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.
When we finally come to understand, and own, that we are our own magnificent masterpiece we can start to throw away the ‘paints’ we have used for so long in the futile attempts to copy another. How liberating it is to know you are a unique being but then to begin to live this uniqueness is potentially life-changing.
We are in essence all the same, yet in expression all unique. When you take it back to this truth how can there be separation, conflict and everything else we do not truly want in this world when actually being all one is so so gorgeous?
Our essence is what gives life to who we are, our body and true purpose of being here. With our connection to our essence, our Soul, we bring to life the vibrancy and the vibration of all that is true and real, and there is nothing more inspirational than feeling the brilliance of another shining the love that we all are in essence.
Trying to make ourselves someone or something that we are not is to not know who you are.
It’s so gorgeous when we allow ourselves to be absolutely true to how we are feeling. We can’t help but enjoy ourselves and feel the preciousness that we are.
We are so used to living a way that is acceptable, ‘normal’ and human – or so it seems – but it is not true. The real us is beyond all of this. It’s not something we can own but a quality of flow of the universe we can let through. Thank you Michael how this goes for you.
There is no one on earth quite like you. We all know that, but through whatever reason attempt to join those around us by being like them. The world needs each and every one of us to live the true person we are.
So true Heather and each and every one of us an absolute gift with what we can bring through and reflect when we allow ourselves to be who we innately are.
The world needs each and every one of us to live the true person we are. Beautifully expressed Heather.
It is great to expose and sit with this – the fact that we can avoid being ourselves and then we get to the point where people don’t know who the true us is. It has come up for me in the past and still, there are times when I behave in a way that is not me because it plays into what the other person likes. A huge falsity to crack.
Copying someone, not trusting in the flow of unfolding no matter of yourself or another is simply control and nothing that is from true service.
What a beautiful blog, Michael! There is no grander beauty in someone, than being themselves. Just by letting out the essence and qualities that they are and bring this to the world. It is simple as that. Comparison will never set us free from living our true purpose in life.
No, comparison just puts us in a box of our own making and choosing. We all lose out when that is what dominates someones life.
We are already everything so, to be given a task we have everything to complete it.
Letting go of our layers of protection and allowing our true self to come out and shine makes so much sense.
Even just the picture at the top – ‘The Art of being me’…. creative, fluid and full of humour beautifully framed in whatever way we choose.
Giving ourselves permission to shine and be our amazing selves makes so much sense.
Thank you Michael, this is a great blog for me to come back to. I still find it comes up for me to be like another. In life as it is particularly with celebrities, pop stars, sports icons and other so called role models there is a general consensus that we then want to be like them. Until I met Serge Benhayon I had never met anyone who was a role model who actually said “be yourself”. Even how products and fashion are advertised is to sell an image of what you can become, so much is appealing to a sense of emptiness or a lack of self worth and a lack of knowing and appreciating who we are. Most of the images we are sold of people and products are there to offer a false sense of self, another carbon copy of something. There is a lot on offer to become someone else.
I am learning to settle much more into myself and allow myself to work out what I truly love in life. I recently have been appreciating more freedom and flow in my body and was purchasing clothes recently and could feel the change in me, in how I held my body and the type of clothes that I like to wear, it has been great fun to learn to open up and play with this more.
“..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.”
The uniqueness of expression is available to all of us, it is just our choice to live it or not,thank you Michael for sharing your uniqueness.
How sad it is that the majority of humanity have not been raised to know who we truly are, and that is one very amazing and unique being. But it is never too late to claim our amazingness and begin to live life in total connection to our divine essence; it is definitely a much easier way to live than the way most of us chose.
I love that you sat down at your desk with the joy from your walk so that when you then went to do your work it was with an ease rather then a heavy tension.
Amazing the simple things we can do for ourselves which can transform our whole day.
Uncovering the masterpiece that we truly are is a painstaking process that is well worth the time and effort.
To simply be oneself is the greater gift and far less exhausting when no longer at the mercy of the external world,
I love this blog Michael, I love that you gave yourself permission to be yourself and I love that you shared this with us as there is something incredibly empowering in your words . Thank you.
Giving ourselves space allows room for being us… otherwise in the rush and doing of life, what versions of ourselves is the world getting?
