No. 13 #ShePersisted Series Mixed Media on watercolour paper 11″ x 14″ ©2017 Louise Gallagher

Life is an experiential journey filled with opportunities to learn how to be your best self.

We all want to feel like we’re being real, authentic, genuine.

Too often, we end up confusing ourselves and others because we work so hard to fit into the world around us, we lose sense of our own self.

It can be easy to believe ‘fitting in’ is the way to go. That being part of ‘the in crowd’ is the answer to any sense we have of feeling apart. That joining in ‘group think’ will give us a sense of belonging.

Whenever I’ve done that, whenever I’ve given into my need to ‘fit in’, I have felt the dissonance of being silent, of compromising my own values to adapt to someone else’s. Whenever I’ve let go of ‘me’, I have ended up feeling like I am living against my own grain.

It just doesn’t work well for me.

But it has provided me many opportunities to fall and grow in my own convictions of the rightness of living true to myself. Because, every time I’ve found myself in that place of feeling like I’m contorting my skin to fit someone else’s dimensions, I’ve fallen. Hard.

Being who we’re not for the sake of feeling like we belong, does not fit well, for our self worth nor the world around us.

To be authentic we must be willing to fall and trust, that our wings will appear when we let go of holding onto the belief, “I need to be perfect”.

In the belief that perfection matters, we become trapped in doing things to please others because, we tell ourselves that it is only through pleasing others we will receive love and acceptance.

I have fallen many times on the road of life. Every fall has given me an opportunity to learn to fly.

I am grateful for the teachings.

Gratitude creates space for grace to arise. For joy to enliven my world and being. Gratitude creates beauty within, and outside, in the world around me.

If this resonates with you today, ask yourself,

“Where am I compromising my own self-worth by buying into someone else’s beliefs?”

“Where am I letting go of me to fit into someone else’s way of being?”

________________________________________

The painting above is part of my #ShePersisted Series which I began in February 2017. I have committed to writing a reflection for each painting (I have currently completed 47 in the series) with a question(s) at the end to inspire actions on how to live whole-heartedly.

This is No. 5 in my reflections.