About Carl Sheusi

I’ve been developing the Light Inside Technique (LIT) since 2016, when it became clear to me that I needed a common-sense approach to reducing stress and increasing positivity.  Insights have come from both doing the practice on my own and from using the various aspects of the technique in dialogue with others.  I’m eager to share LIT with as many people as I can.  Together we can create more peace and positivity.

LIT and The Thief on The Bus

Yesterday I watched the old video of a man who was attempting to snatch a lady’s pocketbook while she sat on a public bus. The bus was stopped with it’s door open while folks were entering, paying the bus driver the bus fee after climbing the three steps. As people are entering, you can see the thief waiting outside the bus door for everyone to enter. He waits for just the right time and then climbs on board, avoids paying the fee, and immediately makes an attempt to take a passenger’s pocketbook. His first attempt fails. He laughs it off, and then makes another attempt. A second passenger, defending the innocent lady, shoves the would-be-thief who then falls back to the entryway of the bus. The bus driver closes the door as this is happening and the would-be-thief gets one hand stuck in the door. He remains now inside the bus, hand trapped and in pain, and unable to move in any direction. He frantically tries to free his hand but he’s stuck and the bus driver starts to drive on. With the would-be-thief stuck, the bus driver pulls out a club and starts beating the man while continuing to drive the bus. The would-be-thief has no way to avoid his punishment and raises his free hand in defense, to little avail.

Is this (possibly career) criminal getting what he deserves? The bus driver probably drove straight to the police station, where the man likely received further consequence for his deviant behavior, as others stated in the comments on this video.

What consequences or punishment does this man deserve? Would they be severe enough? How many times has he done something like this with success?? How much stress and trauma has he caused his victims with his reckless and harmful behavior? I’m sure the severity of punishment for such crimes varies from location to location. Maybe jail time? Maybe community service? I’ve heard of much harsher punishments for this kind of offense.

While punishment might be in order for this man, what if we take a different perspective for a moment? What if we exercise compassion for the man? Can we find any positive motives behind his behavior? Can we find the good underlying the criminal offense?

Aside from the obvious positives of the other passenger(s) defending the lady, the lady herself showing strength and determination by protecting her belongings and holding tight to her pocketbook, and the bus driver also capturing the thief, can we find anything good in the man himself?

Why would someone commit such an act, such an offense to an individual and to the general public?

Maybe he’s just mean, jaded, corrupted, too lazy to work, evil, and without morals and respect for his fellow humans. This is definitely a legitimate perspective. But there’s also a more compassionate perspective, and just as legitimate.

So let’s take a moment and give serious consideration to why he might commit this offensive act. Really try to think of his motives and ask, why would he attempt this crime? For money? But if he’s doing it to get money, we have to consider that we all want and need money. There’s no shame in that. Did he do it to feed himself and possibly his family? There’s no shame in that, of course, and in fact that’s something we would praise. Did he do it for excitement, for a thrill? I seek excitement and thrill myself. We all want and need some form of fun in our lives. Did he do it to impress his friends? If so, then he wanted acceptance and appreciation from those friends, and to be included in a group. Don’t we all want these things?

If I consider these very likely motives, then I have respect and appreciation for the man. I like that he is trying to get his needs met, and especially if he has a family he’s trying to support with money and food, etc. I no longer feel anger and hatred toward him. And, as for the punishment he would deserve for messing up (because it’s obvious that he DID make a mistake in how he tried to get his needs met), I would want that punishment to be fair and just, period. I would want the legal and social systems to respond in a way that would deter that offensive behavior in the future, and support the man with getting his needs met in a positive and socially acceptable way.

It’s important for me that I see beyond the man’s mistake, his crime and offense. If I can’t see beyond that, then I’m left seeing negativity and “evil,” and feeling anger and hatred. If I’m left with those, then I’m holding onto mental, emotional and physical tension. My thoughts become negative, and my words and actions and body language will be influenced by that negativity and I’ll see more negativity in others. That’s not what I want for myself, and not how I want to influence the world.

This is another situation where the Light Inside Technique (LIT) allows me to look a little deeper and find the good in someone who is showing reckless and harmful behavior. The technique gives me the opportunity to consider how the person is trying to get basic positive needs met and how those needs are the same as mine. The focus of the video might be his big mistake, the problem, the error. That’s exciting to watch, and draws us in. But with LIT we can use that big mistake and the excitement of the video to practice positive mental habits and find the good in people. We can use it to generate more compassion where we might otherwise reinforce a habit of blame, shame and judgment.

Find the good in things!

Light Inside Technique
"I came to the Light Inside Technique with a heavy heart and a lot of emotional baggage. But after just a few sessions, I felt a tremendous shift in my energy and a newfound sense of peace within myself."
- Anonymous

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