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
667 Comments
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.
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.