If you have never taken the chance to read a "This I believe" article, take the time now to do so. Here is just a sneak peak of what lies within the article:
Journalist Lucy Freeman covered mental health and social welfare subjects for The New York Times in the late 1940s. Her first book, Fight Against Fears, detailed her own psychoanalytic treatment for social fears and insomnia. Freeman's experiences in counseling led her to believe that we must accept ourselves before we can truly give and receive love.
"In order to change, I needed help in facing myself. For me, it was not easy to 'know thyself.' All my life I had accepted the lesser of the two evils and run away from self, because truth was more dangerous. Once I thought that to survive, I had to put on a mask and forget what lay underneath. But masks are false protections, and the inner part of me refused to go unheard forever. It caught up eventually, and unless it was to master me, I had to face such feelings as fear, anger, envy, hatred, jealousy, and excessive need for attention. When I realized I could not have done anything else except what I did, I was able to like myself more and be able to like others, not for what they could give me but for what I could give to them."
Read the rest at: http://thisibelieve.org/essay/16560/
I want to write my own "This I believe", but I am not sure where I would start. I would talk about sitting on a mediation rock in the middle of Princeton campus, with a good friend, and letting our walls down. I would talk about sitting in a car and watching a heat lightening storm from the top of a building. I would talk about the real conversations that cut the most and make us grow because we trust what our companions are telling us. I would talk about the power of the holy spirit working through my life. I would talk about taking one step at a time in order to find who I am. I would talk about how jealousy over takes me at certain times and how I have tried to over come that which enslaves me. I would talk about a broken heart that needs healing, and through how being in nature I have given my heart over to my creator, and how I thank my father, God, and my mother, Mother Nature, everyday for giving me exactly what I need in order to survive. I believe in getting back to the basics. I believe that people are good at heart and that society jades us. I believe that there is hope for the future and that with my tangible hand, I will hold high standards for not only my family, friends, and students, but that we will make this world an amazing learning community.
What masks are you wearing? How can you work on lifting those masks? What do you believe in?
Wow I love this post and that article.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I totally agree with the mature love Freeman talks about. I see it in my parents and I feel it towards them, my grandparents, and my little brothers. Thinking about them lights me up and I want to give them what I can to see them happy, without the thought of getting anything in return. I really love this relationship I have with them. It's a hard one to build...
Based on this article I really find myself identifying with Lucy Freeman. Not feeling comfortable being myself, social anxiety, uneasy stomach, trouble sleeping, persistent nausea, all without any real medical issue. I even went through the 'mask' phase. At the time I thought it was an awesome solution- put on an extrovert mask and act my way through social situations. But the physical symptoms never went away...
Somewhere between then and now I think I found my own solution- being completely transparent, letting out everything that's on my mind. I'm still working on it though, changing over ten years of introvertedness takes a while!
But I think everyone is on this spectrum somewhere... some farther along than others.
There's so much more I want to say and ask but typing just wouldn't do it justice. Next time we hang out we'll discuss this! This is great campfire material!
Yes, Faisal, it is great camp fire material! :) I know and agree with you that getting to know yourself and being comfortable with yourself is one of the hardest tasks that we can accomplish, and even if we give it our all, it takes time. I have recently heard that our greatest enemy is ourselves. At first that was hard to swallow, but it is true. I think it is important to realize that everyone is walking this journey, because sometimes we just don't know, because of the masks that they are wearing. I can't wait to discuss in more detail! Power to the peaceful my friend.
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