Wash Your Hand Before Pointing ☝️

"Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect-and I don't live to be-but before you start pointing fingers...
make sure you hands are clean!"

• Bob Marley

I really love this quote and I find a deep message in this metaphor, because before we point it's better we first take a look at ourselves in the mirror.

Pointing is a habit I think we all have. It's like a natural instinct. When we are overwhelmed with a sensation or problem we point at someone or something to direct this problem away from us.

An interesting thing about pointing is that the main attention is on the pointing finger as seen in the picture below. It is a powerful universal gesture that immediately put us in a defensive mode.

We all know that being pointed at is not a nice feeling and also having something pointed out to us might no be something we like to agree with.

My dad taught me something very interesting regarding this phenomenon. When we point the main focus is on the pointing finger leading away from us. But as a matter of fact when we point one finger at someone else we simultaneously have three fingers pointed back at ourselves.

I have always been a bit anxious when it comes to being organized. I always seem to be playing hide and seek with my keys. As soon as the situation appears when I can't find something I often start pointing at my wife. It is kind of embarrassing though when I often end up finding what I look for under my sofa cushion or in my bag or god knows where. Lately though I try to recall the lesson my dad taught me and I analyze my emotions. I realize that I get anxious because I should know where I put my things and that I take it out on my wife. By realizing where the emotion arises from I realize it's my own problem and that I can solve it with an inner dialogue and carefully look for my things till I find them before starting to point the finger.

I had another situation recently where I was blaming without analyzing myself first. It was just recently that I told my wife that Steemit is so quiet and slow these days. However, it didn't take long before I started to reflect the problem and realize that I have not been spending much time curating recently. Lately things have been very busy at work so that has lead to less energy on commenting and upvoting. So Steemit hasn't really changed its me that has changed and I need to step up my game.

I find self reflection is one of the most important tools for self improvement. We don't get anywhere by blaming others. Also by blaming others instead of dealing with our own problems we can create enemies and even more problems.
Because as the saying goes; " what goes around comes around" so it's better to think twice and instead of spreading blame we can spread sympathy and understanding, don't you agree?