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Today's
Meditation:
Can
you accept yourself as you are--exactly as you are right
now? Can you consider what other people say you
should be and realize that they truly have no clue as to
what makes you, you? And if they don't know this,
how can they possibly say what you should be? We
grow up being taught that we have to meet other people's
expectations in our actions and our ideals, but who
created those expectations? Do they allow you to be
truly the person you're meant to be?
Other
people's demands come from outside of ourselves, and thus
come from a point of ignorance. Why should I get A's
in math in school when math bores me to tears? Why
should I become a physician just because my father and
grandfather were physicians? Well, my father may
reject me as a person if I don't follow in his footsteps,
right? But if he does, that becomes both of our
problems, and the easy way out is to do what he wants me
to do.
If
I do so, though, I lose any chance of becoming my own
authentic self. I lose the opportunity of exploring
my own paths and learning my own lessons in life.
I
have learned--often in very difficult and painful
ways--that people respond to me much better when I'm being
myself and not trying to be what I think they want me to
be.
I
have learned that if I try to build a relationship that's
based on me being what I think someone wants me to be,
that relationship is doomed to fail.
I
have learned that being myself and doing things as I see
right is an awful lot of fun. Other people may not
understand what I do or why, but when I no longer care
about how others react, that's okay!
(Of
course, I'm not talking about breaking laws or doing
things that hurt others--some expectations that others
have of us are legitimate!)
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