One of the mistakes we make when it comes to understanding humans,
Understanding ourselves,
Understanding others is that of confusing our coping strategies,
Our adaptive mechanisms with identity.
So thinking that the way that we're showing up in the world is who we really are.
In reality so many of us are so far removed from who we really are.
Our truth is buried deeply beneath these many layers of armor we've amassed over the years as a response to the world outside,
To the environments we were raised in,
To the people we were exposed to and to the many messages we inhaled about who we should be in the world.
These ways of acting and behaving have become so ingrained,
So unconscious,
So habitual that we think it's just who we are,
Identity,
And that is missing so much.
This is not to say that we should ever allow abusive or harmful behaviour.
What I'm inviting us to understand instead is that these personality structures don't develop out of nowhere and as destructive as they might seem on the surface at some point served a self-protective purpose.
They are not who we are but how we learned to be in a world unable to safely hold and mirror our authentic expression.
And when we meet these parts in ourselves we tend to regard them with shame and disgust,
Wanting to push them away,
Despairing that who we are is so unpleasant or flawed.
But hear me when I say that this is not who we are,
It is how we have learned to survive.
And what we learned can also be unlearned.
Back in the 1950s a group of monks in Thailand were relocating a giant statue of the Buddha.
They noticed a crack in the statue and when they looked closer realised the crack was part of a protective casing,
That underneath the clay exterior was a solid gold statue.
The outer layer was simply protecting the real precious valuable statue underneath.
We too are like the statue.
We too have built up protective layers around us that at some point worked to keep us safe.
We too have a pure precious core that is the truth of who we are.
I invite you now to close over your eyes and place a hand or two on your heart.
Breathe deeply into your heart space.
Feeling any warmth or sensation that you feel here.
And on the exhale softening any resistance that has kept you separate from this beautiful space,
This truth,
This eternal precious essence.
Sensing your heart space expanding and strengthening by simply offering it your wise and compassionate attention.
Sensing yourself as the golden statue,
Beautiful,
Precious and so so valuable.
And in your mind's eye sensing the many layers of protective casing that you have amassed in a valiant effort to self protect.
Feel the difference between your core,
Your truth,
Your gold,
Your goodness and these layers of adaptations.
Know and trust that you are the goodness.
You carry layers of protection but that is not who you are.
You are the gold my darling,
You are the gold.
Always and forever.
Namaste.
