The thing you are seeking is within you. That book you’re looking to read, the song you want to hear – it’s all within you.

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

• Toni Morrison

Why do you continue to look outside yourself for the answers that you know are deep within you? If only you give yourself the chance to hear them. Do you not trust yourself or believe yourself to be a good enough teacher?

You don’t want to listen to yourself or even consider for a moment that you may have the answers, so you will look elsewhere and take anything else that is offered to you. People with less accreditation, less experience and understanding than you express themselves out loud for all to see – and you take this in because it’s offered.

Not everything that is offered is for you, and this discernment needs to come back if you want to save yourself.

Instead of looking around you for the answers you need or the inspiration you’re so desperate for, bring it closer to home. There’s a whole living creature right in front of your eyes with a working brain, functioning imagination and innovative ideas waiting to be explored, if only you give them the chance.

I know, I know, it’s too difficult. It’s much easier to pick up the screen and choose someone else’s story instead of fighting for your own. I am the first to admit that there’s value in distraction – it can be an effective coping mechanism – but I can also see that there comes a time when it will not do any more for you; you’re doing more harm to yourself than good.

Taking in all this information, even if it is curated and researched to the gods, is not doing yourself any favours. You’re not giving yourself space to figure it out on your own.

When you continue this cycle of consuming blindly, you’re not even getting chance to determine whether anything you’re taking in is right. Deciding whether you agree with something is a significant action in finding who you are and becoming the person you want to be, but you’ll never have the energy to do this when all you do is seek and read and consume.

The entertainment you seek, the advice you desire, the story you want to hear is within you. It’s a call from some deeper part of you that is simply begging to be let out – are you going to answer the call?

Speak soon,

Rachael.

Photo by Joel Naren on Unsplash