The ability to show up, to face up to it, to believe in it even though we have no guarantee of the result. To face our fears, our doubts, our regrets, our imperfections, our emotions in their complexity, our joys, our inspirations, our dreams. Yes, dreams.
A word that we learn to forget as we grow up. A word we don't allow ourselves to whisper for fear of disappointed hopes. Even to ourselves, we don't admit our biggest dreams, nor the smallest ones for that matter. We keep them quiet. We suppress them. We brush them off with "ah, it's no big deal", "if it happens, so much the better, if not, life is like that". Our survival mechanisms teach us to anticipate failure, pain, fear. No sooner do we feel joyful than we find the need to repeat to ourselves that it is no big deal to prepare ourselves mentally for the possibility that the joy will not last. In this way, we live on the permanent qui vive, without being fully present.
We don't allow ourselves to face ourselves. Why are we surprised to finally see ourselves in our entirety, to face our shadows and lights without veils. Beyond the surprise, there is a real resistance, a defense of our body. "Me? Inspiring? No! This is something I aspire to be but am not". At the same time, we secretly dream of becoming it without ever allowing ourselves to think about it (be careful not to attract bad luck). Accepting our part of light is as difficult, even more so than accepting our shadow parts.
It is easy to insist on what needs to be improved. It is more difficult to congratulate ourselves, to talk about the things we like about ourselves ("what pretension, what arrogance, what lack of humility" whisper the voices in our head). So we hide. We pretend to be less than what we are. We lower our heads. How do we pitch with all our heart, convince others that we are the right people to carry out our projects when we don't fully believe it ourselves? How do we tell our story when we unconsciously minimize it? How can we work towards our dreams when we don't allow ourselves the right to nurture our dreams in the first place? It's time to raise our heads, to face our dreams and to face all the sabotage mechanisms we have developed within ourselves to prevent us from achieving them.
It is time to open up to our own gaze and to invite the gaze of others (feedback) so as to gather all the information available on the people we are in order to work towards reaching our full potential. IT'S TIME.
