Shining our light.

I heard this message yesterday.
I wanted more.
I jotted down a few words, knowing that I would lose them if I just listened.
I wanted more.

The message was on allowing your light to shine, and a little exercise was offered that I thought was a great idea. I invite you to consider completing it yourself, as I have considered doing so as well.

Part One: Make a list of 10 things that you do not like. It can be individual items, concepts, worldly things. Any 10 things of which you dislike.

Part Two: Make a list of 10 things that you like. Again, it can be individual items, concepts, ideas... any 10 things which you enjoy.

The outcome of the exercise, the take-home message, is to fill your life engaging in and surrounding yourself with the things on your second list. For you will find that in doing so, you will invite happiness into your life moreso than spending time around your first.

When I said that I wanted more, I looked up Nelson Mandela's quote, and I found that this small, but profound statement comes within a much more compelling grouping of words. I'd like to share them with you here...

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

I got the more that I wanted. Holy cow.
I had never thought of it that way.
It had never occurred to me to consider things in this way.

Holding things back doesn't help. Reserving parts of me doesn't fulfill the purpose that I have for my life and the greater good of this world. Letting my light shine means doing so at full blast, not at a "barely glowing" flame that I probably share with others... whether it's because I don't want to seem showy or because I am shy or because I'm tired or a host of other reasons. If I'm going to shine my light, I need to do it with gusto. And so do you.