I keep on finding my mind returning to English Poet David Whyte’s words about being fully human. He talked about humans being the only species that isn’t fully who they are. My observations are that we humans do a variety of things that sell ourselves short. Here are some of the ways we do that:
• We seek the approval of others to the point of not being who we are in hopes they will have a favorable opinion about us
• We make ourselves invisible so others will not see who we are
• We don’t go for more in our lives because we think we don’t deserve
• We hold ourselves back waiting until we think we know enough to go forward
• We don’t stand up for what we think is right because we don’t want to upset others
• We choose to live lives others expect from us rather then live our own life.
• We put up with being treated poorly by others so as not to cause problems
• We give up on things we want because it is difficult to make it happen
• We settle for mediocre in hopes it will be easier
• We loose our purpose by filling our lives with being busy and entertained
• We hide out in alcohol, drugs and other addictive behavior
• We let others tell us how to run our lives and what to believe in
• We buy into the faulty idea of us being sinful and bad
• We let others control us through fear
• We let others control us through guilt
• We let our mind limit us with our own limiting beliefs
• We say no when we want to say yes
• We say yes when we want to say no
• We try to get people to love us by being someone we are not
• We settle for less in hopes it will be enough
• We pass on opportunities because it might be risky
• We refuse to leave our comfort zone
• We live a hurried non-stop life so we don’t ever have time to feel our pain
• We ignore our feelings because they are unpleasant, yet an important guide
• We close down our hearts to keep from getting hurt
• We argue for our limitations and they become our reality
• We let self-doubt guide us down a dead end path
• We wonder about the possibilities of life and settle for obscurity
• We have these beautiful bodies but we neglect them and adapt to the limits they gain from the neglect
• We eat our way through problems hiding them under layers of discontent
• We deny the power and expression of our emotions and turn them into tension in the body
• And even more do we limit our light, our wisdom, our heart, our expansive minds
How many of these fit for you? Please do not judge yourself harshly for whatever ways you set limits on you. Just notice and make a commitment to become more fully alive. The positive of this list is that all these limits are your limits and they can be changed.
Much of what I write about at this blog is to encourage you to live as fully as you can in this life. I will share more ideas soon to assist, support and inspire you to be more, live more and to express who you are as richly in this life as you can.