We have been carefully trained to be "normal".
Most of us have been raised and socialized by our well-meaning parents to behave like everyone else (normally) rather than as our full and complete selves (naturally). Our parents wanted us to fit into our respective societies. The way they did that was to reach back into their history, remember the things that hurt them, and try to shield us from those things. They told us what to be afraid of: strangers, being different, the opinions of our peers and culture, breaking the law (no matter how ridiculous the law was) and God.
There were all kinds of ways to behave that were "proper", and all kinds of ways to behave that were "improper", or just plain bad.
What all this training and these instructions did to us was leave us little room to experiment and play with life. Living this way, with so much tension and doubt, not to mention the necessity of hiding important parts of ourselves from one another, is like walking on the edge of a cliff: one false step and over we go, falling to our doom.
What most of our parents neglected to do was to encourage us to fall in love with life, and to fall in love with ourselves.
How could they? For the most part, they weren't taught to do that, either. They were taught that life was hard and dangerous, and that falling in love with yourself was conceited, egocentric, and selfish.
This approach ultimately caused us to loose touch with our true nature. Normal behaviour often clashes with what is natural to us, yet we've been taught that "normal" keeps us safe. "Natural" is dangerous.
As frequent readers know, what I've been pondering lately is the "fitness" of ourselves to live the life we're living. My conclusions have been that we ARE completely able to successfully and happily negotite the life we find ourselves in, but only if we learn to behave naturally. How do we return to our natural selves, full of the joy of life and happy with who we are?
First step is to try, just one day, to only do what pleases you. This, amazingly enough, is really hard, but it's important to try it. You have to coax your natural self out of hiding, and doing this will help.
You won't trust it at first, it will feel selfish and wrong, but persevere! As you allow yourselves just one day of following your joy, perhaps you'll notice a stirring, a release of tension, a feeling of aliveness and wholeness, as a being wakes up within you eager for life. When this happens, you're on the way to recognizing your true purpose, for your feet are on a path that resonates with your heart.
We really need to begin to prioritize our happiness over anything else. Why? Because this is the way we learn what we value, and when we know that, we begin to know who we really are.
If we don't know who we are, we can't give of ourselves to anyone else. We truly have nothing of value to offer, no matter how much money we stuff in the poor box, if we don't know or recognize our true selves.
When our natural selves emerge, rescued from the prison of "normal life" we start to appreciate our value. We learn that our unique richness of experience, satisfaction and fulfillment are our gifts to the world.
Having satisfied our own long-unmet need for personal, natural, authenticity, we're happy to give. More importantly, we start to fully understand our true connection with life, and realize that giving to others is the same as giving to ourselves. We therefore WANT others to be as happy as we are.
We are, right at this moment, on our way to creating a heaven on earth, one enjoyable moment at a time; a world full of contented, satisfied people, happy with themselves and with each other.
And it all starts with you enjoying just one day.
Enjoy your day! It's important that you do.
Love, Kristine
Finding Method in the Madness:
