"Peel that Onion"

Sometimes you want to reveal yourself fully but you hold back. (Reveal in a proper way...get your head out of the gutter). People who tell me they are on open book are not exactly being 'open' because those folk i've been around have always (I repeat), always have more to them. So do I. So do you.

There are layers upon layers upon layers that no one will ever discover. Too scary. Very scary.

Don't believe me?

I've had people reveal their inner most thoughts and fears and later I find out that there's even more. Lots more. Why do I know this?

I've told some people everything. Then...I think about it and realize...I guess there's more if I truly think about it. There's always more.

Fear.

Fear of what?

Being judged? Chastized? Ridiculed? The unknown?

Maybe.

Or maybe...just maybe...we are all fearful of discovering who we truly are. Sound weird?

Ever read the study about pushing yourself physically beyond your capabilities?(inner strength stuff...try it). We feel like we can't do anymore. Can't run, swim, bike, climb, lift, whatever it is. Think we are going to die. Then, miraculously, we do it. We go further.

Then we realize we only went...10, 20, 30% of what we are truly capable of.

That's physical.

Easier.

Why is it easier?

Tangible. There is the weight. Race track is under our feet. We see it. We feel it.

Life?

Completely different.

Can't hold adversity. Can't run a marathon of resiliency but you're resilient if you run a marathon. Although a marathon for resiliency would be funny. "Run for Resiliency sponsored by the Canadian Association of Psychotherapists."

No. Life is not 'tangible'. Life is in the ether. Can't grab it.

How do you know how much you are truly pushing yourself?

Every single day make yourself uncomfortable.

Take a different route to work. Sit in a different chair when you eat breakfast (or whatever meal you eat because I know a lot of you don't eat breakfast. "I'm fasting.")

Don't look at your phone for an hour. Read something you don't normally read.

Take comfort and punch it in the face. Hard.

Then, after a few days or weeks when adversity happens (and believe me...it will happen and probably punch you in the face. Hard.) you'll be able to take it.

You also might be comfortable being uncomfortable.