(Little Known) Requirements for Outstanding Success

Embracing All that You Are

You may have heard the above phrase before; but have you ever thought about the deeper meaning of embracing all that you are?

Why does it matter? Because unless we do, we only have access to a small part of who we are. Therefore, we only can feel happy and fulfilled to some degree, some of the time.

Let me illustrate this:
You may drive a fantastic race car, but you only are sputtering along because you are afraid to put the pedal to the metal to feel the exhilarating rush of speed. You keep the windows and the soft-top of your convertible race car closed so nothing gets ruffled, and your hair stays put. In other words, you may feel unfit to explore all the amazing options. So they are. and remain, unavailable to you.

And so it is within your body.
We all have a certain idea about who we are. If I asked you right now: “Who are you?” What would you say?

In my seminars, coaching groups, and personal mentoring, I am always astonished by the first, spontaneous response to that question.

Here are some examples:
“I am a mother.” “I am an attorney.” “I am an entrepreneur.” I am a homemaker.” “I am a husband.” and so on.

When I ask those people to go deeper, I hear the next level of expression, which is about what they have or do: “I care for my children.” “I built a beautiful house.” “I train horses.” That level usually continues, until I ask again: “Who are you?”

I ask you this question right now: Who are you?
What comes up for you? Do you think into your life-story; the good and bad, exciting and difficult?

And yet, do you realize that even then you have not voiced who you are, right?

So what now? Oh yes, the whole spiritual identification may rise to the surface of your conscious mind. You may make some powerful declarations such as: “I am a Child of God.” or “I am a Child of the Universe.” or “I am One with Everything.”
Yes, that must surely be the ultimate answer!

Yes, and No. And here is why:
You don’t really experience yourself the way God or The Universe knows you. You have an idea of your greatness, and when you make that declaration, it feels real good for a moment, right? But…

If you truly embody all of what you are, you should be blissfully happy all the time, correct? So why are most of us not joyfully engaged in creating the life we want?

I believe the following plays a bigger role than we realize:
We leave out the part we want to hide. That may be the memories of past events, when we learned the pain of judgment, which we ‘bought into’ back then, and still feel ashamed of.

Consequently, we believe that if we show those parts, we cannot be accepted, nor loved. So we hide those parts from others, even from ourselves. We don’t want to ‘go there,’ it’s too painful!

Believe me when I tell you that everybody, every human being on our planet, has within her or himself areas of shame and darkness. I don’t want you to equate ‘darkness’ with ‘evil’ because this is not the case at all. So let’s call that hidden part of ourselves, our “Shadow.”

We don’t like to speak about the hidden unloved and judged parts of ourselves. We surely don’t want to have them explored by others, right? So we show our best (sunny) side and hide our “Shadow.”

Did you know that by doing this, even when done unconsciously, you give away your power and freedom?

Let me illustrate how we do this with another story:
Let’s say you (your body, mind, emotions) are a beautiful big house. You have taken great care to beautify each room according to its purpose. You are proud to invite guests, and they come to your dinner party.

While the party goes on, you need to step away for a while and leave your guests to themselves. All of a sudden, terror shoots throughout your nervous system, and your energy drops. You become anxious and your guests notice it, too.

What happened? You remember that ‘forbidden” room? The room you barred with chains and locks because it is the room you don’t want anybody to see? Where nobody is allowed to enter? You even put a heavily armed guard there, just to be sure. Even you avoid going there. Why? It is the room where all of your “Shadows” reside. Stored in this room is everything you want to hide,  everything that is ugly, unworthy, or unacceptable to you. In other words, it’s all of your beliefs and illusions about a part of you that you labeled ‘No Good’ or ‘Not O.K.’

You are terrified your guests could find out about all the things you believe are horrible and bad about you.

Your nervousness intrigues your guests. They want to find out what you are so nervous about. This triggers an even greater anxiety in you. How debilitating and exhausting is that?
Here is the solution:

As soon as you allow ‘All of Who you Are’ to exist without judgment and shame, you take a quantum leap toward your greatest success; life becomes easier.