Accept Your True Identity-- And SHINE!

Be who you are. This is a primary lesson of Recovery programs. Most of us with addictive personalities have been running from who we are since childhood, when we first got the message that being ourselves wasn't "good enough."

Well, Recovery teaches us we are good enough just as we are. And that we need to accept ourselves, faults and all, instead of trying to be false, shiny, plastic images of our true selves.

Owning our true identities means we have to reprogram our thoughts about ourselves. Recovery helps us to weed-out the lies we learned to believe about ourselves and to nourish the flowers that are waiting to grow in our souls.

It also means that we have to face and accept all of our feelings. As Stephen C. Paul says in his book Illuminations, "Emotions pass like clouds across the sky. They're to be noticed, accepted, acknowledged and allowed to flow on." 

Accepting our difficult feelings is essential to accepting our true selves. Sometimes we need to face the difficult feelings from the past that we suppressed. I often have difficult feelings surface that I know have nothing to do with the present moment. So I also know that they are feelings I stuffed when I was believing lies people were telling me about myself.

I no longer suppress those feelings. I allow them to be present. I notice, acknowledge and accept them. I allow myself to feel them until they flow on and out of my system. By doing so, I free myself from past shame and more fully come to accept myself as I am. 

If, like me, you were taught to suppress your true identity; if you've been hiding behind various masks, or fake selves, it's time to realize that being false to yourself causes you more pain than making the effort to discover, accept and love your true self.

Be true to yourself. Accept your body as it is. Accept your talents as they are. Accept your personality just as it is. Accept your gender or sexual orientation. Accept your ethnicity or the color of your skin. Accept all of these, and everything else about yourself including your feelings, because everything you truly are is a gift from God-- no matter what anyone else may have told you. Your value is all in how God created you-- perfectly-imperfect and more than "good enough!" 

So accept your true identity, reveal it to the world around you and shine from the inside out. Anyone who doesn't like your true identity is inconsequential to your life. Forget them. They most likely don't accept or like themselves. Pray for them and continue to shine your true light into the world around you!