If only people truly saw what you do, go through, manage, handle, juggle, achieve, etc……..  If only they saw the real you!

Have you ever experienced this or other similar thoughts?  If so, you are not alone.  I have worked with many people over the years who are experiencing this phenomenon to some degree.

What is it that fuels that very basic human need to be recognized?  Well I don’t believe there is any one simple answer to that question.  But I’d like to examine some of the contributing factors…..

First, from a purely physical standpoint, the need to be recognized comes from the survival mechanism that is built into our physical world.  Recognition of worth is more likely to ensure your survival – nobody wants to be the runt of the litter, left to perish because they are too much trouble to take care of.

Taking the survival mechanism further, we are constantly being eyed by those around us in our community – are we friend or foe?  Do we belong, or are we an outsider?  And so, your identity or how you are recognized begins to be shaped by your community, culture, socio-economic group, religion, political alliance, etc.  But do you really fit within those parameters, or are you more than that?

Then there are the concepts and judgments others have about you and who you are.  This begins the moment you are born and just doesn’t seem to end……  Each time you encounter someone they form a picture of you and pretty soon you are layered with concepts and ideas of who you are – he’s so strong, she’s so emotional, she’s so mean, he acts more like a girl than a boy……

When one of my daughters was about 2 or 3 she loved to play with layering clothes, that is when I could get her to wear clothes at all!  One day I found her with 8 tops on – a tank top over a t-shirt over a sweater over a tank top, etc., to the point where she resembled the Michelin man – she was unable to put her arms down by her sides. 

Looking back, maybe she was simply responding to the concepts and ideas about her that were already beginning to pile up – whose energy was strongest in her space that she was responding to?  And maybe her desire to spend much of her life naked was because she just wanted to be herself – not the cute, adorable toddler in the outfit sent by grandma, or auntie or picked out by mom and dad!

So how do you find yourself under all those layers?  Will anyone truly recognize you when you do emerge?  Will you be validated and loved for who you are?

As our global awareness expands, our cultural, political, religious and social identies and barriers are weakening and breaking down, and this is just the tip of the ice berg.

This process is bringing to light more and more the need to recognize who we are at the core of our being – who we are as a spirit or soul personality.  We are being challenged to look beyond the surface of what is immediately apparent when you see someone.

So how do you go about this, you may ask?  One simple way to begin this journey is through meditation and spiritual or energy self-healing.  Meditation and self-healing allow you to focus inward, to increase your awareness of just who you are under all those layers and to find that your desire for recognition can be satisfied by YOU – simply by getting to know yourself better and becoming more comfortable in your own skin.

When you recognize yourself, how others see you no longer holds the same importance – there is tremendous FREEDOM and RELIEF in that realization!