I was thinking about the shadow exercise from the other day (Curve Ball), and it occurred to me it goes the other way too. You could just as easily pick a person you love and write down all the reasons why they are so fabulous. Write about all the beautiful things they do and say, all the positive qualities they embody and then cross their name off the top and put your own. Projection works both ways, as savior and destroyer.
So think about a person you really admire. Write down every detail of the breathtaking beauty of their soul and know that is you too! We project out what we both love and hate about ourselves onto others. Sometimes I think it’s easier to see what’s wrong. As long as we’re wrong or have to fix something we stay small and cramped. Don’t be fooled, it’s much harder to see our own beauty.
Can we be brave enough to give ourselves some credit? Can we see the intrinsic beauty in who we are and what we do? Can we see where we are getting it right? I think we all need a big YES in our lives. Something to shake us up and shake us loose. Something that lets us take ourselves less seriously, that lets us remember life can be fun, light, and beautiful.
To give ourselves the gift of loving who we truly are has real value. Just as we are in this moment. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just right for who we are right now. We don’t need to rearrange or reorganize anything in our lives. We are perfect in our current imperfections.
New life rises from the ashes, forests need to burn in order to regenerate. But we don’t have to burn our life down every single minute. There is joy in the moment even if things are not exactly the way we would like them. It’s our job to find the beauty in all the chaos. It’s a gift to accept ourselves and our lives as they are now, in this moment. Jungians call it taking the projections back. All the idealizing of others and their lives is really you seeing the beauty of your own soul projected onto another. Now that is something worth taking back.
What will it take to let you love and admire yourself for who you are right now, in this moment? Nothing to fix, do, or become. Are you brave enough?
The warts are easy to find. Here’s to mining the jewels.
kb
