It’s so easy to define ourselves by individual moments. You know, when we mess up or win an award, we think to ourselves, “This is it! This is who I am!”
But we aren’t just the one thing that we’ve done. We aren’t even the pattern of behavior we’ve exhibited throughout the years.
We are whoever we say we are, and no one else has the authority to define us otherwise.
We’re all trying to put each other into little boxes. Boxes are great because they have clearly defined boundaries that contain a lot of stuff and separate it all from the contents of other boxes.
We like categorizing each other and boxing each other up because it’s easier on our brains. Our brains feel calm and happy when they know everything is in its place.
But the thing about us humans is: we’re dynamic.
We change, we grow, we evolve (hopefully). And at some point, we no longer fit inside the box that was assigned to us.
For people who live their lives according to boxes, this is very distressing. And it’s really, really hard for them to understand why anyone would ever or could ever leave their own box.
But you see, the box is an illusion. It’s not real. There is no box.
There are no boundaries or edges in life. There are no cliffs from which we can fall.
There is only experience and love and breathing.
So…
…nothing and no one can define you but you.
And you don’t even have to define yourself!
You can let yourself be free of constraints and definitions, of boundaries and edges, of expectations and patterns.
You can just exist in the world, moment by moment, however it happens.
And I promise, when you start to see all the edges as illusions, you’ll be really, really happy.