Beth's
Ponderings
A while back I was
listening to some women discussing confidence, in particular body confidence,
but more specifically why they FEAR confidence because displaying any form of
confidence means that one becomes a target for personal attacks, ridicule, and
shame.
How on earth did we
get to the point in our society where that is the pervading belief we are
taught and hold?
Think about this
for a moment...when was the last time you saw someone confidently accomplish
something (ie a musician play a complex movement), or a person confidently
enter a room, and your first thought was “I have to attack them,” or your first
action was to find someway to humiliate them in order to destroy their
confidence?
I’d be willing to
bet that your first reaction was more along the lines of “I wish I was like
that!”
We don’t, as a
rule, start a battle with a truly confident person because confidence is a form
of strength, and a truly confident (meaning not arrogant or pompous) person has
no desire, or need, to battle with anyone.
Yet, we’re taught (especially
females) that if we are confident in anyway that we are hurting others, and
making them look bad, so we must dim our lights and play small. We must not show our strengths at all as
others will be threatened by them.
That is so WRONG!
We should be
celebrating our strengths and confidently display them as an EXAMPLE for others
to follow, thereby giving them permission to also confidently display their own
strengths. That would be a much better
lesson to teach our children than teaching them to hide who they naturally are,
and would create a better society.
Changing that
cultural norm won’t happen overnight, yet each of us has at least one area
where we are truly confident in our abilities and strength. All we need to do is start there - in that
one area - by shining our lights, and then it will spread to other areas and
other individuals.
After all, a chain
is made strong, and more valuably useful, by its strongest links, not the weak
ones.
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua25/home/February%2015%2C%202019%20Chaurauqua.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
