COURAGE MONTH: DAY 9: “You can have regret from yesterday, fear tomorrow, but peace today by sharing your heart’s deepest feelings. A life spent being fearful of showing your soul is a life not worth living.” ― Shannon L. Alder
I love that someone else feels the way I do. The fear of letting people know who we are is the fear of being “found out” as inadequate. Our deep-rooted sense of insecurity around our inadequacy drives so many addicts (and other people, too!) that it really is sad.
Our culture shows us the perfect woman and the perfect man role models all the time. Most of us cannot look like that and do not look like that. So we spend a lifetime hiding those things about us and living in insecurity and shame about who and what we are.
IF we buy that shit! We don’t have to! We can be completely wonderful being who and what we are…no expectations about our lives, our bodies, our looks, our beliefs, our culture, whatever we feel shame about. LET IT GO! This is true courage. Not to save a drowning person, although that is courageous too.
But to live OUT LOUD, being exactly who you are and allowing it to be the path you WANT to be on.
Most of us are terrified of the judgment that we know is coming when we do this. I say STOP being around people who are those kinds of judges! They are not your people.
I love the life I get to have here. I love that I am the only judge (still, even then, sometimes too harsh!) who can influence me. I hate being judged, truly, we all do. But we accept it from people we believe know better than we do. It is not okay!
I love the freedom I get with Step 8 and the way I can sit with my failings and my shortcomings. They are mine to own. I can speak of them and love them and accept them, most of the time. This is a process where I can own them, like I can my assets; and allow them to be a part of myself. I want to show my soul to the world. Why? Because I love doing that after hiding it for so very long. It feels wonderful to be in love with me and the world I inhabit and the life I get to live!
Dolphin Hug 