@kellymagovern / kellymagovern.tumblr.com
"You will cringe at somebody that you want to be like because deep down you're scared of being that thing. So the safer thing to do is to cringe at them instead of admitting you want to be like them. It's safer to cringe at the loving, happy, blissful, creative, expressive, sad, angry, hurt, spiritual person than it is to admit that you're those things, but you're scared of them. That's why one of the greatest spiritual practices is to become your own cringe." —Thomas Ohehir [x]
We shrink away from the experiences that make us feel squeamish: fear, awkwardness, shame, self-consciousness, and the like. Not knowing how to manage the involuntary cringe, we try to force a deliberate ignorance to make it go away. We avert our gaze, cover our face, or look at our phones.
Some people want so badly to avoid feeling cringe that they will carefully shape their words and actions, continuously monitoring and censoring themselves until it becomes conditioned into their consciousness.
When we kill the part of ourselves that is cringe, we become rigid and contrived. We lose access to the freshness and authenticity discovered in unconditioned spontaneity. As a result, we also become predictable and more easily manipulated.
What is the alternative? Freedom, of course.
If instead of hiding you stay with the experience, feeling all the cringe and enduring all the squeamishness, you create the opportunity to see through its illusion. You weaken and eventually break the power these experiences had over you.
Continue on that path long enough and you will awaken from the cringing fake self entirely.
"Once I accepted that I am cringe, I was free to become my true self." —Buddha 😂😂😂
