Have you ever judged someone unfairly? Better yet, have you ever been judged unfairly?

For years and years people have been judging others on religion, race, sexual orientation, appearance, personality and so much more, yet where has this gotten us?

In some form or another, everyone makes a judgment about somebody else in the course of a day. Even though that may be a part of what human nature has been, I do not feel that as we unite as a nation, this will support where we are moving to. At least I hope not!

The old expression “don’t judge a book by its cover” is profound in that essentially, that is what so many of us do.

I have a first hand experience in being judged simply for my last name, how much money people think I have, how my family is, or what I am like in my personal or professional life. One of the lessons I have learned early on is NOT to judge people because I know the other side of that and it is not a pleasant feeling.

Maybe you know this feeling by having done something that you wish your friends or family would not judge you for?

Do you ever wish that people would look at you for who you are inside, not always what shows in an external reflection?

I get asked a lot why I am even a life coach in the first place because I probably don’t have to work, don’t need the money and don’t need to be doing something like that. At least that is some of what I have heard.

My reality is that I DO have to work, I DO need money to live and I do need to be doing what I do because it is what is in my heart and soul. It is what drives me when I wake up in the morning. That is like telling a dancer not to dance or an artist not to paint. Working with people is what I love to do and that is, in turn, what I work with people in doing…connecting to their passion. What is in their heart. Not how something may seem on the outside but what is in the inner stillness that is waiting to burst forth.

Judgments can be as misleading as a New York City building. It may look one way from the outside, but the excitement comes from not knowing what exactly lies within. The true gift of what everyone has to share is not the graffiti walls or shiny picket fences but the rooms that are lived in and slept in; inside the place. It is the feeling of warmth from the fire place that is sat around while love is shared and memories are made.

How many times have you judged yourself too harshly?

This is equally, if not even more important relating to yourself. Judging yourself does not help and only exacerbates feelings of guilt or wrong doing.

It takes an old habit to go into judgment; it takes awareness to pause before a judgment is made.

If you can remember a time that you have been judged and how that felt, then you may have compassion and pause before you pass judgment again.

A world without judgment is a world without separation.