Friday, March 18, 2011

Fear of your gifts

Gifts.  Not the kind you buy in the mall, the ones that you are born with. What are some of your gifts and how do you use them?  Do you feel comfortable telling people about your gifts, or do you keep the most amazing parts of yourself to yourself?

I have this amazing poem in my office by Marianne Williamson that I would like to share with you.
Fear...Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?" Who are you not to be? 
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. You were born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it is in everyone.
As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
 I want to stop shrinking and downplaying what I am capable of, but I've gotten into the people-pleasing habit, so I often find myself hiding my gifts.  I greatly admire those people who have developed their gifts and have found the courage to proudly tell the world what and who they are.  I wonder what it would feel like to say out loud and with complete confidence, I am amazing at ____________.  Maybe it's because we don't always feel great about what we're doing, or maybe we're not using our gifts to our fullest potential, or maybe we're just having "one of those days" and we know in our hearts we're not at our best.  But whatever the reason, I wish we could see each others gifts and just accept them as such.

For me, I have been blessed with a lot of gifts. Some of them you may know about, and some of them you may not. I try to use them all, but the uniqueness of some of my gifts often makes me question myself and then I feel insecure. The fear of rejection and judgment gets in my way most often. My personal goal right now is to find the courage to do what my closest friends are always suggesting:  Stand in my light. Be all that I am and embrace all the wonderful things that make me unique.  I want to... I really do, but by doing so, will I find myself more alone and isolated than I already feel?

Since I always find strength in numbers, I would like to invite you to join me on this path. I would welcome the company, and maybe together we can support and encourage each other to be our amazing selves all the time. Just think how empowered we would feel, and we'd be one step closer to creating a brand new, wonderful, amazing US.  Drop me a note and let me know what your gifts are.  If you show me yours, I'll show you mine...