Embracing our amazingness

Posted by Karen Degen on 7th July 2014

Tags: Godness, Marianne Williamson, amazingness, angelness, greatness, playing it small

I was with a friend today and one of the things I really like about her is that she embraces her amazingness. To the unenlightened she might seem to be arrogant, because we have this culture of hiding ourselves and playing it small. We don’t embrace our greatness or our Godness or our angelness. It’s certainly not OK socially to let other people know that we know we are special. My friend lets me know that she knows. In what way are you letting others know how special you really are? When you let them know that you are special you are giving them permission to see that in themselves. I was about to write about how special I was and as soon as I started writing it that horrible feeling came upon me and I backspaced over it! Why is this programming to play it small so strong? What words can I use to tell you who I really am without sounding like I love myself, and why is that so wrong!!! Another bit of programming to overcome. We are supposed to love ourselves – but not too much.  It made me think of those old movies where someone thinks they are God and they put them in a mental institution. What if they really were God?  What if they just understood their own greatness, weren’t afraid to speak it and the best word they could come up with to describe it was God?

Of course I’m aware of the quote by Marianne Williamson:  “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, and 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 will not 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 is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Even though I know that quote very well I didn’t realise until I started writing this blog quite how much I was still playing it small.  My goal now is to notice it myself doing it, because noticing just how much of a problem something is is the first step towards being able to change it.