It’s easy to get stuck in apathy or feel indifferent about your personal life. You may think, ‘my life is fine already,’ or ‘I don’t really care about my growth,’ or ‘I’m just too exhausted.’
We set up these rules in our minds that other people should follow, and when they don’t, we ‘punish’ them by withholding love. But we end up punishing ourselves.
Even if it’s something you’ve been practicing for years, it’s possible to reclaim that beginner enthusiasm. When’s the last time you’ve allowed yourself to be a beginner at something?
I used to beat myself up over parts of my past, overanalyzing and spinning in negativity, embarrassment, or shame.
Remember what exists within you, exists within all of us – it’s just different degrees and variations.
Evaluating your thoughts from a place of curiosity, interest, and change helps reveal your relationship with yourself. You can make that relationship exactly what you want it to be.
I started to rely on others’ opinions to feel good about myself, leaving me in a continuous state of trying to please them. What I thought they wanted became more important than what I wanted.
I remember wishing other people believed in me more. I thought if only my boss, or my partner, or my family believed in me, then I’d have more courage to reach my goals.
A lot of our pain comes from an attachment to how we think the world should be — we carry around ‘rules’ for how other people should behave so we feel better.
When you look for your own happiness from things outside of you, you become dependent on those things. When you find happiness internally, you become independent.