The Approval of Others
Dropping the need for approval is the first step to living Ikigai.
The Awkward Yeti by Nick Seluk
This cartoon and the reflections it represents are as amusing as they are true.
When we stop seeking approval from others, our life changes. It changes, even more, when we stop demanding that others receive our approval.
🌀Reflection:
🌱For one day, reflect on each time you feel the need for approval or feel judged by others. How much of your day is spent in this space?
🌱Now, another day, notice and reflect each time you ‘judge’ someone else.
🌱 In the days following, begin to release others from judgment and notice how often you ‘need’ the approval of or feel the judgment of others.
Each individual is gifted with his own unique perspective and even a collection of all perspectives of different individuals, past, present or future, put together doesn’t make it a perfect whole. There will always remain a countless number of missing pieces and when we join forces to become one mass we can at least cobble up together a workable fragment. ‘Approval’ or ‘disapproval’ are societal creations trying to seek sterile order amid the evolutionary chaos. Explorers, discovers and pioneers refuse to be abused by them; they’re guided by their inner compass, fearless and unfazed by what an inanimate, impersonal and artificial creation called ‘society’ approves, validates or repudiates.
I like very much the concept, however, if this has been something you have been leaving with for years, how to get rid off it? Starting by observing ourself and identify this thoughts is key.....but then what? I am afraid it is not just willpower right?