey. Just be willing to commit to relating to the world through your soul. Even if you’re only able to sustain a small willingness to commit, that window of opportunity is enough for you to experience progress…how cool is that?

With time, you’ll begin to see the picture more often than the frame. You’ll still have your “Kate Upton” moments, but it’s not as if they’re going to derail your process…you just notice them, go through your process, and recommit to seeing the picture, instead of the frame!

This is all a part of reorienting ourselves to relate to each other and the world around us in the way that we were meant to…through our soul from eyes of love.

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Each moment that we’re able to live from our soul, we leave a lasting impression of love in the wake of our presence. Together we can help heal the world by simply being loving.

Peace, Love, & Joy,

Shanna

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Then, please send a copy of it to me (shanna@shannacovey.com), so that I can use it on my website. I’d be much obliged if you’d help me out with this! =)