I know you want to show up the best way you can. Of course you do. You want your best qualities on display and to be the best YOU you can be.

You also know you aren’t perfect. So what happens is that we try to hide the parts of us that we don’t consider desirable. That we don’t want others to see. I think that makes total sense.

But sometimes we spend a lot of energy hiding them. It’s like they are beach balls that we are trying to keep under the water. It’s exhausting and nearly impossible to keep them submerged. And when they do pop up, which they always will, it can be a shock to those around us…Where did THAT come from? Oh, this beach ball? it’s been here all along, I’ve just been working like crazy so that you couldn’t see it.

What if you stopped trying to hide your beach balls and let them bob along the surface peacefully instead of exploding into the air when you run out of energy? Wouldn’t that be more relaxing? For you and the people around you?

The first step would be to identify what your beach balls are. What do you not want people to know about you? Here’s one for me, which I try to pretend is not true, I don’t like everybody! I wish I liked everybody, I want to be the person who likes everybody, and I just don’t! Does that make me judgmental? Yes (yikes, don’t like admitting that either). But there’s (one of) my beach balls. I’m not perfect and I just think some people are ridiculous. THERE.

OK, so what is one of your beach balls. What is one of yours? Take the first step and admit it out loud in the comments below. And if you are the first person to comment, good for you!!!

7 Responses

  1. One of my beach balls is having ADHD and as a result having a messy place in the house (my garage) where I put everything I can’t deal with. It’s like a storage shed, not a home for my car. I never want anyone to see it. The rest of my house isn’t too bad…….especially on Wednesdays, after my beloved cleaning lady comes!

  2. Classic! What would it feel like if you showed someone your “dump”? What do you think someone would say? How are you hiding it?

  3. One of my beach balls is having to sleep with a teddy bear or two / many pillows / some form of stuffed animal toy or bolster because I cannot bear to sleep alone and have to hug one to fall asleep. I feel insecure and lonely without anything on the bed with me. Sigh. And I am 23.

  4. Thank you for sharing your beach ball! I am love hearing about them because I always think “is that all?” and yet I know to you it seems like something to hide. Just from an objective perspective, not liking to sleep alone is very normal, at any age! I have five pillows myself, and I think that is a pretty normal thing for women. I would suggest, when you are ready, it could be an endearing thing people would know about you…oh Vidya likes to sleep with stuffed animals and pillows, cute! When I have my next tapping/EFT call maybe you can tap along on releasing any embararrasment on this issue.

  5. Shweta – we need emotional people in the world! Emotions are a gift to humans and some people do not know how to feel them, it sounds like you have a gift of feeling them very deeply. Are you a part of the free Love Myself Love My Life series on self-love and acceptance? If not, I would highly encourage registering especially to listen to Christel Hughes this Thursday, Nov 7. She talks about learning manage your emotions. The downside is not having them, it’s feeling we cannot manage them. I recommend giving her a listen! You can register here: http://www.lovemyselflovemylife.com

    Aimee