09/14/2025
It can be so easy to limit ourselves, to put up barriers to our expansiveness, create boxes that put limits around us. These limits may be born of self judgement or fear of judgment or lack of acceptance from others.
I had this thought a few years ago when I made a commitment to post a photo of fallen leaves every day for 30 days. (You can find those photos and receive more of the lessons scrolling down to those posts.) As I was taking pictures on the streets of San Francisco for my daily leaf post. I saw a huge leaf relative to what l'd been seeing, and I paused to admire its size.
I didn't take a picture of it though because it wasn't aesthetically pleasing enough. Some version of the thoughts in my head included; "This ones not pretty enough, people won't like this one." I got about a block away and realized I needed to go back. I had self created a limiting belief.
I obviously thought enough of that leaf to stop and admire its size. Yet a fear of the judgement of others mixed with my own judgements about what is worthy prevented me from feeling like I could or even should share something that I found to have a beauty and uniqueness in its size.
I wondered, how else might I be allowing my fear of what others think to limit my self expression, to limit how I show up in the world?
Consciously or unconsciously, what limiting beliefs are you holding on to that prevent you from being your full self?
