When we were children there was no question that we were magical beings. We knew it, we felt it, we breathed it and believed it and acted accordingly. We saw miracles and we made miracles and we believed that anything was possible! We inhabited this magical land called possibility, that most fertile ground where everything is possible. We soared through life, knowing that we had no limits. Somewhere in our development, maybe due to trauma or attrition, we “came to our senses’ ‘. God help us. What that really means is that we reached a threshold; we were inundated with lies and we became so programmed with nonsense from parents and society that we gave up our true selves. We forgot who we really are! The lion became the lamb.
This time is, by far, the most self-confronting in modern history. All of our distractions are gone. There is no social scene to identify with. Everything that we’ve used to hide ourselves, all of our veils and deceptions and illusions are gone. what is left is us staring at us. We are confronted with everything we don’t like within ourselves, every little bit of our inauthenticity. There is no space to avoid ourselves now. We are naked before ourselves.
What exactly are we seeing? On first gaze, we see the landscape of our emotions; our sadness and our disappointment. We see the mountains of our failures and the barren wasteland of lost opportunities. We are scathing in our judgement of ourselves, our looks, our accomplishments. We are filled with regret and remorse, but, are we seeing accurately? This can’t be the whole picture, can it?
There is another “self”, buried by our beliefs and judgments. This “self” is pristine, untouched by loss and sadness. This “self” is pure joy and passion, an ever renewing optimistic visionary. This is the truth of who we are authentically. And, acknowledging this, we have a choice. Which ‘you’ are you going to choose? Are you going to choose the you that is ruled by your limiting beliefs, or are you going to choose this authentic self? The choice couldn’t be more dramatic. We are being given an opportunity to hit the reset button. We can either choose the old, tired self, or the miracle worker, the sleeping genius within. It is so easy to forget that we have magic and that we can create the life we want. The problem is just that: we’ve forgotten who we are. We’ve been buried by negativity and old beliefs that have convinced us that we are someone very different than our true selves.
Periodically, there are cataclysmic events that rip the veneer of routine from our lives, leaving us exposed to startling truth and revelation. Imagine stepping in front of the mirror and only seeing the absolute best version of you. Look closer. When you look in the eyes of this true self, you see confidence and optimism. You are looking at a winner, a powerhouse. This person can accomplish anything he or she chooses. Take in the strength and the resolve that you see. This “you” is filled with energy and determination, with resolve and excitement about life. It is the “you” that first showed up on this plane; the “you” that is up for a challenge. It is the “you” that sees the magic in life and feels fully deserving and entitled to having it all.
Let yourself feel that relaxed readiness and absolute confidence that is your true nature. Let yourself enjoy this wonderful version of you. Make a list of all of those qualities that you see. Add to it everything positive that anyone has ever said to you or about you. Read this list every day for a month. Refer to this list throughout the day.
The distance between who we are and who we want to be is in our internal dialogue. How we speak to ourselves dictates the experience that we have of ourselves. In order to reset our experience of ourselves, we need to deliberately and consciously change that dialogue. This list is the tool you need to do so.
You can limp through life, settling for the version of yourself that you and others’ have convinced you of, feeling despair and lack of possibility, or you can do the work to change. Reading your list every day is the “call of the wild”, waking up the true you, the lion, the powerhouse within. Without doing the work you will live in a smaller and smaller world; with it, you regain your magic, your sovereignty and your birthright.
