BLOG: The Folly of Stuart Smalley - Revisted
"It's okay to be me." We hear it, or some version of it, all the time, and on the surface it sounds so trite, so Free to be You and Me. I see Stuart Smalley saying it before a mirror, snicker, and largely dismiss the notion. In fact, we can dismiss it for decades...and decades.
We people please, we listen to and take in advice from others, and do the shoulds, all the while getting further and further from who it is we were meant to be.
It's absolutely no wonder, then, that we don't know what we want. I mean really want. Or who we really are. Our desires and truths are so buried under layers of other and external approval.
So this isn't just a cute little cliche, it's really the most profound and awe-inspiring thing we can tell ourselves and relax into. In fact, when a client said these very words today, it stopped us both in our tracks and made us pause to take in the beauty, and the power, and the truth of the message her soul had just voiced.
It was, at last, a deep understanding from that part of her that seeks to be alone, outside, traipsing through the woods and up a mountain in vigorous movement. That part had always been called selfish and frivolous by a part of the outside world that really mattered to her.
What she came to understand today is that those activities are fundamental to her survival and the very things that allow her to thrive. Said that way, it's a forgone conclusion that it's okay. It would never not be. And it took my breath away.
Whatever it is that allows you to truly thrive, it's okay, regardless of what the outside world tells you. The statement we started with is really a shorthand for this deep understanding, and I'm deeply grateful to her for the reminder.
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