Insecurities

If you’re human, I think it’s safe to say that you have or have had insecurities about decisions you made, your body, relationships, or a host of other things.

Making judgements can cause emotions to come up. Sometimes we make them because we perceive someone else to be more than we are. We don’t feel like we are enough when we are in comparison. As we judge, we feel judged by others and think they can see our flaws, so we put on a mask of ‘overconfidence’ or ‘I don’t care’, which makes us feel like an imposter inside.

What makes us doubt ourselves?

Where did it begin?

Think about a young child and how they just do their thing, never seeming to doubt themselves. They have a fierce sense of self. It’s only as we get older and seek approval that we start doubting ourselves. As we doubt ourselves, fear, masked as insecurity, starts to run the show. We give our power away to emotions and that keeps us from doing things we want to do.

I have had lots of insecurities in my life. Many times, they kept me from doing or saying things I wanted to. The fear kept me small, kept me from growing into the person I wanted to be. As I look back, some of the things I was insecure about were laughable. Growing up, I was so insecure about the size of my feet. My mom used to say that a person my size would look funny with little bitty feet. That really didn’t help, even though she was right,I still wanted little feet.

I have gotten over being insecure about my size 11 shoes and stopped squeezing them into shoes that are too small.

I have learned to step into insecurities.

Whenever I feel insecure, I pause and ask myself if what I’m feeling is from my younger self. Most of the time it is. I tell my younger self that this older, (much older), wiser self is in charge now. Then I thank her for reminding me that I have options.

Feeling insecure now is simply a reminder to stretch myself, to choose trust over fear.

When we change the world changes.