It’s time to let go their perceptions of you. (release them from bondage as well)

“I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am; I am who I think you think I am.”

-Thomas Cooley

I hadn’t heard of this Thomas character until first hearing the above quote... but I have a feeling we’d have a lot to talk about.

How to detach ourselves from caring what others think about how and why we’re showing up in the ways that we do, so to experience greater levels of authentic and soul-full existence?

That’s the question that takes the whole 🎂 cake, isn’t it.

Intuitively, we allllllllll get it:

As long as we care about how we’re being perceived

–especially in our best efforts to show up as genuine expressions of our Spirit through the templates we’ve chosen this time ‘round–

The more we cut ourselves off from longer periods of uninterrupted flow state.

Flow state in this case meaning, the channels we open within,

To allow Spirit to work through us,

Creating Heaven on Earth all around us.

When we operate from realms where we experience greater fluidity of self,

We experience more synchronicity in life overall;

More moments to gaze upon in total awe and wonder,

More people and situations to make love with,

To dance and celebrate with.

Really take time to consider this notion:

Let’s think of each person as being a template.

They hold certain codes and a specific framework...

And we, based on our own filters and codes and framework,

Can never get the full picture of who they are, the purity of their expression.

We can spend more time with certain people and definitely get a better gauge of the levels they’re operating from,

We can draw out certain strengths or weaknesses from another based on the codes we're carrying,

But ultimately, how they experience themselves and how we experience them will inevitably be different.

Drastically different in some cases, somewhat similar in others.

Unless we’ve transcended the realm of the personality altogether,

And gone back to the Godhead where there is no individual,

We get to experience the rich bounty of Source-Full expression in all its beautiful manifestations.

And while complete personality transcendence is a beautiful goal to aspire to,

The likelihood of us attaining that within this particular lifetime at this point on the planet is very slim.

Not impossible...

But slim.

And would honestly defeat the purpose of this whole thing entirely… Source getting to experience itself as separate, as other, as different.

So if we can have the understanding;

The humility and wherewithal to acknowledge the fact that:

We are never truly experiencing another with absolute clarity,

And that we are actually receiving their template,

A representation of their energetic expression,

And filling in the gaps with our own perceptions;

With our own biases and judgements,

With our own levels of more or less expanded consciousness...

From this understanding we get closer to taking permanent residence within the realm of The Golden Rule.

The realm where it’s understood that other is self,

And self is other.

And like most truths and paradoxes, there are many layers to this.

The notion of “my perception of you” being just that;

MY perception of YOU.

It’s a little bit of you and it’s a little bit of me.

It’s a co-creation.

One of the reasons this dimension is such a rich and fertile ground for spiritual growth and development is because of the diversity of relationships available to us,

Revealing more of ourselves

To ourselves.

These past few months I’ve been offered to a heightened level, the experiential lesson of:

What I see the most in others is an indication of what I see the most in myself.

Those people in my life that I would label as arrogant and self-centered,

Remind me that I have moments where I can be arrogant and self-centered.

Those people in my life that I would label as being timid remind me of my own moments of timidity.

Those people in my life that I would label as being confident and bold remind me that I too have moments where I experience myself as being confident and bold.

We can only recognize in another what we have the capacity to notice within our own mental-emotional-spiritual bodies.

This is where compassion is born. This is where compassion is sustained.

Not only this but we must consider the complexities that we feel within ourselves.

The layers, the subtleties, the undertones that encompass every part of our expression.

It’s never completely black or indefinitely white; rather "it" is an infinite spectrum of grey, whatever the topic you’re exploring within your consciousness.

So often we meet a person at a particular moment in time, at a very small and temporary point in their journey and instantly, innocently, we attempt to pigeonhole them,

To put them in a neat and tidy little box that allows us to access their file at any point in time.

This doesn’t give room to grow,

This doesn’t give room to breathe.

And so often this is part of the reason we flow in and out of relationships quickly,

Many times ending on the more negative end of the polarity spectrum.

We mustn’t forget that because we are energetic beings,

That we will always be transfiguring, changing, and altering our expression.

Take for example, when we meet someone that is undergoing their own process of transformation and purification.

