rad·i·cal
1 : of, relating to, or proceeding from a rootself–aware·ness
: an awareness of one’s own personality or individuality~Merriam-Webster
I challenge us all to dig a little deeper and drop a few layers of our ego’s perspective. Instead of just feeling the way we do and justifying it with outside sources we can come back, again and again, to explore what is the the root of our emotions and relationship with our identity. Why do we hold the beliefs or opinions we hold? And to that answer we again ask why?
“Know Thyself”
~Plato
It’s not always easy to look at yourself in the mirror and mirrors are all around us. Our children mirror some of our least attractive habits and traits. People who annoy us the most are often mirroring our own destructive thought patterns, insecurities or fears. Our homes can mirror our focus, our friends our comfort zones and our perceived competitors will always mirror our deepest insecurities and jealousies.
Returning to the mirror and acknowledging the part we play in our own lives and in our own dramas is the definition of honesty. When someone hurts us we can spend days, weeks, or even lifetimes playing the blame game, but the moment we turn it around and ask ourselves why we are upset and why did that comment/action hurt– we begin to practice radical self-awareness.
The moment we begin to love ourselves in the presence of our authentic self the healing begins and self-acceptance takes root. Our best self, along with our unique talents and potential begins to surface effortlessly. Someone may still take a jab at us and the world can still be cruel, but we don’t take it personally. In fact, we barely notice it because we are so immersed in the whole and healthy experience of our lives. Our first reaction might even be deep compassion for someone who lashes out with an intent to hurt, because we acknowledge it has little to do with us and more to do with their own self-wounds and self-hate.
A challenging practice to master, but worthwhile as we open ourselves to an infinite lifetime supply of self-love, self-acceptance and radical self-awareness. This practice is such an amazing gift to model for our children and a transformative life experience for us as well.
I’ve been asking myself some hard questions this past week. This has been my own lesson and reminder as I realized I was blaming everything else on my unhappiness: the pregnancy, my enthusiastic children, my too small house, a new business, a tight wallet…..the list goes on. My yoga teacher’s suggestion to spend the week contemplating Radical Self-Awareness helped switch my perspective and, almost as if someone had flipped a light switch, my life became easier and my path clearer.
I had sworn I would never show those pictures above. At the time I was very self-critical, but sharing them started to feel important as I pondered this post. I accept who I was when I took those pictures, who I was when I yelled at my children, and who I am today as I do my best view myself through a clear lens. I am not perfect, but yet in that realization I am gifted with the awareness of my own perfection.
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What an excellent practice! It is not easy to truly love ourselves. It’s HARD. I’m not so sure that I’m good at it, but I’m trying. Reading your thoughts, here, is helping. So thank you for that!
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