I think that most of us expect our 5 senses to tell us what is real, when in reality, the circumstances we experience are made up of a whole bunch of broken truths and misinterpretations of them. There is a greater whole–a bigger picture–where I believe the real truth lies. And I believe that this greater wholeness is a beautiful place. I also believe that, as an eternal being, I am a part of THAT bigger picture. Even if this is just a fantasy that I choose to live by, even if I can’t prove it is really true, isn’t it a better way to live? If I don’t know which truth is true, I still have the freedom to choose which truth I want to live right now. Why wouldn’t I choose to be happy with who I am?

We all come with a knowing of who we are and what we are meant to do. We forget–forgetting and rediscovering are part of the journey and the work of this life–but this knowledge is inside of all of us. Sometimes I feel like when I am not worried about what other people are thinking or when I am not stressing about “What am I supposed to do?” but when I am quiet or focused on other people or just out living life and “doing” and “being,” oftentimes I am already acting like the person that I am meant to be. Maybe I’m not showing up in the full expression of my power because I haven’t owned it yet, but it just comes naturally to me when I let it. I simply refuse to see it.

I have been involved quite heavily in the coaching arena over the past couple of years where I have been the one being coached, and almost every coach asks the question “what are your strengths?” For me, at least, it is hard to look for my own strengths and then write them down. I can always think of characteristics that I knew describe “me,” but until recently, I would always tell myself, “But those aren’t strengths. They’re just ME.”  My current coach recently asked me this question again, only with a slightly different twist. This time I was to ask other people what my unique strengths are. Almost every response I received was in alignment what I already knew about myself as characteristics, but I just didn’t realize that anyone else could see them. I think I didn’t think I was showing these characteristics in the way that I felt them. Or maybe I didn’t think that anyone noticed these things, or that they didn’t see them as important enough because…well…those things are “just me.” Hearing the descriptions of my characteristics in the context of admiration and strength changed me.  Somehow I allowed myself to hear these words and open my heart to receive them in the context that they were said.  Somehow I am better able to see these pieces of me as strengths.

This experience was a confirmation to me of something I have always known but just hadn’t allowed the concept to apply to me:

We already know who we are; we have just forgotten, or somehow suppressed it. I think it would benefit all of us to listen to the positive things people say to us and BELIEVE them!

Owning who we are and allowing ourselves to speak it powerfully gives us permission to fully, 100 percent, BE the person that we already instinctively know who we are.

The post Believing is Seeing first appeared on Cary MacArthur.

The post Believing is Seeing appeared first on Cary MacArthur.

I have always loved being with people and observing them from the “other side” of a proverbial glass wall. I thought this way I could enjoy, love, and even offer support while not feeling like I was “in the way” or worrying that I would do something that would draw unwanted attention. I told myself I was better being “invisible” and that I was better off alone.

However, science shows that human being are, by nature, social beings. In fact, there is no such thing as individual neurons or single human brain cells” that exist in nature. Louis Cozolino says that “without mutually stimulated interactions, people and neurons wither and die.” In neurons, this process is called apoptosis. In humans, it expresses as depression and other debilitating emotions.
Life experience has also taught me that isolation is not the answer. I recently had an inspiring conversation with my friend, Tracy O’Malley, who has learned the power of connection in her own life.
 

The post Authenticity and Success: An Interview with Tracy O'Malley first appeared on Cary MacArthur.

The post Authenticity and Success: An Interview with Tracy O'Malley appeared first on Cary MacArthur.