Good morning!
On this fine morning in July, I would love to share some nourishment for you in the form of SOUL FOOD. Yay! I always receive great responses from Soul Food editions of this blog, and I so enjoy writing them. Love those win-wins!…so fun.
The human animal is fascinating, to me. I never tire of researching, observing, and testing what will help us to Create Vibrant Health: BodyMindSpirit?. In my experience, some of the greatest teachers are kids. And, typically, the younger they are, the less affected they are by all of the constrictive social norms, ?properness? policies, and boundaries that we culturally create. Young kids, to me, often represent unbridled human potential?prior to learning how to close the heart, doubt oneself, and judge the self and others.
So, the other day, I?m in the grocery store (food!…woot woot!), and there is this little dude, in a seriously self-expressive outfit involving cowboy boots and a superhero cape, shopping with his parental unit (I assume it was, anyways). LD (little dude) is doing this awesome, heart-felt, unbridled dance in the aisle. Parental unit (gladly) smiles at LD and asks, ?what on earth are you doing?? LD practically shouts ?DANCING!? and parental unit asks ?why?? LD says, now looking right at me (a stranger) ?because I?m AWESOME. And happy that you?re buying blueberries!?
Okay, I?ll call myself out and say that a.) I love dancing and am a sucker for anything involving dancing, and b.) I have a soft spot for kids being happy about nutritious foods. I know, a big shocker.
But here?s the thing. When we are younger, we typically have more self-possession. We are pretty sure that we can take on the world, and that we are SUPER awesome and special. We tend to live in the moment more and appreciate the little things. And, up to a certain age, we will express ourselves, our love, and our gifts without really giving a hoot about what anyone else thinks.
Then we ?grow up? and ?get realistic.? (Booo.) We are concerned that we will?fail, make a fool of ourselves, do or say something that will cause others to not like us, make a bad choice, not do it right the first time, or generally fail to measure up. So, we start to play smaller. We limit our expression. We take smaller risks. We don?t do or say anything that ?others? might not like (who are those ?others?, anyways?!?). We sometimes downplay our gifts under the guise of modesty, when in truth, it is often fear.
?What if I?m not enough??
You ARE enough.
The real failure is actually not failing, because the real failure lies in never trying. The real failure is that we live our whole lives hiding our special gifts from the world because we?re afraid they?re not good enough, or because others won?t like us. Because whenever you play big and bring all of YOU to the world, you will absolutely run into failure.
The first time you go surfing, it is highly likely that you will?get a lot of water up your nose, hit your head on your surfboard, fall in more than you stand up, and generally look spastic and uncoordinated. You will probably need to ask for help (horrors!). People might point and laugh. Those things will not likely happen if you stand on the beach. But you will also never learn how to surf. And frankly, what others (standing on the beach) think of you does not define who you are, as a person. So there.
Each day, we have a choice. We can offer the fullness of our gifts and uniqueness to the world. Or, we can play safe and small. I vote for playing full-out?give us all of the amazingness of YOU, bayBEEEE!
Playing full out doesn?t have to mean ?inventing the airplane? or ?solving world hunger.? That?s the ?I?m not enough? mindset. Playing full out means that whatever you do, you bring ALL OF YOU to it. And what a blessing that is to the world around you.
Creating vibrant health?body, mind, and spirit?is a process, not a prescription.
With love & acceptance,
Laurie
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