We Need You.

The word "alone" comes from the words all one. The word "together" originated from to gather. And "to gather" is a verb, an action and movement forward. Both words, alone and together remind us that  everything we do, every thought, emotion, sentence and action moves out into the world and affects it.

Expectation

I like being alone. I like processing my thoughts, feelings and emotions on my own. I don't mind inviting in a trained professional now and then but the majority of my "aha" moments used to happen when I was by myself. And then I would happily share the pre-thought and well-reasoned moments with others.

I think in a lot of ways I believed that dealing with my inner world on my own meant I could prevent myself from hurting others and possibly getting hurt myself. I think I believed that working things out on my own didn't really affect anyone besides me.

Bravery

Our inner worlds make us as different as we are similar - did that make sense? The fact that our inner worlds are so different is in some ways what makes us so similar. The fact that EVERYONE keeps some things to themselves because they feel too vulnerable, makes us similar.

Examining our inner world, our patterns, our emotions and our deepest and darkest thoughts, is not for the faint of heart - huh, another thing we have in common. The trouble is, we are all at different places with what we are comfortable with when it comes to these precious parts of us. But what if ... even this is something that makes us so different, we are similar.

Do you see where we're going here?

Our struggle with ourselves is a major similarity. The trouble is our fear of admitting our struggle with ourselves: enter bravery. Sure, our culture is great at joking about being sub-par, but let's be honest, that's just a way to divert our attention away from the real struggle, it's comic relief, it's a way to lighten the mood and to in so many ways, bond with others who know there is a deeper, darker struggle underneath.

Self-awareness is bravery itself. It's looking directly at the pieces we like and don't like with equal compassion and saying, "that's me."

Self-awareness doesn't exist in a vacuum. When we examine our inner world, we affect everything around us. We begin to see situations and people differently and we start to see how similar this struggle is to figure out how to be human.

Action

The word "action" in this section is going to feel upside-down. There is no real action required and for some of you, what's required is LESS action. Every new pattern starts with an acceptance of what is before new movement can occur. Self-awareness is no different.

Your action is to see yourself, even for a moment, as completely human; no judgement, no criticism, just observation. We need YOU. We need you exactly as you are, affecting the world. In fact, you are one of the most important parts! We NEED you!

Deal with your thoughts and feelings alone or with others ... in fact, do both, because we will all be affected by what you discover.

So take the pressure off of what is the right action and movement forward and start realizing that EVERYTHING you do affects the whole and we need you to be complete.