Playing It Small? WHY?!
Hi, welcome to the fourth and final video in our “Bargain-Hunting Pitfalls” series. Today we are talking about “Playing It Small.” When we bargain hunt we are trying to bring things into our life with as little investment as possible – in the case of bargains, the investment is money. The larger problem here is that money is just a form of energy. If we’re not willing to spend money to bring high-quality things into our lives then it is also likely that we are not investing the rest of our energies either. Things like intention and attention and time and patience and compassion – all those things that we need to apply to ourselves in order for us to havethe best life possible.
We are likely not investing in those ways in ourselves, which means we are bringing into our lives things that require as little investment as possible, as little thought, as little intention, as little money as possible. We’re likely surrounded by things that are either not useful to us are actually harmful to us because they’re getting in the way of our true energy and our true giftedness. We are playing it small. When I say “playing it small” I mean that we are not fully realized in our giftedness. We’re not fully free, not feeling abundant and joyful and inspired. We are not fully healed, not fully vibrant. Not only are we not those things, but we’re trying to be okay with not having those things.
Trying to Play Bigger?
In order to not play small we have to be committed to bringing into our lives the right things, the right conditions, so that we can feel supported and thrive. It reminds me of a summer when I was a teenager, and I worked with my grandfather at his sock shop. Before my grandfather let me start working he made sure all the conditions were correct for me. He made sure I had the right shoes on, and that the temperature was correct in the space. He made sure the table was the right height for me to work at. In fact he made me stand on the block because I was a little too short!
If it had been up to me I probably would have just started working without making these adjustments. But my grandfather explained to me that employees are investments and you have to protect those investments and make sure all the conditions are right. If you don’t, the employee is likely to get tired or even injured, and the work will suffer.
Life’s Investment: Us!
As I was thinking about that, it occurred to me that that life invests through us when we are brought into the world. Each one of us is purposefully manifested on this earth. Each of us is filled with these amazing gifts and talents and kindnesses and compassion and intellect. Life invests so that it will get good work out of us!
Our job as humans is to make sure that investment is protected and freed to do what it needs to do in the world. Playing it small is not what we’re here for.
The Trouble with Visibility
One reason we might choose to play it small is because we are trying to be invisible. This is a big problem for me, I can tell you! One reason we might want to be invisible is because at another time in our lives, when we were visible, it didn’t go well for us. We were being ourselves without censoring our actions and somebody criticized us or told us we needed to be different, or we didn’t get celebrated the way we really should have. It’s even possible that when we were visible something bad happened to us, like we were violated or attacked. In our minds we think being visible is dangerous and we’re trying to play it small so nobody sees us.
I just want to be clear that things that have happened in the past could very well be traumatic and difficult, but they do not have to have power unless we agree to them having power. What’s in the past is already dead, and the capacity to heal yourself is here at the present. If you decide you don’t want that story to be your story there is a way to release it, and your soul knows the way.
The second reason we might be trying to be invisible is because we sense that when we become visible we will actually be very powerful, and we’re intimidated by that. There’s that wonderful quote by Marianne Williamson which says something like the greatest fear we have is not that we are weak but that we are powerful beyond measure. I know from my own experience when I started working in spiritual healing and I began feeling things shifting and moving because I wanted them to move, I began to realize that there was a lot of power inside of me. It really did make me nervous, mainly because I just wasn’t sure that I was able to handle it.
We Are the Manifestation of Life Itself!
I think that comes from another misconception we have, that we really are these small fragile humans. We don’t realize that we are the manifestation of life itself! One of the steps we take to grow into our “bigness” is learning how to have faith in ourselves, to believe in ourselves and trust ourselves. We are created to do this. We do know how to be powerful. We just have to give ourselves some practice and some support, and really build for ourselves the lives that will make that possible.
What is it that you need to have your big life? Is it going to amazing places on vacation to learn new things, or going to classes that inspire your mind? Is it surrounding yourself with the right group of people or surrounding yourself with the right location, like going to the mountains or the beach? What is it that you need so you’re not playing it small? Are you willing to invest yourself in getting those things to you, whatever they are and whatever that investment is. It means spending time listening to your heart, spending intention around your need, and spending money to make it happen. What would happen if you invested in yourself everything that you need to be who you are gonna be? How amazing would that be? How powerful would you be, and what would happen? I think it’s worth finding out!