Today's
quotation:
Because
one believes in oneself,
one doesn't try to
convince others. Because one is content with oneself,
one doesn't need
others' approval. Because one accepts oneself,
the whole world accepts him or her.
The
Tao Te Ching
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Today's
Meditation:
Sometimes
it seems to be a lonely walk when we believe in
ourselves. When we're not looking for the approval
and agreement of others, it often seems that much of our
interaction with them is taken away. After all, how
much of our normal conversations are based on trying to
convince others that we're right, or to convince them that
they should approve of us because of something we think, a
perspective that we share, or something that we've done?
But
it only seems to be a lonely path. The truth
is that once we find that belief in and contentedness with
ourselves, the path is no longer lonely because we
recognize that we don't need the approval of others to
make a good life for ourselves. And while we
probably will intimidate some people who wish that they,
too, believed in themselves, those people are relatively
few.
You've
been given some great gifts, and you deserve belief in you
and who you are. You don't need to convince others
that you deserve this belief, but it would be really nice
if you were to convince yourself and truly feel that
belief. Being content with yourself doesn't mean
giving up growing and developing yourself and staying
right where you are, but it does give you more confidence
and allows you to do what you do from a stronger
place, thus making success much more likely in anything
that you undertake.
It
can be a lonely road, but when you do accept yourself and
trust yourself so much that you no longer need to seek the
acceptance and trust of others, guess what? That
will come of itself. Usually when we seek acceptance
and trust, we try a bit too hard and turn people
off. When we stop trying so hard, though, we can
stop turning people off and let them take us as we are,
rather than as what we want them to see.
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