Be Who You Are

November 22: Be Who You Are

By Melody

 

 

When I meet people or get in a new relationship, I start putting all these repressive restrictions on myself. I can’t have my feelings. Can’t have my wants and needs. Can’t have my history. Can’t do the things I want, feel the feelings I’m feeling, or say what I need to say. 1 turn into this repressed, perfectionistic robot, instead of being who I am: Me.
Anonymous

 

Sometimes, our instinctive reaction to being in a new situation is: Don’t be yourself.

 

Who else can we be? Who else would you want to be? We don’t need to be anyone else.

 

The greatest gift we can bring to any relationship wherever we go is being who we are. We may think others won’t like us. We may be afraid that if we just relax and be ourselves, the other person will go away or shame us. We may worry about what the other person will think, but, when we relax and accept ourselves, people often feel much better being around us than when we are rigid and repressed. We’re fun to be around.

 

If others don’t appreciate us, do we really want to be around them? Do we need to let the opinions of others control us and our behavior?

 

Giving ourselves permission to be who we are can have a healing influence on our relationships. The tone relaxes. We relax. The other person relaxes. Then everybody feels a little less shame, because they have learned the truth. Who we are is all we can be, all we’re meant to be, and it’s enough.

 

It’s fine. Our opinion of ourselves is truly all that matters. And we can give ourselves all the approval we want and need.

 

Today, I will relax and be who I am in my relationships. I will do this not in a demeaning or inappropriate way, but in a way that shows I accept myself and value who I am. Help me, God, let go of my fears about being myself.