The Freedom Of Losing Your Reputation

Projection Machines & Glasshouses, Thought Is Limiting, Breaking The Cycle

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"The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.”

- George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

Curious

Projection Machines & Glasshouses:

“We're kind of these like projection machines. You know. It's like who I am to you is an intersection of what you saw today and your entire past and your experience.”

- Whitney Cummings, Why Is Everyone So Emotionally Fragile?

~~~

Perceptions of you are like the ‘blue/black vs. white/gold dress’, ‘old vs. young lady’ and ‘rabbit vs. duck’ illusions. Who you are in the eyes of others is determined by what they see, not who you truly are.

Attempting to control perceptions of you is like trying to stop a wildfire with a garden hose. You have lost the battle before it has begun.

Venturing to live up to the perceptions others have created for us is another misguided endeavour. Dancing to society’s beat instead of our own. Wearing masks rather than displaying our natural selves. Enduring suffering from making decisions that differ greatly from our beliefs and fabricating lives that do not represent our values.

All for what? To not be left behind? To be accepted? To be liked? To be trusted? By who?

If the effort to be trusted and respected by others is in exchange for trusting and loving yourself, is the pursuit worth it? I would argue that it never is.

Reputations are like glasshouses. All it takes is one mishap or shift in lifestyle for the illusion of who you are to be obliterated. If your sense of worth is attached to the reputation people hold of you, your peace and happiness can shatter like the glass you are chained to.

The question you are left to answer is; am I building my self-worth on grounded foundations, or is it a glasshouse I’m constructing?

Conscious

Thought is limiting:

“Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself profoundly.”

- Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

As you progress through life, you accumulate titles and labels (chosen & assigned) such as:

• Your name

• Your relation to people (e.g. son, daughter, spouse, friend etc.)

• Your political position

• Your job title

Of course, there are functional benefits for labels, but where the waters get muddy is when who you are (identity), becomes completely entangled with those titles and roles, which in essence are merely thoughts.

When you pause for a moment and drop the labels and titles, who is left?

Change

Breaking the cycle:

"I lost my reputation and at the same time found my inspiration in the silence of the basement."

- Loyle Carner, Take It Slow

~~~

I love this lyric from the writer and singer, Loyle Carner, as it beautifully describes the freedom of losing your reputation and points you toward where you will find your natural nature — ‘in the silence of the basement’ i.e. inward.

Filtering out the noise and shedding the roles and reputations society has created for you results in the freedom to connect with who you are at your core. It empowers you to live by your own beat.

By writing your own scripts and expressing yourself as you are, you help to break the cycle of pretence. Showing up as your real self disrupts all illusion and brings clarity to you and those you encounter.

P.S. As I made the final edits to this letter, I had Oasis playing in the background. Completely unplanned, the lyrics from ‘Roll With It’ jumped out at me as a fitting way to wrap up this note. Here they are…

You gotta say what you say

Don't let anybody get in your way

'Cause it's all too much for me to take

Don't ever stand aside

Don't ever be denied

You wanna be who you'd be

If you're comin' with me…

Be true to yourself. You cannot go wrong.

Live Free,

Niall

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Check out Heart. AOTTW #013

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LVN Stories

LVN (livin’): described as a feeling of aliveness, freedom, fulfilment, or joy.

Beth Riungu exemplifies what it means to follow your script instead of what society has written for you.

Read the full collection here.

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Send an email to lvnclubstories@gmail.com.