Is the the fear of being ourselves.

When we arrive on earth, we are provided with no map of our life journey. Only gradually, as our identity forms and we get and inkling of who we are, do possibilities begin to merge that call us.*
(John O’Donohue)

When we are afraid, we lose our courage. When we have found peace, we have both the strength and courage to live the lives we were created to live. […] Peace does not come because you finally have control over your life; peace comes when you no longer need control.**
(Erwin McManus)

How did people working for the Daily Planet not figure out that Clark Kent and Superman were the same person?

And yet, when we look at one another, we often do not see the extraordinary person within an ordinary life. In real life, rather than DC Comics, it’s because people fear turning up as themselves in case they are rejected or ridiculed or criticised.

Erwin McManus makes an interesting point about how, when we seek to take control, we’re actually providing ourselves with smaller and smaller boundaries to live within.

He reminds me of the fourth of five elemental truths I try to keep in mind: “You are not in control.” All five are there to help us to be free to turn up in the fullness of who we are; here they all are:

Life is hard
You are not as special as you think
Your life is not about you
You are not in control
You are going to die.

It’s okay to admit all of these things. When we embrace these then we are moving towards living more fully. Anxiety in any or all of these causes us to lose our courage or superpower. Add to this Daniel Kahneman’s discovery:

when we are uncomfortable and unhappy, we lose touch with our intuition.^

Our intuition is the sum of who we are in our unique abilities. Joseph Campbell would say that we need to follow our bliss. It’s why it’s important to turn up every day and do something we love

(**From Erwin McManus’ The Way of the Warrior.)
(^Daniel Kahneman, quoted in Susan Pinker’s The Village Effect.)

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