A dear friend of mine recently sent me this quote about your bigness:
Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God: your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone, and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
—Nelson Mandela (from his inaugural speech)
I agree 100% with this beautiful paragraph. Regardless of the reasons that our light, our brilliance, our fabulousness, and our genius frightens us, the truth is we are all of these things and can overcome these fears!
The Perspective of Fear
I looked up the definition of the word fear. Here are two definitions that I thought were very interesting and definitely resonated with me:
- a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined
- something that causes feelings of dread or apprehension
How many times in your life have you worried about something that was never actually true? How many times have you been afraid of something that did not even exist?
I remember being out in the woods at night one time. The wind began to blow, and I began to see figures—dark figures—flying through the air. My pulse quickened, my heart was pounding out of my chest, and I knew with great certainty that there were evil spirits and demons flying around ready to attack me at any moment! As I sat cowering in fear, awaiting my impending doom, a friend came over with a flashlight. Shining it out into the forest, I saw the wind blowing the tree branches in all different directions wildly! I burst out laughing. In the moment of apprehension, what I thought I saw was real to me. However, all of that stress and anxiety were caused by a bunch of branches waving around in the wind.
Are you ready to let go of your branches in the wind?
Understanding Your Genius
There is a saying that I learned many years ago: Beware of contempt prior to investigation. It has to do with making a judgment before you look into something. There’s also this one: Beware of apprehension prior to investigation.
Sometimes fear is about reacting to things before we understand them. Sometimes it is about looking at something from a particular point of view. Either way, are you ready to let go of the point of view that makes you small? Are you ready to understand your bigness? I trust that you are!
Listen to this Shift It! sample and visualize your greatness, your genius, your bigness! If you do not know what it is, simply ask and let the beat of the music, the rhythm, and melodies give you a new vision so that you can see yourself as the genius that you are!
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Listen here to Shift It! for a New Vision!
[mp3j track=”http://www.tobychristensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/4-Shift-It-To-New-Vision.mp3″ autoplay=”y” flip=”y” title=”Shift It! for a New Vision” vol=”100″]
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What do you think? Want to share your vision? Contact me here.
