Over the last few days I have gradually started to realise the extent of how often I try to be someone or something I am not. The reasons are various: wanting to fit in, wanting to please, thinking that someone else is doing things better than me.
Whenever I am not as I would like myself to be, I will look outside myself for a model to copy.
Today I asked myself, “Why?“ Why do I want to be a copy of someone that is not me? Why do I try to create a copy, instead of feeling inspired to do my own thing, my way?
Could you imagine a famous artist copying a work of art by someone else? Of course they might, and due to experience and talent would be able to create something that would look as near to the original as could be, but it would lack its essence.
There are some artists that follow trends, or try to produce works that will sell well, but if you look at works of art that really have an impact on people over the course of centuries, you will often realise that it is not the perfection that sets them apart, but the unique expression of the artist who created them.
This unique expression is something we all have. It could, for example, be the way we see, do or sense things, the way we dress, how we do the garden, the way we connect with others, the amazing way in which we cook, how we bring people together. These gifts to us all, as a humanity, are endless.
Once we start to express freely, we will see how much of a difference we can make, as others may feel inspired to let go of their walls of protection and suddenly start to show sides that no one was allowed to see before.
When we bring together our different expressions and support each other to bring them, we can truly change the world. We are the only ones who are able to bring them, as no one else can bring them in the way we are able to, and only if everybody brings their piece of unique expression, will the puzzle be complete.
I do not need to copy anyone in anything. Be it to eat what others eat, dress like somebody else or carry out my job in the same way that somebody else would approach it. Not only do I not need to be like someone else, in fact I cannot become someone else. Even if I reach such a goal, I will feel no lasting joy or satisfaction, as it will not be me that I have found.
So, snuggling up under the blanket this morning, enjoying the warmth and the lightness in my body, I could deeply feel how I am fine as I am, just being me, and instead of making plans of what to do, or thinking about what most probably might need to be done, I felt into my body and instantly knew what I would love to do.
In this case this meant not rushing out of bed and getting to my desk to finish some computer work immediately, but instead, first of all, gently getting up, making my bed and preparing myself a cup of tea. I then dressed as I felt to and went for a short walk in the woods and when I sat down at my desk, suddenly the work that had been so challenging and time-consuming the days before was now finished in just more than an hour, because I had sat down with the joy from my walk and worked with focus and ease.
Approaching my day in this way involves much less effort, emotion and potential frustration – if any at all – rather than trying to copy an image of a certain situation or person which I would allow my mind to suggest, as it does not focus on a certain outcome, but starts from an openness.
Whatever I then express from my essence on the “white canvas” in front of me simply unfolds with ease and joy, as this allows and asks me to bring ‘me’ and my inner knowing to it, instead of fervently trying to produce a perfect copy of what I am not.
This simplicity and joy for me is art – the art of being me.
By Michael Kremer, Personal Assistant, Buchholz, Germany
Further Reading:
True Expression – Our Superpower!
Returning to our essence
Changing your life
632 Comments
Each piece of the jigsaw puzzle is as important as every other. When we all know who we truly are the all is complete.
Michael this was a great blog to read because from reading it I realise I have been walking on egg shells. I’m traveling with a work colleague and I haven’t wanted to feel how I am being watched down to the smallest detail now that I have given myself permission to admit this I can let go of the tension I have been holding on to. It’s okay to feel that people react to what I bring to the world as we are so unused to feeling true love in the world that we doubt it can be true. I doubted too, so I know how it feels when you want to believe in true love but don’t want to believe in case it doesn’t last.
The mind wants a picture of how we should be, it takes a lot of effort to meet those expectations to then find our investment comes back dud. Feeling how to be, from our whole body requires no effort at all and can feel really grand.
Thank you Michael, as a blank canvas we are open to energy and when we move in the most loving ways as you have shared the energy we can connect to become sacred to us and we can then live in that sacredness and feel that vibration with the ability to live with a responsibility for everything we do.
I agree Greg, I can feel a quality in my movements and a desire to love myself. This is in complete contrast to how I had been living. I was one of those people that would self-bash in defense of what others might say. Which looking back is a really weird way to live? Thankfully I have put the cudgel down and it is such a relief to do so.
Living who you truly are in your beauty and fullness will inspire another to live likewise.
When I look around me, I see so many people, mainly the younger generation, trying to be someone that they are not, fiercely encouraged by so many outside influences, including the media, the beauty industry and the music industry. How different, and much easier, their lives would be if they realised that they are a unique masterpiece, that there is no one else like them in the world, a world where they absolutely belong just like everyone else, and their uniqueness.
When we connect to being ourselves life flows effortlessly.
The art of being oneself is to breath a gentle breath – god’s breath. Breathe gently and feel oneself from the inside out.
When we meet someone in their essence, expressing who they truly are, and we too are connected in the same way, we cannot help but love them completely.
There is a vast difference between trying to copy someone we admire and being inspired by them to be all that we are.
The key words throughout this blog for me were: essence, expression and unique. Because out of the 7 Billion people in the world although in essence we are all equal our expression and qualities are unique. How wonderfull would it be if we truly and deeply connected to this (our essence and unique expression and quality) and lived from this way appreciating what we and others bring. The world would be a completely different place and comparison and jealousy could live no more.
When you feel your Soul and all its joy and glory, the only person you ever want to be is you.
“This unique expression is something we all have” This is beautiful. We should support each other to appreciate the unique ways in which we express.
Absolutely and what a beautiful way to celebrate each other and let go of the evils of competition and comparison.
“Whenever I am not as I would like myself to be, I will look outside myself for a model to copy.” Michael this is a carbon copy of myself from child to mature woman. It took decades for me to understand that all I had to be was myself.
We are the only ones who can bring our piece of the puzzle – so true but today I can feel it even more deeply from my body.
“This simplicity and joy for me is art – the art of being me.” this I am slowly learning to feel the joy in being me, and sharing the me with others.
We are all chameleons until we actually know ourselves then is possible to be ourselves.
Being not who we are is our greatest pain. For we are naturally so strongly beautiful. Leaving that is therefore a very painful experience.
This brings up for me the protections that I have been holding which have separated me from others and stunted our evolution. It reminds me of when I am absolutely and totally expressing from my essence and how beautiful it feels… what a sense of freedom and power in my body and the beauty I feel as I interact with the world.
Being the real you, you think wouldnt be that hard but in actual fact we have adopted so many ways of being that are not who we are meant to be , we lose sight of our natural Essence. Taking time to stop and reconnect is very important and you instantly feel me more real and grounded.