Humans are so amazing. We hold so much power within us.
This new "exercising" thing is kind of killing me. It's a lot for me to handle. I honest to goodness had not used any workout equipment since my eighth grade year of middle school. That's five years. Needless to say, I am crazy proud of myself. I mean, I'm doing it. This is my first full week and I haven't died or quit outright yet. It's taught me something too! Here's what I'm learning.
We hold ourselves back from our true potential so often. I would sit on that machine and think "there is no way on God's green earth that I can do one more. I'm quitting. This is it." But after talking with Jenna last night.. I tried out my newfound mental power. Everytime I thought "I can't do it," I would push the thought away and focus on something else. Whereas I was attempting to quit at seven, Julie had to stop me at twelve. When I stopped holding myself back and persuading myself I couldn't do it, I had abounding power behind every action.
"Our deepest 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, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's 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." - Marianne Williamson
Like the story of the man in the swimming pool. Man #1 says "hey, let's have a contest to see who can hold their breath longer" and man #2 takes him up on the challenge. Well the first guy stays under for like three minutes! Guy two is kinda blown away and a little skeptical, "how'd you do that?!" And the first guy explains that our bodies are capable of staying under so much longer and withstanding so much more than our brains let us believe. The instinct to survive sets in and we panic, pushing to the surface to fill our lungs. Our lungs are fine though. We could have stayed under longer.
The problem is that we hold ourselves back. When we let go of those fears and insecurites, the ones that say "you can't do this", "you aren't good enough", "quit now".. then we go even further than we imagined.
We have so much potential.
Divine potential.
As children of a royal King we are meant for greatness. Too often we push ourselves down, thinking we, as small and insubstantial as we are, can't possibly do anything "great" or "amazing". That ends now.
Have the courage, the confidence, the bravery to be all that you can be.
What is stopping you? Your insecurities? Societal norms? Fear of judgment?
If you took a moment to think about what was holding you back from being everything you yearned for, from doing all that you've dreamed of, and achieving all of the seemingly impossible goals you've striven for ... I believe you would find that they are nothing. Nothing. They are concrete barriers put up in our mind that can be knocked down simply by recognizing how fraudulent and unbelievably disgusting they are.
When we make up our minds to stop pulling ourselves down.. to realize what truly stands between us and what we want.. then we realize our
true power
and
inconceivable potential.
