Forum | Episode 6 – Being You

This was a brillient topic. It's exactly what I needed to hear!

This is going to have to go down into a little toolkit for when I feel low and unsatisfied with who I am. It nice to be reminded that not only am I not alone in hating things that are unchangeable but you can over come this and finfd the thing that make you "you" valuble.

Brill show! Thanks

IT was exactly what I needed to hear at this moment in my life. This podcast was crazy on point for me. For the past six months i have been working in a record store. I quit my teaching job because that was not my path and thougth that I needed to do something creative. Well after six months the only thing that I have done creative is to learn and master poverty. So I am finding my way out of it and can onlt hope that by asking what can i do will new doors open for me. Thanks it let go of a lot of guilt!

I'm still thinking about this episode.  It is incredibly important, valuable advice to be who you are and not who you think you should be–but it's harder than it sounds.  It all comes back to knowing yourself–which you talked about back in the Dark Side of Fey.  It can be really hard to distinguish between what you need to put some hard work into, and what is just never going to happen.  At least, I know I'm still trying to figure that out.

Who am I anyway?  Beats me.  =)  At least I can say that the gods don't expect me to have it all figured out by now.

Thanks for another thought-provoking podcast!

The honesty is this episode is beautiful. Thank you! There is a dimension to this that I've come across in my practice that I have found to be true. When you get out of the way, as Feithline says, and give up those long-held but unrealized dreams, sometimes a surprising thing happens… you end up realizing the exact dream you've given up! It's wonderful but true.  I suspect it may be the "wanting" attachment that often gets in the way of the attaining. I've had two powerful examples of this in my own life in the past few years.  Knowing I am a writer, but never being able to produce a novel, I gave up on the idea and simply continued on with those aspects of writing that do work for me (journaling, essays). When the muse finally showed up and sat on my head with a book to write, I was grateful and got to work.  The difference is I no longer needed to write a novel to "prove" myself as a writer, etc. (btw, I'm in edit mode now).

The other was finding home, which I thought had to be in the country – in the mountains. After years and years of fruitless struggle to make this happen, I surrendered this to the One, and knew that I could create happiness, even in the middle of a city if that is where my true work was.  Two months later, the opportunity to live in the mountains arose with no struggle or effort on my part.  Of course you must truly give these things up, and not just say so in your head.  It's a heart thing.

Thank you again, Feithline, for reminding us of the importance of finding who we really are and being on our true path.  Blessings!

I loved this episode. I've been aware for a long time that one of my skills is actually telling people what they want to hear — I do very well on standardized tests — but only recently have I realized that that sometimes leaves me little space to be myself, instead of just what other people want me to be. It's taking some time to dig through the layers.

Yesterday I was at a meeting — theoretically for a student organization, really a last get-together of friends before the holidays — and we all talked about our plans for those few blessed weeks without homework. I'm making candy for family holidays, and upgrading my computer, and reading up on ancient Irish poetry…and as I was chatting with one woman about my intention to start going to SCA fletcher's guild and making my own arrows, since I think I've gotten good enough at archery to warrant it, she said, "You're so accomplished!" And I hardly knew what to think, because "accomplished" has never been a word I'd use to describe myself. I always feel like there's so much to do that I'm not good enough at. But, well, she's right. I am accomplished, I can do a lot of things most people can't do, and I take a great deal of joy from these things.

I think it's easy for a lot of us to focus on the things we can't do, because it's considered…unseemly to talk about the things we can do, the things we're good at. It's so hard to assess our skills accurately, and to figure out where the line between honesty and bragging is, or where someone else's sensitivities might lie. It's easier to talk ourselves down, to bond with others in the "not good enough" category (is it just students who do this, or is it everyone?), than to really take responsibility for being good at something.