“Whatever you think you are, that’s not it.”
~ Adyashanti
Many of us live behind layers of assumptions that prevent us from seeing things clearly.
We assume people won’t like us or will reject us. We assume we’ll fail. We assume things won’t go our way. We assume that we actually are the loser our thoughts tells us we are.
What are your assumptions about yourself, other people, or the world? It’s useful to know.
These assumptions are worth recognizing because they powerfully create a limited sense of our living reality. Our everyday experience is based on these beliefs that aren’t even true.
Say that you learned early on not to trust people, which unfortunately happens to some of us. You’re brought up by parents doing their best, but they relate to you with criticism, rejection, or neglect.
If this was your early experience, it makes sense that you would live in the world assuming that others will criticize or reject you.
Then what do you do? You seek out attention and approval, you control the way you present yourself to others, or you avoid relationships altogether. Somehow you attract people who criticize or reject you, completing the circle of unhappiness.
It’s sad and exhausting.
As always when we’re stuck and unhappy, the invitation is to turn our attention toward our own experience with curiosity.
- What are we assuming to be true that isn’t actually true?
- What are the veils that are masking peace and happiness?
An assumption is a highly conditioned belief that makes us think we know how others are going to feel or act.
But it’s a false belief.
Living under assumptions, we lose touch with the freshness of the moment.
And in this freshness, we don’t know how others think or feel. No matter what our thoughts about the past tell us, we don’t know what will happen.
Stepping out from behind the fog of the past, we begin to recognize a spaciousness, here right now, overflowing with new possibilities.
Maybe we are not who our thoughts tell us we are. Maybe our bruised hearts can heal as we discover the place in us that was never wounded.
And from here, maybe we can slowly experiment with new ways of being while also acknowledging the painful places inside:
- Reaching out rather than avoiding;
- Showing a little more of our authentic selves, unveiled;
- Seeing others as they actually are and not how we assume they will be…maybe they are also hurting;
- Bringing kindness to whatever we experience.
Assumptions sit on us like a heavy fog. But behind the fog is the light of your true nature—pure and open.