Can we just playfully look at that through our whole lives?
How that's been the issue?
Doing whatever we can to avoid the most vulnerable parts of ourselves,
Which is simply the most authentic part of ourselves,
In service of holding up this image to the world that says I want to be seen like this and not like that.
I want people to approve of me.
I want people to think I'm cool,
Think I'm smart,
Think I know what I'm doing,
Think I know something.
I want people to think I'm important.
Do you see that this is all trying to protect an image?
Do you see how exhausting it is?
And all the while,
In order to accomplish that,
You can't just be yourself.
In fact,
Just being yourself is a huge threat to that quest.
Which is fascinating because essentially what this is saying is,
Dear self,
I don't love you.
Dear self,
I don't respect you.
You need to be what I think you should be so that other people love you.
And the real you isn't going to cut it.
So I need you to pretend to be something that you're not so that I can gain the world's approval.
Which is another way of saying I want the world to worship me.
It's a little bit more of a rough way to say it,
But it's kind of what it is.
And yet here's this beautiful invitation to surrender all of that noise and just come home to the real heart of what you are.
Which is to,
In some way,
If you're clueless,
Be clueless.
If you don't know,
It's okay to not know.
If you're sad,
It's okay to be sad.
If you're angry,
It's okay to be angry.
And why is this okay?
I'll tell you.
Because when it's okay,
Then you're willing to look at it.
Which then finds clarity that heals these emotional disturbances.
Like if you're angry and you don't think it's okay to be angry,
You won't look at your anger.
You'll avoid it.
You'll suppress it.
You'll hide from it.
If you're sad and you think you shouldn't be sad,
You won't look at the sadness.
This is to say anything you're judging,
You're pushing away.
And the only thing you're judging is yourself.
And so you're pushing yourself away.
Even our judgment of others is really a covert way of judging ourselves.
Or hiding from the judgment we have for ourselves.
This is why it's all okay.
Like imagine the mechanism of physical pain.
You had a judgment towards it.
And so when you touch a hot stove and you feel the pain,
You just pretend like it's not there and you keep grabbing hold of the stove.
Do you see how purposeful that pain is?
That says,
Hey silly,
You're not supposed to touch hot things.
Oh,
Thank you.
Message received.
And emotional pain is the same.
It's just associated with perception.
The way that you are seeing this is not true.
And it's not contributing to a life that allows you to move in harmony.
Oh,
Thank you.
Sure,
You can fight the But sooner or later,
You see that what you're fighting for is an illusion.
And you're fighting on behalf of an illusionary self.
It's fascinating.
Which ultimately shows you,
If you go down that rabbit hole,
Oh,
I don't need to fight any of this.
