What You Believe is What You Will See!

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 most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, 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 will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. - Marianne Williamson

If we can lay aside the debate as to the source of the above quotation and just consider the content what do we have here?

Well it certainly goes against the grain of the group mind that creates the dogmatically diminutive and overtly polite Canadian persona that is often used as a measure of just how "not-American" (as in from the U.S.A.) "we" are.

As I journey and consider the quality of humility as it pertains to my way of being in the world, it seems to me to paint a picture of one that stands fully in all that they were created to be - what we have then, is a radically different representation of true humility.

I suppose it's a potentially slippery slope to try and expand upon the quality of humility without crossing the line into ego-aggrandizement, or at least being accused of doing so. That in itself might be the very barrier to ones full expression of themselves- "others will think poorly of me." If this were to be the criteria used to decide when one could stand in authenticity, when exactly would you ever be "free" to do so? I think the short answer is - Never!

Truly there is nothing "enlightened" about playing small for the purpose of care taking the feelings of others. If everyone is wandering around in this group consciousness of competitive self-abasement  i.e. "oh no it was nothing," "no really it wasn't that good - I should have done much better," "I'm nothing compared to...." "I could not even hope to carry his/her baggage" this is not "humility." This is more likely the flip-side of an ego that sees it necessary to over-inflate the self, in order to mask deep wounds, feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, by seeking love and attention from outside the self to compensate for a lack of love from within, by drawing support from others through self-criticism. From this mind-set it can be difficult even to accept love no matter where it is coming from. Attempts to express love to individuals such as this, are met with various forms of deflection leaving the giver perhaps feeling slighted and the receiver continuing to feel empty.

What then would a healthy love and appreciation of self look like? Well to begin with I'm not talking about being boastful. The problem is there is many a paradigm existing that would cast dispersion on the self-loving individual. It is not widely encouraged to be overly "self-concerned" and yet if I'm not concerned for myself - who is going take that on? And while it has been said "pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." There will be no need to concern yourself about falling if you never allow yourself to get up, let alone fly. To one entrenched and well-schooled in selflessness as a virtue and "not blowing ones own horn" someone that is confidently and fully standing in their power and freely self-expressed, might be said to be "arrogant." Scripture such as the previous have been twisted and subject to some of the same treatment as some mainstream theology that suggest that "we" are certainly not worthy of God's praise - so what would make you think you should hold yourself in high esteem? A life of suffering is presented as "our" comeuppance for the presumed sinful nature of humanity. Still from this frame of reference it is suggested if you "give until it hurts"that somehow there is a reward, in so doing.

So then to "devalue" oneself is not at all bestowing that which is rightly due. It's easy to see that if you have a congregation full of people and that at their core, they feel poorly about themselves, they as a group, would be easily controlled and manipulated. This of course has nothing to do with a loving universe or a Creator synonymous with love, which of course many of these "mainstream" theologies aren't preaching. However if you consider a paradigm which insists that you are loved unconditionally, in fact the truth of your being is that you are love - that you are worthy of love, deserving of love, equal to (not less than) any other human being, that creation/the creator itself, loves you then who are you to be running around playing small, limiting yourself in thought and deed. It would be rather lacking in humility to take such a stance.

I'm not going to go into the myriad ways in which one might begin to walk a path which would begin to de-robe them of familial, societal, cultural etc. varieties of limited thinking and erroneous beliefs. I am suggesting that a consciousness built around unconditional love would involve a vision of win/win. There would be no need to play the martyr (not that there is one now) but the martyr archetype is certainly widely embraced. There's not anything particularly loving about it, if one party or group is diminished so drastically in order for the other to benefit. I would hazard to say - one cannot make a "big splash" by making themselves perpetually small. It also might just be, that though again, I'm not talking about being seen for the sake of being seen, just the same, if one is trying to reach and inspire others then you must be seen, heard and putting it out there!