a + c palmer

Read this sentence over and over and internalize it. Remember that I believe it too. Anything I add may dilute my intentions, but if you would like to read more, I can elaborate…

From the moment you are born, people are going to tell you that you are not enough. It may be with their words or through their actions. Your mom and I will probably do it to you. I apologize in advance for this unnecessary pressure we place on you.

Before I advise on how to overcome this pressure, let’s set the record straight: you are enough. Nothing anyone says or does will ever negate your enoughness as an independent, beautiful, imperfect human being.

You are a human being. You are simultaneously a member of a species of animal and you are a spirit floating through space and time. People will have expectations about your role as a human: how you should act, dress, contribute, and so on. Please don’t let others’ expectations extinguish your spirit.

These expectations are not personal: it is the way of our culture. Our culture creates a longing for more, endless consumption, and unending growth. Society will never find “enough”. How can that culture continue without making the individual humans feel like they are not enough?

Reading this may make you mad, but it may allow you to forgive others who dump their expectations on you. We are a collective body, so we pass the pressure we feel on to others. The new generation is especially vulnerable to this: receipients of the collective burden felt by their parents and their parents’ parents and so on. This doesn’t make it right, but it does make it easier to forgive others for their contributions to your feeling of “I am not enough”.

The feelings of inadequacy, not enough, can fuel you. They can be used to power you through tough moments, when you feel like you can’t do anything right or can’t be how others want you to be. They can help you to dig deeper into your spirit to uncover truths about yourself and the world you find yourself in. One of the greatest adventures in life is finding your true self. This requires identifying and then stripping back the expectations of other people and the burden that those expectations create. What is left behind, is a clearer view of who you are, as a spirit.

I will do everything in my power to continually remind you that you are enough. You are a perfectly, imperfect human being with a unique spirit and gift to share. It is OK that you will experience many pressures throughout your life. You are capable of persevering through all of them and remaining grounded in your true self. You are enough.

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