Why are we so afraid of risking? Think of all the secrets we keep hidden within ourselves. And yet, what is more beautiful than an authentic self?
I find that I keep up a façade because I fear. I’m not sure how others will accept me if they know the real me. So I don’t take that chance. I stay hidden and unknown, a smiling face without revealing the inner heart. I make an unconscious choice to stay lonely rather than risk openness. How wrong that is!
Carl Rogers once wrote I feel a sense of satisfaction when I can dare to communicate the realness in me to another…It is so obvious when a person is not hiding behind a façade but is speaking from deep within herself. When this happens, I leap to meet it. I want to encounter this real person. (16).
We don’t often think about that, that the real self makes others more comfortable, makes them want to leap forward to meet the real me. I suppose there is relief in no longer having to guess. Somehow, meeting someone’s real self invites me to take that risk myself, to be honest, to be open. It’s as though one risk is worth another.
What great friendships come from authentic selves! What wonderful doors open, and paths cross. So how much longer shall we fear to risk?
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