I PromiseYou:  Your Heart Will Speak Beautiful, Magical Things to You.

A Message to the Graduates of 2016




You are precious and beautiful.There is no one on earth like you.  Iknow what you are going to say.  From where you are  now, you may not be able to fully believe me. We live in a complicated and loud world.  It will try to tell you who you shouldbe and it will make you feel that who you are is not nearly enough.  Never have these voices been louder,more confusing or more demanding on young people than they are now, and it'sjust not right.    

You need - you deserve-reinforcements to emphatically tell you that these external messages are false and should not define you.

And if you’ve ingested them andbelieve them, it is also not yourfault.  We allhave.  Most of the time adults who would genuinely want to help youto understand this are held back from doing so because they are too busy anddistracted trying to deal with their owninsecurities.  They may notrealize you are struggling with the same questions they have about themselvesevery day. 

So I ask you to listen to me,because I see you .  I notice the struggle. I feel it as my own.  I am a woman who has walked where you walk now, with the same kindsof hopes, dreams, insecurities, pressures and worries and a lifetime ahead yetto be shaped.

I can tell you that any time I’vespent conforming to someone else’s idea of who I should be ended up being awaste of time.  It doesn’t matter if the message is coming from someonewho loves you, or if it is someonein the media in a position of authority who you assume knows better thanyou.

 No oneknows better than you about this particular topic:  you.  No one is in a better position toknow what wonders you contain.  

And in many ways, since you have not yet been buried in the routines of adultlife, you are actually in a position of more clarity to notice what is wrongwith this world.  And I tell youthere is a lot that is not as it should be.   

Your truth about that is a gift tous all. Speaking up about it does not mean you are weak or whiny.  Itmeans you are brave.  It means you are a truth teller.  And the worldneeds more truth tellers. That is why I am committed to being one right now. For you. We can be truthtellers together. 

You may not realize it, but it isso easy to skip the step of really getting to know yourself  at this time in your life.  And by getting to know yourself I don’t meanyour exterior image - but what reallymoves you and lights you up from deep inside.  Believe me, because Iknow:  before you know it, you are anadult consumed with paying the bills, proving yourself, and focused on takingcare of the next generation.   It will be harder and harder to findyourself if you haven’t already started to look when you were young. There are a lot of adults walking around who long ago lost the spark of who they really are. They think they are roles.  They think they are achievements.  They think they are the stuff they own. But I can tell you that none of these things are who we are. And it's a good thing, because all these things are fleeting and subject to change at any moment.  Only "who we are" is completely in our control.  Only "who we are" lasts a lifetime.   And because roles, achievements and stuff  are not who we actually are, they can never succeed in making us permanently happy and secure with ourselves.   
So my advice to you is this:  give yourself the permission to get to know what makes you happy and alive now.  Instead offocusing on all the things that aren’t perfect in your life, or all the waysthat you may think YOU are not perfect, cultivate a space where you can dreamyour own dreams without editing of any kind.  You see, I've learnedthat the most important relationship you can ever cultivate is a relationshipwith yourself.    The most important life habit you can everdevelop is to be able to listen to your heart, then to boldly claimthe truth you find as real, valid and important. Because it is real, valid and important.  

And I do mean this quite literally.  Listen.  Focus on that place inyour chest where your heart is.  Just linger and listen.  Some peoplehear these messages more clearly through art, music, movement or journaling. Walking or sitting quietly in nature is also a way to deepen yourheart-listening. You may have to listen for a long time before you hearanything.  But listen.

I promise you, if you do any ofthese things enough, your heart will speak beautiful, magical things toyou.  It will remind you who you really are.  It will fill you upwith an endless well of aliveness and connection, and you will suddenly realizethat everything you’ve been told about the scarcity of love and acceptance isn’ttrue.

  

You do not have to earn love.  

You can never lose it. 

It doesn’t come from outside ofyou.  

Because you ARE love. You can source what you need directly from within; 

by respecting yourself, 

by following your hunches, 

by discovering what you reallylove to do, 

by saying “no” to anything thatdoes not feel good or right to you.

You've never been a label, a dress size, an accomplishment, a race, a gender, abody, a socioeconomic class, an IQ.  You are far more precious and uniquethan any label or category could ever portray.  While some people may makeyou believe you need to be this or that, the much bigger calling is what theuniverse needed – and intended – you to be. And only you can really knowthat, from within.  

I’ve learned that the universe is an unfathomably intelligent system, andnothing is created that was not in some cosmic way called forth by someexisting need.  YOU were called forth. And that is no accident.  

That is no small thing. 

You matter. 

You were needed.   

Can you feel the monumental pullof that? 

If you are the answer, what wasthe universe’s question? Now, this isa question worth a lifetime of inquiry. Thisis a question that gets you somewhere in life.

Every person you touch with your presence is forever changed by you, and thisis true worth. This is true power.  This is true meaning and purpose. And this iswhy you being you is so important to me. Because if you somehow miss expressing the core of who you are, what makes youcome alive, neither I nor anyone else will have the benefit of 

your light, 

your joy, 

your unique expression.   

So your task is actually quitesimple.  Be fully you.  And if you think about it, trying to beanybody else for any reason will never lead to showing you how lovable youreally are, because you will never really know if people are in love with youor in love with some false image of you that you have created.  Do you seehow the pretend self actually creates separation between you and the love youseek; separation between you and YOU? 

I can only tell you that my lifedidn’t come fully alive until I dared to claim my authentic self, until Ibelieved I was enough to deserve the life I’d dreamed of.  When I chose toalign with me, a path of grace andease unfolded, and I’ve been on it ever since.  

And just in case you think this isselfish,  I want to tell you that lovefor your authentic self can’t help but spread love out in every direction toothers.  Loving oneself isn't narcissism.  It's an investment in thefuture, not just in your own future, but in the future of people youhaven’t yet met or may never directly meet.  This is because Love is achain reaction, one whose starting point is in each and every one of us. Andmagical things happen when love is at the center. 

I’ve come to learn that love is a form of activism.  It transforms. It liberates.  And this is how we co-create the kind of world we reallywant to live in:  by loving our authenticselves well.   Like the dynamic, evolving universe we live in, we arealways evolving and creating something never seen before, something beautifuland magical and one of a kind. Please don’t miss discovering your one of a kindstory.  Don’t miss telling your one of akind story.  Please, dare to be you.

I want you to experience theprofound sense of peace, harmony and happiness available to you in thisprecious life of yours.  You do not need to re-live the "never goodenough" messages you’ve ingested in the past by ingesting them in thepresent or future. We can break the chain of “never enoughness” and setourselves free forever.    

May youalways know that

you wereborn enough

you havealways been enough.

you alwayswill be enough.

May yourdream for your life be the one and only map you follow. 

May youknow you are none other than 

love,sweet love 

discovering 

itself.

A perfect answerto the universe’s great need.

           

Laurie McCammonis the author of Enough!  How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World withJust One Word (Conari Press - April 1, 2016) and host of TheEnough Message blog on Blogspot.  You can connect with Laurie by leaving your comments below or by liking and following her on Facebook at "Laurie McCammon author"  and Twitter @EnoughMessage  Her website is:  http://www.lauriemccammon.com

Laurie McCammon, MS is author of Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, published by Conari Press April 1, 2016. www.lauriemccammon.com https://www.facebook.com/EnoughLibera...