This has been a strange summer for me. Not like alien-visitation strange, but more "awareness-of-who-I-am" strange. I found some photos that I hadn't seen before, I met new family members, I tried beer from Thailand. It was almost like I was looking at this person I used to be and thought "who was that?" I think people do that in their 30's, reflect a lot on who they are, where they came from and inevitably, they look toward where they are going.
As humans, we tend to compare ourselves to others. And sometimes that comparative analysis can lead us into dangerous waters. The waters where our insecurity and fears become magnified. I have been watching a lot of Mad Men this month and I see it a lot in the 60's. There was this unspoken standard to be "normal" in the 50's and 60's that was ultimately repressive and emotionally shaming. Now (even today) we sometimes compare ourselves to the "norm", the "standard expectations" that seem to satellite around us. But I am finding that those standards don't apply to me, and that feels really freeing.
I have said to many people this summer "99% of how another person treats you is about them and not about you". Well der! But it is one thing to know that and another thing to own it. If we get that negative message in our head and then start a story around it, then all that stuff about it being about them is moot.
So what is my supergirl strength? Well, I vow to fight the stories in my head and be aware of what is definitely NOT about me. Fight the "norm", be YOU and whatever makes you YOU is meant to be.
1 comment:
It's hard isn't it? But I would say we do come from a line of people who are more comfortable with nonconformity (on our dad' side - on my mom's side it is the opposite). Or perhaps its not comfort, but plain old can't stop it.
At some point I realized I am pretty odd, but I couldn't help it. Once I stopped trying to analyze why (which was really just a way for me to try and stop being weird....by thinking about it so much), I am now okay with being me. Most of the time :)
Plus non-conformity is dangerous to the status quo. I like being dangerous. I don' think the status quo in this empire (and world) is very nice. When we stop worrying what others think of us, and instead focus on the truth and educating ourselves.....well its pretty powerful.
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