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Today's
quotation:
If
you try to view yourself through the lenses that others
offer you, all you will see are distortions; your own
light and beauty will become blurred, awkward, and ugly.
Your sense of inner beauty has to remain a very private
thing.
John O'Donohue
Anam Cara
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Today's
Meditation:
Oh, my
goodness-- how much
time have I spent in my life wondering and worrying how
other people saw me? How often have I made myself
feel miserable because of my imaginings of the ways that
other people have seen me? In many ways, much of my
life has been defined by "the lenses that others
offer" me, and the distortions have kept me often
from making my life into a very special experience.
Because I was so focused on how others saw me, my
"own light and beauty" definitely wasn't clearly
in focus, wasn't graceful and beautiful. Rather, it
was diminished, not at all as strong as it should have
been. My life was rather limited, mostly because I
didn't trust myself, didn't feel that I was worth a whole
lot. I felt, quite honestly, that I wasn't good for
anything, or for anyone-- and of course, no one would want to
spend time with me if I were so lacking.
Fortunately, I've been able to learn how to see myself
through my own eyes, and to trust that view that I
have. I still can't do it all the time and there are
moments when I still see myself blurred and awkward, but
those times don't happen all that often any more.
And because I'm willing to see myself in positive ways, my
life is brighter and more enjoyable; I don't spend time
wishing that I lived up to someone else's standards, that
I was more like what other people wanted to see than my
authentic self.
Other people see only a tiny portion of who you are, so
their judgment is necessarily flawed. They will
offer you an incomplete and inaccurate assessment of just
who you are, and you're going to make your life much more
pleasant if you learn to avoid taking them and their
judgments too seriously-- it really isn't important to try
to conform to someone else's ideas of who you should be,
no matter who they are. They can't know the beauty
of your heart and spirit, and you shouldn't give them any
power over you or your life by paying attention to their
skewed perspective.
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