I was just making a salad for lunch. Fresh chives from the garden! And green leaf lettuce. I picked up a handful of green leaf lettuce and rather than cutting the lettuce with scissors as I had done with the long, straight chives – I put down the scissors and began to pull the lettuce apart with my hands.

I wondered why I just did what I did? It was harder to rip the lettuce apart with my hands, and it takes longer. It would be much easier with the scissors!

Thats when it hit me.

Somewhere along the line, someone had told me that lettuce must be torn apart and never cut. I made an agreement with this person (I can’t remember who it was) and for the rest of my life – have been pulling lettuce apart with my hands instead of easily cutting it with scissors.

This is how The Four Agreements book works over time. You suddenly realize how all of these side turns, extra steps, and “agreements” you have made with other people play a role in your life.

So today, I will enjoy my scissor cut lettuce and even moreso, will enjoy having recognized and removed another unnecessary agreement in my life that did not come from my authentic self.

This is a really simple example- but consider other agreements you may have accepted from parents or other good meaning people – try these on and see how they affect your life on a daily basis:

1. Don’t Talk to Strangers (as an adult ?! ?! ?!).
2. Germs live on toilet seats.
3. Ladies don’t sit like that.
4. Dirt is dirty.
5. We can’t afford that.

Do you get a reaction from these statements? How long have you been abiding by these statements and how are they affecting you? Daily? Ooh! Can’t say enough about this book, and how its’ effects over months and years continue to turn on the spiritual light bulb.