I’ve been thinking a lot about the insecurity and competitiveness of our day to day lives lately. How many of us feel perpetually inadequate and insecure? How many of us crave genuine acceptance, or even simply being seen by those around us.
How did our world ever come to be this way? Must it always be like this?
I think not. I see now that most of our boundless insecurity comes from within, from a place of feeling perpetually inadequate and in need of assurance from others that we are here, working hard, and contributing in some real way to the world around us.
If we could instead stop for just a few minutes each day, and focus on loving ourselves and appreciating all that we already have in our lives, the insecurity would slowly evaporate.
We might lose our powerful need to be acknowledged and assured by those around us of the beauty of our own existence. We might no longer feel so competitive, always trying to prove ourselves, and yet needing more and more assurance from outside, because at the end of the day, we still feel so empty inside.
Genuine appreciation starts with the self. Appreciation for our healthy bodies, our miraculous brains, and our effortless ability to see, hear and fully experience this amazing world we were simply born into.
As the video says, “This day is the only gift you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.”
If each of us learns to respond to each day with the thought that this is the first day and the last day of our life, how would we treat each other differently? How would we spend this day if we knew for certain that this was the last one we had to experience?
Try to embrace the thought that
“everyone you meet today will be blessed by you, just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch, just by your presence. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessings all around you. Then this will really be a good day!”
