This is meditation two of a three-part series As always come as you are Whatever you're carrying today let it come with you You don't have to leave anything behind to be here This space is for you The real you Not the polished version Not the one who performs,
Smiles,
Achieves,
Edits,
Shrinks or hides Just you Take a breath I invite you to return again to the lake Your lake The still sacred place within you The lake of all knowledge The lake that holds what the world never taught you to remember That you are already whole Already worthy Already enough And you can sit beside it now Let the ground beneath you hold your weight Let the surface ripple softly with your breath This is where truth can rise Gently,
Quietly Let's begin to ask,
Who am I when no one is watching?
Who do I become when there is no applause,
No expectation,
No audience?
When the performance ends and the spotlight fades,
What remains?
Maybe this question feels unfamiliar Because for so long we've been watched Graded,
Measured and judged Taught to be palatable Taught to be enough but not too much Taught to shine but not blind anyone with our light So we adapt,
We become what we think we should be We tell stories like,
I must be successful to be valuable I must be kind to be loved I must be perfect to be safe And we believe them Because someone,
Somewhere once taught us that love was earned So I ask you now What stories are you still telling yourself about who you should be?
Whose voice lives inside that story?
Is it even yours?
Let the light hold these questions You don't have to answer any right away This is not about fixing,
This is about unfolding Peeling back the layers Not to erase who you've been but to meet who you are And sometimes the answers arrive during the moments least expected Perhaps they'll arrive during the day Maybe in a daydream whilst you're staring at the clouds Or in a dream at night I wonder,
What parts of you feel performed?
Is it the smile you give when you want to cry?
And the tears you choke down?
Or the ambition that hides your exhaustion?
The confidence you wear like a costume to cover the trembling beneath?
Let the tears be seen and felt Let the performance soften Let the realness underneath rise up So that you can breathe Because the truth is you are allowed to exist without an audience You are allowed to have value without applause And yes,
Rejection may come So let's not fear it in the shadows anymore Let's bring it forward Look it in its eye Name it Imagine this with me You put yourself out there You speak honestly You create something from your heart Something soft,
Something brave And someone rejects it They say no They say not for me Or they say nothing at all And it stings Yes,
It hurts You feel exposed You cry You wonder why was I foolish to try?
Perhaps you share it with someone you love And would expect to support you Yet you are left feeling devastated,
Rejected and upset But then,
Something surprising happens You wake up the next day And the sun still rises Your breath still comes And the earth still holds you And something inside you doesn't feel smaller It feels braver You didn't break You didn't disappear You learned that rejection is real and yes,
It can hurt But it's survivable I know because I felt it too I wrote a book I sent it to agents and they said no I cried a couple of times,
I questioned it But I didn't unwrite it I didn't take it off the shelf because it's a part of me It holds my truth It's not for everyone But it doesn't need to be Nothing ever is,
Apart from the air we breathe and the water that flows But can you name anything that everyone likes collectively?
Some people have left negative comments on my meditations And once,
That would have silenced me But now they remind me that I am not for everyone But I am for some,
And so are you What if the pain of rejection was not a stop sign,
But a sharpening?
What if it was not proof of your failure,
But a reminder that you dared to show up?
So I ask you now If you didn't need to prove anything today Who would you allow yourself to be?
What would you wear?
What would you write?
How would you speak?
What would you show?
What would you choose?
Not for them,
But for you?
And again breathe here And really think,
What does freedom from others' opinions feel like?
Not just in theory,
But in your body In your shoulders,
When you're not holding tension in your chest When you're not trying to be perfect Freedom doesn't mean you'll never care again It means you'll stop giving your life away to people who don't see the whole of you Let yourself feel into that Now ask and reflect Can I let go of my past?
Can I let myself be someone without an audience?
Can I live this life for me even if no one claps?
Because when the show ends and the curtain falls You're the only one who has to sit with yourself And what a gift To sit beside someone you know Someone like you Someone you choose to be Not out of fear,
But truth Return again to the lake Let your reflections ripple out Let the water carry away what no longer belongs to you The expectations from others,
The shoulds Let them sink And in their place,
Offer yourself this I am allowed to live a life that's true to me I am allowed to be real Even if I am not always understood I am not here to perform I am here to unfold To befriend the parts of me I once hid To be loved To carry the past versions of me not with shame But with tenderness To say to those parts you were scared We're not there anymore I've got you now You don't need to abandon yourself to belong You already belong to you Let this be your quiet revolution Let this be your soft rebellion Against the voices that told you who you had to be You are already enough You are already home You may return to this lake,
This sacred space anytime It lives inside of you It is made of your truth And if you like,
Whisper I don't need to prove anything today I can just be me
