I hope you had an enjoyable week. This week has been chock full of events and preparation. Last weekend I had the Louisville Spiritualists Center's event, where I helped set up and organize the healers. This week I was prepping for the Mighty Kindness and my monthly local chapter meeting for the Monroe Institute. By now you'd think I'd learn that I don't have to bring everything that I do to a festival or event, but don't I try every time.
These last few weeks I've been so emotional. Past relationships have been on my mind, those that ended either by estrangement or death. The relationship that has been on the forefront of my mind has been my relationship with self. There's been moments where I've let all self judgments and shame drop away, and in those all too brief times it feels just phenomenal to be me. In those all too fleeting moments I feel so light like I could float right off the ground. It's only with the contrast of those gifted flashes of Grace that I realize how much mental/emotional weight I am carrying around.
The truth is I have not been very kind to myself. I've been bullied, ignored, or disrespected so much that it barely registers anymore. It takes something big to get my attention. This numbing has been a primary coping mechanism, but it hasn't kept the pain out. It has normalized and then internalized it. That critical voice of authority from long ago now speaks in my own tones inside my head. I've been dragging these heavy burdens with me everywhere, it's no wonder I find so many things challenging. I've begun to think though that if I have accomplished what I have in spite of those internal torments and the chains I've been pulling along, what could I do if I found a way to set all of that aside and only carried myself.
It sounds simple, but like most simple things it isn't easy. We often internalize what we hear repeated over and over, especially if it was something we heard a lot of when we were kids. We come to believe what others say about us must be true. This is because we are social creatures, and in society what gets mirrored back to us forms our self image. Things like meditation help us to disassociate from that often false and distorted image. It can take time though, because most of that image is unconsciously generated. I'll give you an example, when I was around 14 or so I had someone I looked up to say that unless I was very handy or made lots of money nobody would ever love me. This person was very near and dear to my heart at the time. (14 year olds are not very discerning with who gets access to their self image). I went through adolescence believing that, hell up through my 20s and most of my 30s. Guess who is still single? Now of course I know on a rational level that statement is complete bullshit, but on a subconscious level I obviously still put stock in it. It's why I put up with people treating me like a nonperson. That's just one belief that did a lot of damage because instead of deciding that person was awful I continued to invest in them. I took on that burden to carry instead of carrying myself away from their influence.
Why am I telling you this? Well I have found that many of the problems we have boil down to us carrying around someone else's judgment of ourselves until we believe it is our own. Their assessment becomes our reality. We become disconnected to who we are, instead we strive to be good enough to snuff out that judgement, but it is always there in the corners of our psyche, a slow and subtle poison that steals our joy. "I'm not ____ enough. No one could ever love me. I'm not worthy. Good things are for others. I'll never get over this." There is your starter pack of lies for a cursed life.
So in the coming weeks I ask that you look at how you treat yourself. What is it you believe about yourself? Does it come from your personal experience or is it someone else's view that you have internalized? What if you were to see yourself in your own truth? What if the lies we tell ourselves were to fall away? What would you be then? What would you feel like? What would your life be like? I hope that we all set down our burdens, maybe then we can all fly somewhere together.
Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle
Beautiful unmasked and wise piece! Thanks Thomas!
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