Have you ever heard that we only use 10% of our brain? Have you ever been pointed out some of your mannerisms or habits that you were not aware of?

Last week I touched base on appreciating that we do need others to connect and grow. Today, I’d like to stretch why we do. We are incapable of being fully aware of who we are. I believe we are a fantastic treasure, an ongoing surprise unraveling through life. We do some of the unraveling and affirming, on many occasions though, we discovered our gifts through others. Sometimes, that gift was discovered thanks to someone we didn’t even know, liked or trusted. Gifts come in so many shapes and forms, don’t they?

In my opinion, surrounding ourselves with like minded individuals not only keeps us in our limited view of the world, it also shrinks that perspective to the point of alienation. By sticking to what we want to know, we reaffirm that area, get comfortable with it, and cast away the edges little by little. How can we be in the world and of the world if we refuse to look at it, little less try to understand it.

I’m not talking about liking everybody and agreeing with everyone. I’m talking about setting aside fears and judgments and compassionately appreciating another person’s point of view. Fear always cast us aside, or keeps us in the company of the fearful. Neither of which is productive or joyous. You want to be happy, don’t you? Fear will rob you of that.

The process is messy and painful. Opening up to understanding itself is ground to freaking out as we have to look at our values from an observer’s point of view. Our values are dear to us because they are our safety blanket in the world. They are our foundations, what we defer to when we’re unsure of an idea or how to make a decision. We’ll often defer to somebody’s, or an organization’s, value, background, history to decide to associate with or not. This is a valid use of our time. That being said, judging, putting down, name calling feeds the fear. Appreciating other individuals’ process gives us the opportunity to stay united with the world, and therefore with ourselves.

Again, I’m not preaching for everybody to be friend and allies on everything. We will always disagree with somebody or something. The way we go about it will have an impact on our connection with the world though.

I caught an article about death statistic with millennials in my county. Suicide ranked uncomfortably high. It has become more and more proven that drastic behavior, including addictions , are due to a sense of disconnect with the world. Our behavior, negative or positive, feeds our environment and the people in it. I invite you to be an instrument of hope and inspiration, not doom, gloom and catastrophe. We owe it to our own sanity, happiness, and the welfare of the people around us as a whole. It’s not easy, that being said, it’s doable if we decide to make it so.

Reach for the greatest version of yourself!

Paola