For me, what makes this world of ours so very wonderful is the uniqueness of each one of us, but sadly many spend so much time trying to be something/someone that they are not and as a result their uniqueness gets layered over with unauthentic copies of others. Not accepting the original copy that we are is so very natural whereas in stark contrast trying to be someone that we are not re-configures us in such a way that our body and our life is affected in many deleterious ways.
How lovely to take the time, to refresh the quality of our relationship with oneself to the point of being ourselves in our true essence.
“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.” So true Michael. When we do express it gives others permission to do so too.
Mastering the art of being ourselves allows us each and every one of us to be a masterpiece in the jigsaw of human life.
Gorgeous blog to read and a beautiful reminder that all we are ever asked is just to be ourselves in this world, and when we allow ourselves to be seen in all our tenderness and vulnerability, we open ourselves to receive everything we ever need to walk this life journey. And it offers all others a reflection and invitation to be themselves too.
I’ve come to realise I haven’t had a very strong sense of myself at all, and it struck how strange it is that I have been able to go through so much of my life without this sense of myself. Who have I been all this time? I’ve thought I was me, but was I really? Have I been letting a whole bunch of energies in that haven’t been me? Yes, probably. It strikes me that deeply feeling and knowing oneself is an absolute asset in life and leads to consistency, steadiness and far less reactivity.
Whenever we move away from being who we are, our Soulfulness becomes masked and we lack Soul. For in-truth our brilliance is known through living in connection to the light of who we are, the light of our Soul.
We are all integral pieces of the jigsaw of life and it is only by committing to being me that I find my true place.
Exactly Helen, commitment to bringing all that we have to offer is when everything falls into place and life is no longer a battlefield but rather life becomes a joy to share and to express ourselves and to know and feel the true meaning of love – that we are all equal in our true powerful essence.
What is wonderful to appreciate here is that when we live this true vitality and potential our place is the constant connection to our movements each and every day.
” 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? ” This is such a wonderful question , perhaps there is a force which does not want you to be the full you and this force benefits in some sad way by the result of forcing us not to be who we truly are in full .
What a difference it would make if children were supported from birth to know they are already everything they need to be and innately beautiful.
Why invest in works of art when we can invest in ourselves, our most precious possession.
This is real art, the art of living who you are and not try to copy any picture you may hold. Life then becomes a flow compared to the constant struggle we experience life to be on a regular basis when we try to match any picture or concept we hold in our mind.
Really the only true success in ones life can be measured on how much they live their true selves.
It seems that we morph ourselves into whatever we can to feel that we fit in… anything rather than be our true selves on case we stand out or feel exposed. Take a step back and it seems crazy that nearly everyone is in this position. What if we really appreciated our unique qualities and began from young to celebrate these?
Michael you are a true heart melter! Your gorgeousness shines through in this blog. It’s such an important topic as so many people feel they are not enough, need to improve themselves, to be “better”, or even to be someone else. I enjoyed your words on our unique expression, they way we each do things and express in this world, you’ve inspired me to look more closely at this and appreciate my own uniqueness.
I love this blog Michael. I can feel the deep respect in your rhythm and how this allows you to be and express from who you are. This is the most exquisite piece of art, unrepeatable as we all are.
‘Whenever I am not as I would like myself to be, I will look outside myself for a model to copy.’ I have done this a lot in my life and I always made myself lesser in this comparing way of life. It’s not a joy- and truthful way of life but a life built on security and safety that doesn’t fit.
The art of being me, what a great title. The question of course is: what is the real me? I certainly don’t want to be like somebody else but the reality is that I have been bombarded with images, ideals and believes what other people do, which are also in my body, and formed layers from which I express subconsciously. To let go of those layers, of parts in me, that are not me, is one of the essentials of the Art of Being Me. An art I am discovering each day, more and more and never ends.
Coming back for another enjoyable read this morning I could feel how amazing it would be if every school had a subject called the “The Art of Being Me”. This would be a beautiful confirmation that each and every child has their own unique expression and that the world needs their expression as much as the expression of the child sitting next to them; no one’s is better that another’s, they are all as equally amazing and valuable.
If we are able to inspire our children to honour appreciate and love their own uniqueness , we have done well.
“When we bring together our different expressions and support each other to bring them, we can truly change the world.” This is a beautiful quote and one that shows that when we bring our own flavour of expression without judgement to the world we can inspire another to do the same showing a great depth of understanding for others and also a level of responsibility that is amazing to share.
