From Others Undertow To Anchored Steadiness

There will always be pressure from others to conform to what they want us to be. It can sometimes feel like we’re underwater and going deep where the pressure is so intense we might cave in.

It is precisely these times that we will benefit from slowing down and taking our foot off the gas. When others want us to make fast and sloppy decisions, that is a sign to do quite the opposite. Check in with your Heart instead. This is the only direction that counts. Because after we have said and done everything that we thought everyone else wanted from us, we are left only with our own Heart. Knowing our own wants, needs and reason why will make us strong enough to withstand pressure from others. It will also help us focus on the direction that we actually want to go in. It’s easy to never seek out our Core Self. When we fail to do this, we are failing ourselves at the deepest level. This is how we 'end up in a job' and convince ourselves that it's ok, that we like it enough, instead of going for what we actually want. When we do not know ourselves deeply, yet we argue that “Yes! Of course I know myself!”, this is when we are most susceptible to others words that worm their way into our consciousness and make us change course.

Most of us will swear up and down that "I make my own decisions! I do what I want! I don't let others tell me what to do!". We are fooling ourselves when we exclaim these things. When we go through life, stuck in our routine, wake up, shower, make coffee and breakfast...etc. (and yes! almost all of our day is routine), we are only opening ourselves to the persuasions of others. Without us having taken the time to ask ourselves certain questions on a regular basis, we put ourselves on autopilot and are easily redirected away from our genuine wants and needs. By simply opening up any social media app, we are redirected almost every 3 seconds, sometimes faster. Some questions we can ask are:

What would my fantasy job be?

Where would my fantasy place to live be?

What would my fantasy (whether we are in a relationship or not) relationship look like?

What is so important to me that I will never give it up?

When we begin to genuinely give time and thought to questions such as these, we are then throwing our anchor out so we no longer float off on the waves created by another.

~Janice M. Burke

Image by Simon Abrams from Unsplash