Who Do You Look To For Advice?

Who do you look to for advice? Do you have a strong support system? Do you turn to family members or close friends? Do you seek guidance from a spiritual source? Do you rely on a professional counselor or therapist?

“Seek advice but use your own common sense.”
-Yiddish Proverb

Something I have discovered over the years is the importance of a strong support system. Once I got through the selfish phase of my teens and early 20s, I started thinking about the person I wanted to be. I realized that I needed to surround myself with positive influences to be a more positive person. Karma became part of my philosophy.* I prefer not to seek revenge, for I know good things happen to good people... Rather than obsess about things that I wasn't proud of that I had done, I chose to leave the past in the past and make teaching moments out of bad situations. I guess I was starting to grow up.

"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.”
-Anne Frank

It is funny how as a teenager I thought I was an adult at 18. Now I understand that 18 only made me a legal adult. It took many more years for me to become an adult. Now that I am an adult, I have no idea why I was in such a hurry to grow up.

"It's not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line."
-Ashleigh Brilliant

Something else that I discovered was the difference between an acquaintance and a friend. I recall reading an article that mentioned if you have three true friends in life you're doing okay. After being walked on and lead on the wrong path (often willingly) too many times, I began to understand that not all acquaintances were friends. I also began to cherish the friends I had made and appreciate the time I had spent with them, however short or long.. "People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do."

Basically, I have spent my life building my support system. I have not always known who to turn to for advice. I haven't always received the best advice. Due to trial and error, I have learned who to turn to for what specifically and most of all I have learned to follow my heart. My husband taught me to follow my gut. It was the best advice anyone ever gave me. I love my husband and I love my family!

*"In Buddhist teaching, the law of karma, says only this: `for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.'..."