Forgetting Who You Are For a While.
My guess is that you are a good person. Might I be wrong…sure, but I always approach people as though they are good, and I’m usually right.
Yet when I talk to people, especially helping them through a problem, they can’t help but bring up to me all the reasons why they don’t think that they are a good person. Some people have such a list that you’d be amazed at the things they share.
We seem to have an epidemic of people feeling bad about themselves.
Which is a very sad thing, because it causes people so much heartache and misdirected energy. It makes them accept treatment from others that is detrimental to their mental and sometimes physical health.
It stops them from going for their goals, and settling for a life less than they could live. And sometimes, it causes them to act in ways that are not in keeping with who they really are.
It’s like they’ve forgotten the goodness of their nature for a while.
We all do this occasionally. It’s usually out of fear, or anger (which is just active fear) or sadness (which is just passive fear). When people experience these negative emotional states, it’s easy to act out in ways that aren’t our best.
When things are going great, we often see the best side of people, they person they always wish they could be.
But some people haven’t just forgotten who they are – they’ve never had a clear understanding of it in the first place.
Take a kid who was always told by a parent that they were bad. When we’re young, we don’t have a great filter that says ‘my parent is acting out of fear, and they really don’t mean what they’re saying’.
Instead, we seem to take the voices that they direct towards us gospel truth, and fit our opinion of ourselves around their words, accepting a definition that is probably incorrect.
Since that kid believes they are a bad person, it’s easier to do bad things.
So if I were to ask you about you, what would you tell me? If we’re sitting quietly, just you and me around a campfire, what ‘truths’ would you share from your heart?
Would you tell me the honest truth of your soul that you’re too afraid to believe – the one where you’re actually a wonderful person who occasionally forgets that, or would you try to convince me that you are somehow bad, wrong and unworthy?
Only you know what you would say, but I wonder if it would be the truth, rather than what you believe?
Because so many people have forgotten, or never understood, the goodness of their souls. My belief, and it’s a pretty strong belief at that, is that if you are reading this work, if my writings resonate with your soul, then you are a good person.
Imperfect – definitely. Struggling – probably. Trying – more than likely.
Just like all of us.
Today I want you to recognize and accept the goodness of your nature. Forget the things that others may have told you, and release from yourself the deepest darkest lies that you hold on to. It’s been said that we are more afraid of our light than our darkness, and so we often choose to smother that light under a blanket of lies, desperately trying to keep the truths of our souls undercover, undeclared, unknown and unexpressed.
Please, don’t do that anymore.
This world needs you, more than ever. We need the peacemakers. We need the carers. We need the honest in heart who are ready to stand and declare that we are better than we have been described, and we need those who can be a light unto others, giving them hope in the darkness.
Today, please make a play for peace in this world.
And start by remembering who you really are.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings