Shine on, you crazy diamond!
Today's Intention: See my light.
When teaching a workshop for new mothers a few years ago, I asked each participant to take 5 minutes to reflect and write about areas of their life they would like to focus on improving, or what qualities they would like to cultivate. Their heads immediately bowed toward their journals, and after the 5 minutes had passed, they were still writing.
The next exercise was to write about the qualities they appreciated about themselves, and hoped would influence their child. Many of the students sat there, looking around, seemingly uncomfortable, before they finally wrote... this time only for a minute or so.
This experience struck me, because I can relate. Given the chance, I can easily focus on the aspects of myself which I find challenging. When asked to consider my strengths, my gifts... I shy away or give some stock, standard answers which, at this point, have become practically rehearsed.
In my own personal spiritual belief system, our gifts are how the Divine expresses itself through us. I realized I was actually keeping myself quite small by not stepping into my brightness on a more frequent basis. When we dim our light, we perform a major disservice to ourselves, to those whose lives are closely interwoven with ours, and even beyond. Somewhere along the way we began to buy into the belief that keeping ourselves small is an act of humility. In actuality, when we ignore our natural talents and unique qualities, it is almost as if we are ignoring divinity itself. We become separate and lose consciousness of our interconnectedness with one another.
Today I step out of my shadows and into my light. I recognize that by embracing my capacities and abilities, I move more toward my own essence. The ripple effect teaches how I can then be more fully present and powerful for my child, husband, friends, students, and beyond.
When teaching a workshop for new mothers a few years ago, I asked each participant to take 5 minutes to reflect and write about areas of their life they would like to focus on improving, or what qualities they would like to cultivate. Their heads immediately bowed toward their journals, and after the 5 minutes had passed, they were still writing.
The next exercise was to write about the qualities they appreciated about themselves, and hoped would influence their child. Many of the students sat there, looking around, seemingly uncomfortable, before they finally wrote... this time only for a minute or so.
This experience struck me, because I can relate. Given the chance, I can easily focus on the aspects of myself which I find challenging. When asked to consider my strengths, my gifts... I shy away or give some stock, standard answers which, at this point, have become practically rehearsed.
In my own personal spiritual belief system, our gifts are how the Divine expresses itself through us. I realized I was actually keeping myself quite small by not stepping into my brightness on a more frequent basis. When we dim our light, we perform a major disservice to ourselves, to those whose lives are closely interwoven with ours, and even beyond. Somewhere along the way we began to buy into the belief that keeping ourselves small is an act of humility. In actuality, when we ignore our natural talents and unique qualities, it is almost as if we are ignoring divinity itself. We become separate and lose consciousness of our interconnectedness with one another.
Today I step out of my shadows and into my light. I recognize that by embracing my capacities and abilities, I move more toward my own essence. The ripple effect teaches how I can then be more fully present and powerful for my child, husband, friends, students, and beyond.