Play small or live out loud?

Rejection from others starts with rejection of ourselves

This is how it happens…
You are at a party. You meet someone you’d like to get to know better. But you hold back a little of yourself because you really want this person to like you. You have a story that, if you are fully authentic, they may not like you. So you open yourself up just a little.

This very small action of holding back for fear of being rejected is, in fact, self-rejecting. You do not have to wait for the other to reject you or not..you have already rejected you. What happens next is just the reflection of what started inside of you.

This is how we slowly die inside…one small holding back at a time. So insidiously, we hardly notice. Until we wake up one day and we are a shadow of ourselves. We have no voice, no backbone, no substance. No ‘us’ to show up any more.

Living fully is a risk. We risk being rejected, maligned, not liked. But when held in the light of living small, the risk is seen more clearly for its truth. Both have an entry price.

What choice to make…blowing people away literally with your raw humanity (which can be refined with wisdom) or playing small and voiceless?

Live out loud.