The Four Agreements, Pt. 1

There is this great book out there called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. To sum it up, I'd say that it's a set of guidelines for people who are seeking internal love, happiness, freedom and peace. My next few posts will be about these agreements and how to apply them in your life. I strongly suggest this book to anyone! Or at least to read the agreements and see the effect it can have on you if you incorporate them into your everyday life. 

The first agreement: be impeccable with your word.
Speak with integrity.  Say only what you mean.  Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.  Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

It might be a bit over the top, but according to Wikipedia, this guys is an "author of New Age spiritualist and neoshamanistic texts." So what can you expect?

I don't know about you guys but I can't even begin to count the amount of times I have blurted out something in a moment of extreme distress that I almost instantly wished I could take back. This agreement encourages you to not only think before you speak, but also to eliminate the amount of negative things you say about yourself or others. I understand that it's not realistic to do 100% of the time. Sometimes we need to vent. But although gossipping and putting other people down might sometimes make you feel better at the time, eventually you'll realize how bitter you're being, and people won't want to be around that. In the end, you'll feel worse about yourself.

With that being said, I challenge you to try this for one day. Do not say one negative thing about yourself or anyone else, stay positive. It's hard! But I've done it and it actually helps because soon enough you just forget about whatever you were upset about in the first place. Realistically, if you are mad at someone, all ranting about them will do is make you focus on it for a longer amount of time. Instead, try to forget it and talk about something more constructive! I've done it and it works.