Don’t suppress yourself
To be resilient requires that we be as vibrant in our emotional, physical, and spiritual lives as we can possibly be. Yet we come up against a force that holds us down and prevents us from thriving. It’s called suppression. Suppression has been the cause of ulcers, mental issues, insecurities, and ineffectiveness throughout all of human history.
Quite simply put, suppression is the holding down of who we really are and a folding in on ourselves by outside influences, memories, and even well meaning people. We seem to spend the first forty years of our life living out what we believe others want us to be and spend the last forty years living out who we were created to be in the first place.
My son is a fantastic swimmer. But for two years he was stuck in a pattern that produced the same times in his races. He wasn’t getting any faster and couldn’t break the “barrier” of time that he wanted to succeed. There was no evidence of improvement and it was getting him down. Two years is a long time.
I’m very proud of him. He could have suppressed his talent by telling himself that he was “washed up”, that his days of swimming excellence were over. He didn’t. He hung in there, working through the agony of not improving his times, and bounced back. He knew there was something inside him that would propel him forward. His hard work confirmed what he knew- he was fast and capable. He now has broken through the barrier and has risen to a new level of competence. He unleashed the best of himself.
How ‘bout you? Are there hopes and dreams that have been suppressed? Are your own thoughts suppressing who you really are? Why can’t the very wonder of who you are emerge, making an amazing difference in world?
February 14, 2013 @ 11:06 am
Good stuff. Thanks Jeff!
December 11, 2015 @ 5:58 pm
ah, the traditional Czech Christmas Carp And binunrg the tree in a wood stove is a good idea at least a new tree didn’t have to get chopped. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. @todd: it may not be a significant percentage of trees that wind up binunrg down a house, but the inventor’s logic was if I only save one child’s life, this invention will have been worth it. The only guaranteed way to save a life from fire is to prevent the fire in the first place. Don’t put kindling inside your house. And if you insist on putting kindling in your living room, draped in flammable items, and decorated with flammable presents underneath, maybe keep flames or other sources of ignition well away from it. Just seems a little more intelligent than placing a pressurized water canister beneath the tree, connected to a heat sensitive plug on top of the tree, hoping it all works properly in case of fire. And also hoping that it doesn’t decide that the christmas lights are too hot and dousing the living room (and all of the presents) just for something to do Seems silly, is all @Chris: it’s christmas in July! It’s only supposed to hit 27?C here today (thankfully) but it’s a DRY heat. badump bum.
May 2, 2016 @ 12:48 pm
I can’t stand RBNY but the new GM, Jerome de Bontin, has had success in the US as a buannessmsi, was educated here, sat (or still sits) on the broad of directors for USSF, and has been heavily involved at AS Monaco. He’s not oblivious to the weird workings of MLS and US Soccer. In fact, he’s pretty in-tuned and I think, as much as I don’t like it, a pretty savvy hire by RBNY. He’s no dummy or just a Euro guy.