Morning Reflection: Go Be With You

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Go Be With You.

Who would you most like to spend time with? Whenever I ask that question of someone, I’m usually fascinated by the answer. 

There are so many interesting, inspiring and impressive people in the world today that you could fill every remaining moment of your life in conversation with somebody amazing, and still not have touched the surface.

Yet there’s one person I’ve never heard mentioned.

In the midst of all the famous names, the learned and inspirational, the wealthy and courageous, there’s one person who ALWAYS get missed, and yet who should be the person who gets a significant portion of your time. 

Spending quality time with this individual will yield incredible changes in your life, bringing you closer to happiness and fulfillment than any other conversation could ever do.

I’m sure by now you’ve figured out who I’m talking about, but if not, I’m talking about you.

So many of us avoid ourselves these days. We live in a world full of things that demand our attention, and then we become so uncomfortable being alone with ourselves that we race to fill our time with meaningless distractions. 

Self awareness and self identity are smothered under the never ending pressure to fit in, keep up, be all that you can be, and be just like everybody else.

So much so that we lose a sense of our true selves, and find ourselves living a life that is not authentic to who we really are, resulting in sadness, confusion and a powerful longing for more. 

So today, I’m going to invite you to spend some more time with yourself, but I probably need to clarify what I actually mean by that. 

It doesn’t mean the absence of people around you, because you can be completely separated from people, and yet still completely out of touch with who you are. It doesn’t mean just sitting without distraction, although that’s a great place to start.

Spending time with yourself is really about coming to understand who you really are.

Which is way more difficult that it sounds, because so many of us have been conditioned to ignore our deeper instincts and desires, out of a fear that it’s ‘selfish’ or ‘wrong’, and so we bury them under a cacophony of media, or sensations, or smothering emotions. 

To really get to know who you are, you have to do two things that are becoming harder and harder to do, as we move further and further away from self awareness.

You have to sit quietly, and you have to examine your thoughts and feelings without judgment.

Because if you are constantly judging yourself, you’ll never truly be able to hear the truth of who you are inside. You’ll lie to yourself, and find something else to think about. Once you learn to observe without judgment, and without distraction, you’ll start to understand so much more about you than you ever imagined possible.

Who knows, you may even come to like yourself.

So if you’re ready to begin, just find a quiet place away from everyone, and most importantly, away from distractions. Sit down comfortably, and just try to be peaceful with yourself. 

With nothing to distract you, allow your soul to open itself unto you, revealing it’s innermost thoughts and feelings. With gratitude for yourself, begin to ask the questions you’ve always wanted answered.

And then be willing to hear what you have to say to yourself.

(If you’re interested, I’m thinking of doing an online ‘self awareness workshop’ in a couple of weeks. I don’t have a firm outline yet of what it will be, and space will be pretty limited, but it will be free, so the only thing it will cost you is an hour or so of your time.😀 

Feel free to message me if you’re interested, and we’ll see where it goes from there.)

— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings