I’ve been thinking a lot about shapes recently…
Shapes into which we squeeze, pour, constrain, or filter ourselves in order to meet expectations of others and ourselves…
Shapes that we’ve inherited from our genetics and upbringing…
Shapes peer-pressured upon us in our teenage years…
Shapes we’re fed each day through advertising – either by force or by subtle manipulation…
Shapes into which we comply and conform in order to make money enough to survive and (if we’re lucky) thrive…
All these shapes…
Is it any wonder we have lost touch with what it means to simply be ourselves. To just be that free spirit we knew once upon a time…
But who has now become so bent and folded and beaten and cut and reformed that it hardly knows how to breathe, let alone flourish.
Here is my truth; and in it, I hope you will find some sense of your own or, at minimum, a path towards a door:
I have been many, many shapes in my life, but my self – my TRUE self – was never touched or harmed by the shaping. He kept himself intact, he survived despite the pressure.
And, over time, he kept whispering to me: “It’s OK. We have time.”
I saw him when I looked in the mirror – his eyes were lively, though the shaping may have made the face around them drawn and tired.
“I’m in here,” those eyes said, “It’s OK. We have time.”
And, thanks to his playfulness, his joy, his humour and his INDEFATIGABLE energy, I began the work of undoing the shaping…
Claiming back my boundaries…
Reshaping the shapes, until there was only a single shape…
A shape that knew no edges.
A single shape that was larger-than-life.
And sure, I might choose to be another shape tomorrow.
But that choice will be temporary, and my shape – my TRUE shape, will remain unchanged by that shaping.
In a quiet moment, listen… who is whispering to you?
Who is in the mirror, waiting patiently for you to step back into your very own shape?
Vincent Tuckwood is the founder of View Beyond LLC and coaches people to make personal & professional breakthroughs.
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