To behave or not to behave

When did you learn how to manipulate your parents? You were probably so young that you can't remember. When you fell and it hurt a bit didn't you scream just a little bit louder because maybe you would get some extra attention from your parents? I bet you did, because you knew it worked. Because last time your parents made a bigger deal out of it than it actually was and you discovered that you could benefit from it. You probably didn't even think about it. Just some innocent manipulation. Or if you were extra sweet you would get candy. Admit that you still use it to get your way sometimes with your partner or your partner uses it to manipulate you. My cats do it all the time. They know that it works and I fall for it over and over again.

What is truthful behavior? Yes, it is hard to know when you haven't stopped to think about for awhile. My teacher said go to the zoo and watch the animals but then she changed her mind thinking of what being in a cage does to natural behavior of animals.

If you meet an angry lioness on a savannah in Africa I don't think you are going to question the lioness' behavior. But if I raise my voice to you unfairly, will you let it pass? It depends on who I am to you. If I am your boss you might but if I am your sister I am sure you won't. We adjust our behavior all the time depending on where we are and who we are with. We do this every day. It is not so strange that it is hard to tell when someone is truthful since people will adjust to you just as you adjust to them.

This is what I like about the repetition exercise of the Meisner Technique. We cut the crap and we are who we are in the moment. At least that is what we are trying to learn. Given our history of manipulated behavior it is not that easy to just be who you are.

 

Photo taken by my brother on a Safari we went on in Kenya 2006. The car
we were in ended up in between the lioness and her cubs by mistake.