Let's say we meet them at a point when their bold and courageous and sure-of-themselves-to-the-outside-world expression is magnified.

This is where we’ve met them at this particular point on their journey,

And it can be easy to assume things about them, we can conclude that overall they must've been born this way or gifted with certain permissions of expression.

And while this most certainly can be true,

We must always keep in mind,

Or better said, we must always keep in heart,

That we haven’t seen what’s led them to this point.

They may give us glimpses of their past experiences that may provide some insight,

They may reveal to us past versions of self and circumstances that’ve shaped them and propelled them into the directions and levels that we now find them embodying,

But even then we can never fully know;

We don’t see the moments where they were shut down.

When they were silenced.

When they attempted to speak their truth, voice shaking and hands trembling,

We don’t acknowledge because we haven't seen, the moments where they cried to themselves in the dead of night

Because they felt so much inside them that wanted to be expressed,

But there was a devil within seeking to repress.

We don’t see all the lifetimes of work that goes behind someone showing up as they are today.

All we see is who we think they are now,

Undoubtedly colored by who we are today as well.

Depending on how much we’ve cleansed our own Lens of Perception

Determines how clearly we’re receiving and experiencing another.

To be arrogant enough to think we know what’s best for someone,

Or why someone is showing up the way that they are,

To forget that they are another Spark of God...

Just journeying,

Learning,

Experiencing,

Just like us...

Is to keep not only another in bondage,

But it keeps us enslaved as well.

For what we do to another,

How much we cage someone within our own perceptions and understandings,

Is only ever an indication of how shackled we still remain to the confines of our own minds.

And if you’ve spent enough time really watching your mind,

Really paying attention to how it works,

You will know as well as I do:

That to believe what goes on in your own mind is like taking advice from an insane person.

Our ideas are always changing, constantly battling for dominance.

We must release each other.

We must release ourselves from trying to prove to other people who we are.

They’ll never get it anyways.

We must release ourselves from trying to figure out other people.

We’ll never fully understand why they took birth, what they came to explore, what lessons needed to be learned and how they must learn them.

One of my biggest lessons currently, is exactly this.

I’ve not felt truly understood by most people.

Even those that I would consider the closest to me,

I’ve felt like an anomaly.

And my desire to have others understand who I am has only caused me to lose myself.

It’s only caused to create instability in my foundation,

To deviate from what I know to be true.

On the same note, I've contributed much disharmony within my relationships through my attempt to reason and justify the behaviors of others.

I'm seeing more clearly than ever before: how our fruitless assumptions serve no useful purpose unless the maturity of both individuals allows space for transparent dialogue;

Dialogue that takes us in the direction of Truth rather than adding to the layers of debris that keep us further from Divine Liberation.

Maybe you can see too, how assuming the intent behind the actions or words of others has added unneeded tension, hardship, and suffering into your life as well as theirs.

By shining the Light of Awareness on this idea of perceptions:

How many are living under false impressions and uninvestigated assumptions,

Do we start to free up the tension.

How tempting and alluring it is to entertain the idea that we should be or could be fully seen as we are in Truth by those who have yet to peel away their blinders,

Or by those who don't even recognize they have blinders on.

Especially in this age of displaying our once very private lives

For All to See.

It’s only when we can identify the trap we're in that we have simultaneously created the necessary space to free ourselves from it.

At least a little.

We’ve loosened its grip.

And how far we go from there,

How much we untether our entangled souls from the confines of self-perpetuated limitation,

Undoing the tightness of repressed authenticity,

Will determine how much more Light will flood our Light Bodies;

Will determine how much more freedom and brightness we experience in our day-to-days.

Not needing anyone to show up in any particular way,

Enjoying ourselves from the reflections of other-selves,

Appreciating The Goddess Herself in Her many forms.

Not asking Her to be any different than what She is.

And then of course,

Paradoxically,

When the Spirit of others sense we are a safe container that allows room for bona fide existence,

We invite all involved to experience greater levels of the Ecstasy and Bliss that We All Are, in Truth.

In this video, let me share with you a little bit more on this topic.

And until next time,

Travel Light✨

Marissa

💜