What You Do vs. Who You Are

The Two Primary Frameworks of Life

Note from Nat: Join me and Mark Harradine for Surrendering to Spirit workshop, a live in-person event in Sydney, Australia on Oct. 8th. Find out more here

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There’s two primary frameworks for how we can relate to the world, that of the law and that of grace. In the law there is good and bad, right and wrong, punishment and reward, and the law of karma. In grace there is freedom, loving, learning, and forgiveness. Both of these exist simultaneously, and we can choose in which framework we want to operate by how we see the world. I often relate to it as being in flow, or being out of sync.

Recently I was coaching a client in a one-on-one session. She was relating her struggle around feeling unworthy, she felt it stemmed from childhood traumas, her parents, and her religious upbringing. This included being really hard on herself and punishing herself with her self talk when she did something wrong. She had done a lot of admirable work through the years to heal the traumas from childhood, and had done a lot of healing.

In one framework, what you do is who you are. In this world there is right and wrong. If something happens that you don’t like, you call it “bad” and think it is a punishment.

In the other worldview, your behavior is separate from your value. What you do is what you do, and who you are is who you are. 

Have you ever loved someone regardless of what they do? They may do some things that you really disagree with or think isn’t good, and yet you still love who they are? Even if you don’t like their behavior, and in some cases you may choose to not participate with their behavior, and yet you still love them? It’s because who they are is not what they do.

In the truest reality, you are a soul, that divine extension of god, that unconditioned unit of energy, that spark of life.