I'm learning to be brave in my beautiful mistakes.
–Pink, from "Crystal Ball"
I received a flyer from a colleague this week offering a workshop called "Taming Your Inner Critic," and since then I have spent some time thinking about this cultural phenomenon of self loathing. Why are we so damn hard on ourselves?
Much has already been said, studied and written about the drive for perfection and its powerful impact on us as individuals and as a society. My own theological and psychological framework is one of wholeness, meaning that the essence of our true selves is immutably whole (already perfect?), even when we are feeling completely broken. Even if our hearts and bodies have been shattered, trampled on, and betrayed, the core of the soul is still present and intact.
How do we hold brokenness and wholeness simultaneously? And what if we feel/fear our souls have been broken too?
These feelings and questions are so often kept hidden from others; what might happen if we risk speaking them out loud to one another?
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
–Leonard Cohen
How do you experience your own wholeness and brokenness?