“Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.” — Parker J. Palmer
So, if we want to transform ourselves from brokenness to wholeness, we must strive to see ourselves through the eyes of love. As you know, love knows no bounds or limits. Love does not place restrictions or judgement on who we are, but embraces who we are becoming. We are a work in progress and, as alluded to earlier, our work of self-improvement will never be completed in this lifetime.
We can move the needle so far and we ought to be grateful to overcome our challenges so we can become a better version of ourselves. I liken it to painting a masterpiece and devoting our entire life to the task. We might add subtle brushstrokes here and there to create an impression of who we’d like to be.
If you’ve read the book by author Irving Stone titled: The Agony And The Ecstasy, you will know the Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor Michelangelo spent most of his life creating countless masterpieces. For instance, it took him five years to paint the Sistine chapel. His work was one of devotion to beauty and a higher calling, and I invite you to adopt a similar approach to your life. Make your life a devotion to honour the beauty of your soul’s nature.
Is this something you’re willing to give your attention to? Could you stop trying to constantly fix yourself and decide you are perfect as you are? This one change in thinking can transform your life. It requires seeing yourself through the eyes of love and compassion instead of criticism and judgement.
Let’s be real here. I’m not implying each of us is perfect and whole as human beings because we have faults and insecurities. I’m suggesting, as soul beings, perfection and wholeness are our core nature. When we identify with these qualities, we can embody this on a cellular level.
We can bring these qualities into existence by changing our consciousness because, as Albert Einstein once said: “We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” We transcend that aspect of our thinking and create a new awareness in which to relate to ourselves.
This is the essence of this article; to embody the qualities as a soul. And how will you recognise this true nature I speak of? It is vested in purity, love, peace, joy, bliss, wisdom, and perfection, to name a few. Therefore, I invite you to focus on these qualities, through practices like meditation or journaling and bring them into your being.
How can you do this? Let’s take the quality of peace, for example. Try to be more peaceful in the way you communicate with others. You might choose to be less judgemental and critical of other people. You might stop gossiping about others and model yourself to those who embody peace. People like the Dalai Lama or the late Vietnamese Buddhist Monk Thích Nhất Hạnh. Look at someone you can relate to as the embodiment of peace because if that quality exists in them, it is certain you can embody those qualities, too.
Considering this, I invite you to answer the questions in the opening paragraph in your journal or diary. You needn’t complete this in one sitting, so take your time over a week or longer if necessary. Come back to it often and add more to your answers. The more clear you become about who you’d like to be, the more clarity you gain to transcend the limitations of perceiving yourself as broken.
Start by coming home to yourself and getting to know who you are as a soul being and the rest are details. After all, if we spend a lot of time trying to fix ourselves because we have decided we are broken, then we have the power to decide we are whole and perfect.
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