Guiding Thought

You know your Self when your share your Self. As you give your Self, you see your Source returned to you. All that is Whole, all that is Beauty, all that is Holy, reflects back to you in the Joy of Being, in the brilliance of Life, in the Unity of Self. Choose now to share only the Self of Beauty, Wholeness, and Joy, that you may Know your Self as Beauty, Wholeness, and Joy.

Reflection

“I am a rock. I am an island. And a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries”. I used to sing this to myself when I was a young teenager, as an affirmation that I didn’t need anyone, that if only I shut myself off from the world I would never be affected or inflicted with pain. This was one of my teenage angst anthems. Clearly, I grew out of it.

I am seeing a continuation of yesterday’s theme: connection, connecting with people in a non-superficial, meaningful way.

Connection has its risks, though, doesn’t it? In order to connect, you have to put yourself out there, open up to people and experiences, maybe even be vulnerable.

But according to the Guiding Thought, sharing yourself isn’t about getting anything back from someone else; it’s not about how they respond to you. It’s all about you. You know your Self when you share your Self. Sharing yourself has everything to do with learning about who you are, and nothing about learning about or connecting “deeply” with someone else.

The fear of vulnerability that you have about connecting with someone else is a fear of connecting with your Self. It’s not a fear of something “out there”, it’s a fear of something “in here”.

Everything is inside you, but you can only experience it when you externalize it–when you bring it out from within.

This happens whether you externalize the fear of vulnerability, or all that is beautiful within you.

Either one takes courage. To dig into yourself and pull something out, then give it away brings up a lot of questions, doubts…until you do it enough that you have answered all your own questions and doubts and all that is left is the sharing, the giving, and the experience.

Choose now to share only the Self of Beauty, Wholeness, and Joy, that you may Know your Self as Beauty, Wholeness, and Joy.