I follow people on social media for different reasons. Some accounts inspire, uplift and guide me. Others motivate and show me what’s possible. Other accounts make me wonder why I hit 'follow' in the first place.
I’ve been following this very muscular guy, who claims to know “everything about fitness there is to know!” Seeing any red flags yet? No? Me either. I consistently see his posts and stories. He’s very popular in the lifting world. Post after post I’d swipe by as quickly as I could once I noticed who it was.
His face, his voice, his words, all gave me this feeling of “ick!” I wondered is this jealousy? No, maybe envy? Not quite. What is it about this guy that is touching a nerve? I kept following in the hopes of that feeling magically disappearing (yeah right) or gaining some clarity on what was causing that sensation.
I had a story about who he was by the way he looked. He’s arrogant, has an overinflated ego, people bow down to him for his knowledge and physique. His girlfriend was similar, just add a few augmented pieces to her physical body and we have a pair of twins. There are billions of people, eight billion, to be exact, on this planet. Quite a few of them look like this, talk like this, and I have absolutely no qualms about it, so what is the deal? What is my GD problem?
As I bring my finger to press the ‘unfollow’ button, it clicked. He was helping me to see tucked away feelings I’ve had in the shadows around my fear of coming off as arrogant, or even worse, coming off as the end all be all in my department of work. ICK! Well, look at what we have here, he was helping me see my fears!
Some fears are obvious, but others hide deep within our subconscious mind that it seems impossible to witness unless we have other humans reflecting it to us. When I realized this, just moments before writing this I laughed! I thought to myself “Oh! He isn’t a creep. He isn’t all the things I’ve created a story about, he is a reflection of my fears!” Hence the “ick” sensation I got when seeing or hearing him.
Now that’s worth a re-follow if I’ve ever heard one! I won’t actually, but I did send a mental letter to him, “Thank you. I needed that reflection. You were a wonderful messenger. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Our world is filled with these lovely opportunities to see our stuff, in all its glory, smeared upon another. It’s fantastic and I love it! It helps me feel supported on a very deep level. How could I ever question the ways this miraculous Universe is orchestrated? How could I doubt? This wonderful, magical place we call home on planet Earth is perfectly made for the great quest back home, to who we are at the core.
More to be discovered. Until next time, my friends, take good care!
LM