Do you underestimate yourself?  It's kinda sneaky how that happens.

We underestimate ourselves when we accept limitations and don't notice. Our assumptions go invisible on us. They stop looking like assumptions and simply look like the truth. We then act accordingly.

Personally I know that I have at times hugely underestimated myself. I only saw how invisible this was when kind friends pointed it out to me. But it's not easy to hear. Ever witnessed someone defending their limitations? Maybe you even tried to talk them out of it when they asserted they aren't "the kind of person who..." or "tried but can't..."  

I don't have any trouble calling to mind someone I know who can't quite see for themselves just how attractive, strong, capable, loving or giving they are.  

A quote attributed to Henry Ford is

A nice way of saying we LIVE what we think and we do not realize that we are the thinker. This is why we become blind to our constructs, assume whatever we think is true and why we hate being challenged about it.  

The whole package that makes up what I call "myself" is only a mystery to one person: Me. And it's amazing how wrong we can be about our own base assumptions of who we are. 

Underestimating yourself always arises from who you assume you are.

The question "who am I?" deserves more airplay than we give it. Not only are we not entertaining the question, we seem to be moving away from contemplative traditions in which these kinds of questions mattered. We no longer engage in pure inquiry. Are we so intolerant of mystery that we would rather be wrong than not know something.

The price we pay for this is to be overly-engaged in our assumptions. And from the assumption that there is something fundamentally limited about us arises the desire to improve who we are. 

Why improve who you think you are when you can simply look to see who you really are "before" the personality arrived that you call YOU. 

"Who am I" or better said, "What is I?"  are invitations to peek underneath the construct of ourselves, beyond the false self that we made up and just see. What came before the thoughts of "I."

I have come to appreciate these contemplations, and to enjoy following where they lead. 

Are you the limited person you think you are?  What if you are not?

This self I call me seems nothing more than a bouquet of thoughts, rather than facts. I call them me, but really they are air. They are concepts -- ideas that have nothing to do with who I am or what I am capable of  -- if I weren't so interested in what I think about myself.

These months have been jammed with growth and leaps of faith.  No sooner did I toot my radio show's first year anniversary whistle, then I found myself saying Yes to starting a second show.   An act of fearlessness, for sure, since on Friday's show I speak with guests and it's all very fireside chat ... whereas Wednesday, the new show is just me.

                             Gulp.       It's an interesting thing, a leap of faith. 

Interesting, because of the both the 'faith' part, and the 'leap' part.  When you really, really decide to no longer consent to a life half lived, full of compromises, and stuff you don't want to do, then there is an immediate recognition that wherever that  that leads, the one thing it won't be is - familiar! Yet, still there's the shock of the leap. Must be like when you drop out of a plane on a skydive. (Minus the G-force that makes your face look all funny).  You know you decided to be there, and you want to be, but there's that split second of total terror.

Thinking about jumping out of a plane seems a lot tougher than opening my mouth live on air, but it's my leap and I jumped....  That in itself has given me a new perspective on the 'faith' part too.  I have to say, I've not so much 'faith' as a better attitude.  I realize that I simply accept that it could simply not work out, not be fun, or good, or interesting to others. For some reason, that doesn't bother or worry me. (though I'm aware of the idea that I could make all of those things devastating potential outcomes - ergo - reasons to shrink back from the ledge).    What most fascinates me is that I see all those scenarios as potentials and I am OK with them all. I mean what can I do?  All I can do is, as Anthony de Mello says, "show up and dance my dance". 

The thing about a leap, is you do end up in the unknown... and that could be a place of massive failure, but it could also be the most satisfying pit stop of my life. 

I just can't know unless I leap.

*

Oh,  the last newsy bit is that I wanted to try to find a way to display radio archives so they are searchable by keyword.  Just felt people might want to look up what's important to them by topic and find resources...please bear with me as I am still getting all the shows archived but again... Fingers crossed. x

Henry Grayson's MUST-READ book, 'Mindful Loving

I hope you enjoy practicing the couple of tools to arrest some of our negative thinking before it takes us on the direct expressway to Overwhelm.

Extracted from 'Mindful Loving', the 5-Step Thought Monitoring Process we talked about on the show November 4, 2009 is as follows:

"1. Upon feeling a loss of inner peace, ask yourself, 'What was I just thinking?'
2. 'There is one fo those disturbing ego thoughts.'
3.  'If I focus on this thought it will surely increase. Do I want this thing I'm thinking to increase? No Way1'
4. 'I banish that thought'
5. Quickly state your affirmation one or several times. "

for more about this process see Dr. Grayson's book and his site http://www.henrygrayson.com/

While you are there watch the video where he teaches how to open New Neuro Pathways!!