To have the world full of people expressing without judgment would restore our way of being to the true brotherhood it is meant to be.
What a beautiful and refreshing blog Michael. I love what you have expressed here, it feels freeing, inviting and expansive;
“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”.
How easy it is being who we truly are. When we walk in union with every particle of our body and when we express from our essence, the truth we feel inside, we offer every single person who we share our day with our innate and very beautiful reflection. What a gift that is for humanity.
I love this great reminder of something crucially important Michael! We spend more time trying to be someone else, living up to a picture or ideal than being our natural selves. Is this because we think living ourselves is not as good as living up to someone who is seemingly better? Have we given up on ourselves in someway because it has not given us the life we want? But are we even living our essence in full anyway or have some pictures and ideals of who we should be snuck in?
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. Absolutely Michael, as your talking about honouring yourself enough to give yourself the space to move in a way that confirms who you are and then express in that confirmation, and in that, naturally express your truth.
I love that experiment with getting up and doing what you felt like doing before sitting down to do some work. I’m not in the least bit surprised that you were able to knock it over in no time. The stress and anxiety we bring to tasks inevitably stunts their completion because all our energy goes into the worry rather than just knowing and accepting we’re enough and that we can of course get the work done simply.
“This simplicity and joy for me is art – the art of being me.”Thank you Michael for a beautiful sharing, This is an art I had for many lifetimes forgotten but step by step in this life I am reclaiming.
The same goes for companies. How many companies are just copying one another? A company, which is basically just an assembly of people, could also be a true piece of art. Feeling inside themselves what they want to bring to the world. The fact if a company then makes it about people or about profit and turnover, then determine the output and quality of the goods and services which will be delivered.
We are the key to who we will be and no-one can be us as we have our own unique but equal expression to bring to the world, that is very much needed, so there is no judging what that is or how it should look, just an allowance and openess to share all of us as best as we can.
You can say that it is an art to be me and that there is an art in living life in accordance with that and anything we then produce in the physical, may it be a piece of writing a painting, something we crafted for our work then can be called a piece of art too in the same way we are so inspired by the paintings and work of Leonardo da Vinci.
A beautiful rediscovering of your tender essence. We can spend many lives searching outside ourselves and completely miss the essence that has never left us within.
From the article I can see there is a flow to life, a rhythm or a cycle that is there naturally to support us in every move. We can choose to listen to this and allow the flow or we can choose to do it our own way. In this flow we have a uniqueness and yet an equal and a oneness with everything. We spend so much time trying to make a stamp on the world and end up chasing our tail in most case when in fact if we would just allow the flow or follow the feelings we truly have then all is already done for us. I have and still do chase parts of the world around, needing to get this or do this or have this done. It’s not that you don’t do things but equally or with respect to the how or the quality of the ‘do’. There is an order, or as I have said a natural flow to life that we push through to bring a result. Where this flow needs to be taken care of, honoured if you like or adhered too. It’s not difficult as the birds in the sky will reflect, it’s truly easier and yet it’s not our default choice. ‘We’ think we need to do all manner of things and yet our first choice comes back to energy, what is our choice of quality in what we do. Are we going or listening and allowing the ‘flow’ to guide our doing or have we popped out to get something done.
A beautiful portrait of art, an appreciation of all that there is, appreciating oneself and thus everything else.
I am really only beginning to truly appreciate what I bring to the world and what my purpose is here and to live it in a continuum rather than snippets. I love how you call it ‘The Art of Being Me’ for that is, in truth what it is. There is a lightness and playfullness and a joy that we live when we allow ourselves the grace to be in this way.
To be raised to know our essence, to know that we are all equal parts of the human family and that we bring our own ‘flavour’ to the world would be such an amazing start to our lives; lives that would then have the opportunity to be naturally full of joy and love as we live everything that we naturally are.
Very inspiring to read again. We can all be pieces of art expressing in full, and the start is to feel the connection to our beautiful essence. Once we feel that, we feel that we are more than enough, so full and there is no need to fill ourselves with a copy, the essence of somebody else.
I think we learn at school to copy and do exactly the same things as the teacher to be successful. This might have an impact in how we develop ourselves personally as well, we copy how other people around us are doing it. I did this for sure and can sometimes see oh this I think I feel because I copied this person, this even goes to the way I think about things. There is indeed an art to being ourselves and expressing in our way and it is a joy to work on this artwork I am.