Lookin’ Good

IT’S AMAZING HOW WE CAN inadvertently become so deeply absorbed with how we are seen by others, that keeping up appearances has become a way of life, an obsession in fact. Many of us even give up our own happiness and comforts in order to look and act in a way that we think would be acceptable to others.

It’s tragic, because all that any of us have is our life right now, but instead of enjoying it as it comes, many of us are living a life of dulled acceptance and quiet desperation, because our overwhelming concern is not for our own happiness and wellbeing, but with other people’s opinions of us.

Beneath our false, self aggrandizing persona, we feel we’re lacking in something, although we know not what. We think we are not good enough to show ourselves as we naturally are, fearing others will criticize and belittle us. We desperately want to be what we pretend to be when in the company of others. 

We are so caught up in our outward appearance, so wrapped up in creating a false image, we find ourselves imprisoned in the imaginary demands of our artificial self, thus we are doomed to experience our life within the confines of our egotistical self made prison.

We cannot see beyond our own desperate need for approval. Our life is limited by the inflexibility of what we think other people think of us. It ties us down, limits our choices to free ourselves from this affliction, all in the name of pleasing others... even at the expense of pleasing ourselves.

And the cruel thing is, other people are so engrossed in projecting their own self image, that they don’t really take that much notice of us. Meanwhile, while we are all living this way, Time... that most precious of all life’s treasures... is running out.

You can only experience life in the very moment you are living it and then it’s gone forever. So ask yourself this... ‘Why am I wasting time living my life for others?’ Be very determined that from now on you are going to live your life being true to yourself, no matter what other people think...

Dan’s Quote: “The greatest mental prison people live in, 
____________is the fear of what other people think.”

Inspiration for this post came via an email by ‘Neale Donald Walsch’.

Header picture: The majestic ‘Uluru’, Central Australia
Uluru, or Ayers Rock, is a massive sandstone monolith in the heart of Australia’s arid "Red Centre". It is thought to have started forming around 550 million years ago.