I often wondered if we've explored everything and all the original stuff has been discovered. Then someone comes along and does it totally different.
One of the difficult parts of this world is that it is shame based. It works with the fact that to make a mistake is a terrible thing; a matter of life and death. In the end it works with the Old Testament approach of us walking on a certain path with a God there to surround us with shame if the wrong action occurs. This flies in the face of my Unity teaching and my interfaith teaching. New thought is the truth that God is not the revenge filled Jehovah but is the forgiving and all loving spiritual being who works in collaboration with us.
In recent years a wonderful teacher involved in self-exploration has taught us new ways to look at old actions. Her name is Dr. Brene Brown and she is a researcher who has explored vulnerability and shame in our society.
Our ego takes to these two items with an attraction that I learned growing up. Our house was led by a benevolent dictator who was not always benevolent and sometimes leaned past dictator to tyrant.
Thus I learned how to be small with a phrase which became a mantra repeated to me often. The mantra was "how could you be so stupid!" I learned the action of walking on eggshells to make sure the actions I took were acceptable for our leader.
The difficulty as Dr. Brown states is that shame can become the swampland of the soul. We get lost in a place where we are never good enough or we are asked 'who do you think you are?'
But we forget that vulnerability is not a weakness. It is a place where creativity, innovation, and change are birthed. Thus was my blessing. I left the house and went into an educational system where I could try new things and make mistakes and question everything. I was surrounded in college by a group of people who were not afraid to fail because it just meant I was one step closer to success.
Thus was the other part of my quest. My overlay that was laid over the Divine part of who I was centered on my ego wanting to stay small and unnoticed.
But the pure magnificence that God had put together did not stop. So even though every cell of my body ached with fear and my ego preciously told me I was going to die I took the next step anyway.
Susan Jeffers wrote the book "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway!" During my quest of the 70's and the 80's it was my anthem. I kept saying 'yes' to things I had no sane reason to agree to. How could I do those things?
I learned to realize that embarrassment meant I was stretching my wings in an unusual direction and it was a sign of spiritual growth.
Thus I kept moving forward. We all have touched this place of being vulnerable and in shame. Please take a moment and watch Dr. Brene Brown's TED talk "Listening to Shame." See if it touches places within you.........
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