Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside, awakens. -Carl Jung

When I think about the word truth, the first image that comes to my mind is a child. Children are beautiful examples of truth because they feel free to be exactly who they are. They express their emotions in the moment that they are feeling them and they naturally let them go. They ask for what they desire because they know this universe is abundant and that it is perfectly acceptable to have desires. Their curiosity and excitement about life shines through and they are comfortable just being who they naturally are. Truth is our natural state of being. It is who we are when we are embracing and acknowledging all facets of ourselves. It is knowing that we are all things, good and bad, happy and sad, strong and weak, courageous and fearful etc. Truth is willing to always be curious about ourselves with the knowing that we are continuously growing, evolving and changing. Truth is being completely accepting of what we are experiencing in however way these experiences may show up. It is both knowing and being committed to our deepest desires and not settling for anything less than what we know feels right regardless of what it requires from us.

So how do we disconnect from our truth? As we engage with life, we often decide to put down our truth and pick up the truth of what we are observing and witnessing from the world around us. We decide that everyone and everything outside of ourselves is more valuable than the truth of what is residing right inside of us. To put it simply, we stop listening, acknowledging and believing in ourselves.

Instead, we believe in countless messages that sound like

Don’t stand out too much
You are not trying hard enough
That isn’t good for you
That’s too good for you
You can’t have that
You are too loud
You are too quiet
You are going to get yourself in trouble
You should do that
You shouldn’t do that
That’s too risky
You’re a bad girl/boy
You’re a good girl/boy
You will fail
That won’t work
You must do this
Life is a struggle

And the messages go on and on. Regardless of the specific message that we choose to believe in, they can all be summed up into 3 universal fears that in some way affect us all.

“We are not valuable, worthy or significant”
“We are not loved or lovable”
“We are alone and disconnected.”

These fears get buried so deep in our subconscious that we couldn’t possibly think that we hold on to these beliefs. But we do. On some level, we are all experiencing these universal limited ways of thinking. And the more we decide to acknowledge this, the more we begin to remember who we really are and what our heart is calling forth in us.

Carl Jung says, “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.”

I say it’s time to stop avoiding, denying and resisting our greatness. I believe on some level though, we all know that in order to honor our uniqueness and our greatness, we must also be courageous enough to honor our vulnerabilities and our imperfections. We can’t have one without the other. But really, what is worse? We either face all of who we are and shine bright and live our dreams or avoid who we really are and allow our souls to die a slow death? We aren’t here to live in fear. We are here to live fully in spite of our fear. We are here to fully participate in the magic that life offers when we have the willingness to remain true to ourselves. It’s our job. It’s our responsibility. It’s a privilege.