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Are You Singing Your Song?
Whenever people actually find their own song to sing, their deep-seated sense of self-doubt begins to be released, leaving a space for creativity to fill. The song turns out to be beautiful; people find that they can sing it without being punished and even earn a living being themselves.
In every case, the song is socially positive and acceptable. Beneath the fear of being unique, each of us has a powerful craving for as much uniqueness and specialness as possible.
Why is it that at first the prospect of being ourselves is so horrifying? Deep down, as much as we might deny it, all of us have been hurt by having our childhood wishes trampled on, but we accepted it “for our own good.”
A child needs and demands to be respected as a unique person, but being small and helplessly attached to his parent’s approval, he will sacrifice his own feelings to win the reward of their love.
For most of us, our parents fed us their own concept of “being good,” and we conformed to that even if it rankled our still-selfish childhood egos. We were all taught to be good before we wanted to be good. This may sound like a fine distinction, but in later life it makes all the difference between freedom and slavery.
A gap was created between true and false emotions, between what I should feel and what I actually feel. The process is subtle but treacherous. If it goes on long enough, one forgets what it is like simply to be, to let happiness and sadness come when they will, to give or keep as the moment dictates.
Adapted from Unconditional Life: Discovering the Power to Fulfill Your Dreams, by Deepak Chopra (A Bantam Book, 1991).
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4 comments
add your comment »inherently good ..is a good reminder!....
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We need to remember we are inherently good! And that we are always consciously doing the very best we can at the time. Lift those ceilings and live & love! We all need these reminders.
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All media: TV. Movies, Newspapers, Magazines and now Computer Tech & Internet is used to stimulate all humanity for a long time already. And get passed from generation to generation, from adults to children. Everyone stimulates everyone, even between children themselves. It's a massive power to manipulate with. We should not blame our parents for that, or anybody else, because that's the way it is - from a long time ago. If we don't like it - change it - starting from ourselves first and by our example, affect everybody else spreading globally. That will take long time too.
If you only understand - that this life is not the only one we have - you begin to act right now, no delay.
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Sometimes people hide the real them because they don't really like who they are from peoples reactions to them. Becoming who you really are? or becoming someone you would like to be. Which is it? What should one strive for? I know I have adopted character traits about people I really look up to. That's all good and great, right?
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