Publishing Myself — We Suffer More in Imagination Than in Reality
You can read these words. And I wonder what you are thinking. One thing is for sure. I am thinking way too much about what goes on in your mind. And the main reason for that is that I fear you will reject me. You will criticize me. Or hate me. I don’t want that. But at the same time, I know that nothing ever changes if you don’t go out there and actually put in the work.
“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
I am active on social media. I have been for almost 50% of my entire life. I started to engage online, blogging and things like twitter before I turned 14. And yet: I always felt like I needed to hide. That I will not be understood. That I would need to censor myself. Design personality in a way that people would like me. That there will be outrage if I’d be myself. Fears. Angst.
But a couple month ago, I started to rethink all that. I began to discover myself. I started to accept myself more. It’s been month since then. I have written many words in private. Thought about my self-image and who I want to be for many hours. Meditated and daydreamed. It’s been incredible.
I know that this isn’t a process that I started this year. I started this process a long time ago. But it’s now that I see the results. That I see the rapid change; almost exponential. I am blown away by it myself.
All those fears. All the anxiety. I am peeling away the layers. Discovering that all that is imaginary. Those fears are not proven. They are hypotheses. Not real. Still, they held me back. They put me in a box where I could only look out, but there was no way of actually breaking free.
“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”
~ Amelia Earhart
Now I am breaking free. The fact that you are able to read this is the proof that I jumped over my shadow. I wanted to put myself out there. To share my thoughts and opinions. And to engage in conversations. I don’t want to hide or design a perfect persona first. I want to be me (and that’s a discovering journey in itself).
So now you can read my words here. You can see me on YouTube. And enjoy my photos on Instagram. I am everywhere. I am creating. And I am proud about that.
Do you create? Are you inspired? Do you share your work? Please, contact me and let me know. I’m always interested to find and connect with new humans!
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Originally published at makeityour.life on August 25, 2017.
