The Burden of Not Enough
Many of us live with the constant feeling that we aren’t good enough. This feeling causes us to compare ourselves to others, to evaluate our achievements, and to feel like we need to compete in order to get ahead.
It is like carrying a backpack on our back filled with rocks. Every time we want to achieve something new, we feel the weight of this burden we carry. It is an obstacle to our growth, our success, and our freedom.
But at some point in our lives, we can choose to take the backpack off and set it on the ground. We can wake up to the realization that we don’t have to carry the weight of these messages any longer.
It is beneficial to explore the origin of these messages of not enough and see how they relate to your past experience as well as your present. How are these past messages invading your present moment experience? How have they become an obstacle to your growth and success?
Most likely these messages of not good enough… are not your words.
Many of us unconsciously operate from past conditioning, taking on the beliefs of others as our own, without ever questioning this acquired burden of unhappiness. Yet with greater awareness, we can make different choices. We can choose to explore these messages more deeply and understand their false nature. We can discover what our true qualities really are. We can learn to value ourselves again.
Living everyday through the perception of not enough is an unhappy place. You might notice that you see everything through this lens. It is possible that in every experience you create, there is a feeling lurking of “it is not quite right, it could be better, or it should be different.”
We can unravel our stories of not being good enough to discover what is really true. We can begin to value our authentic qualities, and the act of being true to ourselves – over the conditioned need to evaluate, compare and compete.
As we set this burden down, we let go of feelings of isolation and stories of separation, and instead choose to create space for creativity and collaboration.
If we stop long enough to pay attention to these recordings of not enough playing out in our mind, we can deeply listen, and decide if the voices we hear now are a true description of who we are. If they are not, it is time to create a new recording.
Imagine what your life would be like if you removed the backpack and were free of the weight of these thoughts. Or better yet, you empty the backpack, bury those old thoughts deep into the earth, and fill-up the pack with new thoughts of your perfection.
Photograph by Aaron Burden
