true self | Self-Help Books

This is the image of a painter with their palette of beautiful an colorful oil paints

Each one of us creates our personal reality through our perceptions.

Perception is how we interpret our environment through physical sensation. Whether we are conscious of it or not, our perceptions determine the way in which we see and experience absolutely everything in our lives. One way to understand our individual perceptions is to imagine that we are all born with our own personal paint brushes and a palette with an infinite array of colors. Our lives are the neutral canvas on which each of us paints our own individual pictures, depending on how we perceive our experiences.

The greatest divine gift given to humanity is free will

to choose our personal perceptions.

Will is defined by Webster as follows: to determine by an act of choice; the mental powers manifested as wishing, choosing, desiring, or intending. When we are aware that we can choose our perceptions, we empower ourselves to live consciously and, through our thoughts and imagination, we can choose how we want to perceive our experiences.

Each of us is an artist painting our own personal reality

through our unique perceptions.

We tend to label only certain types of people as “being creative,” such as dancers, artists, singers, sculptors, and chefs. The truth is that each one of us is an artist painting our own personal reality with the brush of every thought we have.

While we may all be looking at the same scenery, each person’s picture is different because we all sense life in a unique and individual way. One person’s picture may be delicate brushes with a few objects of pastel colors, another a very busy picture in broad strokes of vivid colors, yet another in all different shades of the same color with no objects at all. Two world-renowned artists demonstrate this contrast of world view beautifully. Picasso expressed his feelings through dramatic and bold art using seemingly random strokes of deep, vibrant colors. Monet’s art was a gentle expression of nature through pastel colors using delicate, intricate strokes.

This is why we can all experience the same thing, yet have entirely different responses. It also explains why ten people can interpret the same situation in ten different ways, each one thinking that he or she is “right.” It does not matter how anyone else sees the scenery, the individual pictures of how we perceive situations with our minds are what is real for each one of us.

Understanding that everyone has an entirely different way of perceiving their life experiences helps us to embrace another person’s point of view without judgment. It also helps us to appreciate the infinite number of ways in which each one of us expresses our feelings and views of life. Through our acceptance of the differences within each other, we honor the gift each one of us brings through the genuine expression of our true self.

You can read more about how we create our own reality through our perceptions on page 36, The Power of Oneness. Live The Life You Choose.

What are some ways in which you express your creative nature?

Love and Light,

Sandra

This is an image of a bright blue sky with beautiful clouds with the the word Courage written into the clouds

Ironically, one of the greatest fears we humans have is that we will be vulnerable if we express our true self to the world. In an attempt to “protect” ourselves, we many times project emotions which we do not authentically feel, display behaviors which are designed to please others, and say things we don’t really mean.

Why do we do this?

We live in a society in which we are conditioned to focus primarily on outer stimulation. From earliest childhood, many of us were taught by well-intentioned parents, teachers, and caregivers to define ourselves by what other people think of us. Seeking the approval of others quickly became the major motivation for most of our behavior patterns, starting very early in the lives of many of us. As a result, we may have developed a belief system that our self-worth is determined by the opinions of others rather than learning to develop our own sense of self-esteem based on inner values. Unless we became aware of this perception and chose to change it, we most likely continued to perpetuate this belief into adulthood.

Why does this cause pain in our lives?

One of the tenets of the Universal Law of Manifestation is that we attract what we project. Accordingly, if we do not project our authentic selves, we will not attract responses from other people that align with who we truly are. For example, most of us have been in numerous life situations where we have knocked ourselves out trying to please someone by being the selfless mother, father, spouse, sibling, or friend. We emotionally gave and gave until eventually we felt depleted. We were desperately seeking approval for our heroic deeds. When we did not get back what we considered an appropriate response, we felt totally unappreciated and, perhaps, even rejected. This seemingly selfless approach is far from selfless because it cultivates an environment where everyone is looking to everyone else to feel regenerated.

Does it take courage to express our true self?

Of course it takes courage to live an authentic life in which we are projecting our honest self, rather than hiding behind layers of veneers that we have designed to deflect the hurtful thoughts and actions of others. It is important to remember that “courage” (root word cuer, meaning heart) does not mean the absence of fear; indeed, we all have fears. Having courage means that we make a conscious choice to live from the heart by choosing thoughts, words, and actions that are aligned with our spiritual values of kindness, cooperation, and respect for self and others. Interestingly, when we are being who we truly are, we are actually able to detach from needing approval from everyone else because there is an inner peace and sense of confidence that comes from living in integrity.

The only real “safety” any of us has in life is the security of being our authentic selves. Every single one of us is amazingly special. NO ONE ELSE CAN BE YOU! No other human being has your particular personality, your one-of-a-kind brain, your special body, and your extraordinary soul. YOUR UNIQUENESS is a contribution to all of humanity.

When you express your TRUE SELF to the world, you are sharing the physical expression of the Love and Light of your soul. What could be more “safe?”

Love and Light,

Sandra

Tag Archives: true self

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