How do you even know what your name is?

How do you see your SELF? When you look at yourself, what do you see?

Do you realize that what you see when you look at yourself is most likely to be a story that you were told over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over… you get my point right…?

How do you even know what your name is?

Your name was repeated to you from all around you SO many thousands of times, that you started BELIEVING that THIS is who you are. And if you so easily formed a belief about your name, how would you know if anything that you believe about yourself is true and not just a story you were taught? After all, if a different name was repeated around you, you would have a completely different belief about who you are wouldn’t you?

You have to understand that how you were taught to see yourself, was a reflection of the beliefs of the people around you, and not a representation of actual truth. I recently watched a 5 year old boy draw a picture and show it to his mother who – with all the good intention in the world – proceeded to point out to him everything that was wrong with what he had drawn. 

This happens innocently in another hundred other ways every day for about two decades of his life. Is it any wonder that this little boy grows up to have a deep unspoken belief that “everything about me is wrong.”

You will NEVER rise above the view that you have of your SELF. If you don’t upgrade the way you see yourself, nothing changes. But know this… when you change the way you see yourself, everything changes.

“Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly and wants to rip to shreds all your erroneous notions of the truth that make you fight within yourself, dear one, and with others, causing the world to weep on too many fine days… The Beloved sometimes wants to do us a great favor: Hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.” – Hafez

“Remember for just one minute of the day, it would be best to try looking upon yourself more as God does, for She knows your true royal nature.” – Hafez

“I wish I could show you… the astonishing light of your own being.” – Hafez

The view that you have of yourself was imprinted on you by a collection of people who were reacting – in their turn – from the way they were raised. How you were taught to see yourself had very little to do with “truth” and was much more based on the beliefs and fears of the people around you.

“I wish that I could show you the astonishing light of your own being…” what if these were the words repeated to you as you grew up? What if all the best parts of you were pointed out to you thousands of times during your formative years? Would you see yourself differently today? 

I promise that it’s not too late to change the story. In each of our journeys we are given the grace to realize that how we were shaped as children was not within our control, but how we continue to be shaped as adults is a divine responsibility that we can choose to sign up for, or ignore. You can choose to become the loving parent of that inner child. You can choose to change how that child is spoken to now. You can decide to start speaking to yourself differently. 

Your “work” is to decide whether you accept the old view of yourself that was handed to you. And if the answer is NO, then the responsibility is yours to do the upgrades needed.

When you change the way you see yourself, everything changes. 

A few thoughts to affirm your light:

  • “I am more than the stories I have been told.”
  • “I am capable of more than I think I am.”
  • “I am worthy of love, respect, and fulfillment.”
  • “I choose to believe in myself.”
  • “I am my own source of light.”

Today’s meditation is an opportunity to create an updated view of how you see yourself. Become open to recognizing the astonishing light of your being!

– pierre –

Today’s LIVE meditation is: A sense of self.