Are you operating from your own desires or from how you think you should be?
Are you living from someone else's expectations or even your own self judgements?
To me, every leaf lying on the ground is a piece of artwork. The colors, the textures, the shape and ohh what stories they have to tell. Several years ago I committed to myself to post one picture of a fallen leaf each day for 30 days on instagram. I learned some interesting and unexpected lessons through the process. Here's what I shared with one of those posts:
"It can be so easy to limit ourselves, to put up barriers to our expansiveness, create boxes that put limits around us. These limits may be born of self judgement or fear of judgment or lack of acceptance from others.
I had this thought tonight as I was taking pictures on the streets of San Francisco for my daily leaf post. I saw a huge leaf relative to what I’ve been seeing lately and I paused to admire its size.
I didn’t take a picture of it though because it wasn’t aesthetically pleasing to my eye. “This ones not pretty enough, people won’t like this one.” Some version of that thought was in my head so I walked on. I got about a block away and realized I needed to go back. After all, the leaf was striking enough for me to stop but I had created a limiting belief about what is okay to post and even what is ok for me to enjoy.
I obviously thought enough of that leaf to stop and admire its size. Yet a fear of how others "might" judge it and or "might" judge me for appreciating it got mixed with my own judgements about what is worthy. That combination prevented me from feeling like I could or even should share something that I found to have a beauty and uniqueness in its size.
I decided to let go of those self imposed constraints and go back to photograph the leaf which caught my eye.
How else I wondered might I be allowing my fear of what others think to limit my self expression, to limit how I show up in the world and even to rule what I feel is acceptable to enjoy.
Consciously or unconsciously, what limiting beliefs are you holding on to? How are the perceived expectations of others limiting your thoughts and impacting how you view yourself?
What might be possible if you allowed yourself greater freedom from judgement, whether from other's or yourself?