At first, we believed
these thoughts were trying to protect us.
“Don’t do it.”
“You will look silly.”
“They will make fun of you.”
And so, we listened.
We trusted.
And the thoughts grew in the dark corners of our mind.
They clamped our mouths shut in meetings.
Told us other ideas were always better.
Kept us from reaching out when we needed help.
Told us we were better off this way.
Over time, however, our awareness began to grow.
These thoughts weren’t trying to protect us,
they were stopping us from being
our best,
most courageous,
Self.
These gremlins appeared every time
we were close to something
real,
vulnerable,
valuable.
So we stopped feeding them,
stopped seeing them as warning signs
and began to see them as evidence
we were on the right path.
We starved them of attention,
and they started to shrink.
And we began to grow.
Mind gremlins --
don’t feed them attention in the dark.
They only grow.