What if You Didn’t Hold Yourself Back!
What are you not allowing yourself to say, do, undo or imagine?
What is holding you back?
Are you afraid of what others will think of you?
Usually what we are most afraid others will think is what we already believe about ourselves. We’ve all internalized inaccurate disparaging notions about ourselves. The more we believe those notions, the more we act as if they are true and we tuck our truest selves away even deeper. Our belief in these untruths about ourselves limits our lives and what we do in the world. We don’t have to hold onto them anymore. You don’t! You get to see the deeper truth of who you are and what is possible for you and from you!
Are you afraid that you will make a mistake?
You will! That’s OK. It’s great actually. Making mistakes is essential to learn, grow and transform. And sometimes what we believe to be a mistake only seems that way because it has stirred uncomfortable feelings in us or in someone else. We need those stirrings! Exploring uncomfortable places allows invaluable opening, healing and change.
How will you know if something is right if you don’t try it on? Experimenting with life, not just in our heads but experientially, is how we find our way to what we want, who we really are, what we are meant to do in the world. It is what allows us to see possibility and make it reality.
When we keep ourselves small, hidden or untrue to ourselves in any way - important ideas, creations, doings and undoings are prevented from coming to life. Things that might just change everything for us and for our collective stay dormant. In Yiddish, the language of my beloved recent ancestors, that is a “shonda" - a shame. We don’t have to settle for that.
You have done well. It is right to be pleased with yourself no matter how much you feel otherwise. Self-compassion is a skill our collective is sorely lacking so do be pleased with yourself! And with that go dip into the places you have not yet dared go. The ideas, visions, desires and needs you have not yet shared, maybe even with yourself. It is a potent practice well worth engaging in.
