Empathy – deep, genuine listening – is risky business, and unless we are inwardly secure we will not feel that we can afford that risk, but it is certainly one of the most powerful expressions of love.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who I am to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t
feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, but in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our
presence automatically liberates others.