How Do I Spiritually Deal With Not Feeling ‘Good Enough?’
Why is this question important to consider in my soul work? Many reasons, here are three:
• Feeling unacceptable can keep us in a place of fear.
• It can also pressure us to do activities in order to feel accepted that do not support inner transformation.
• It can keep our real feelings hidden from even ourselves
Why would you want to pray, or seek the Divine on a deep level if you feel unsure about how God feels about you?
And as Fr. Thomas Keating, Trappist monk and teacher of Christian meditation said, ‘Feeling not good enough creates a large barrier in our mind between ourselves and God.’ Sadly, many of us have felt this way for a long, long time. We do lots to avoid this pain, we stay busy, people please, we avoid God at a deeper level, we let others have too much power over how we feel……. just for openers.
What can we do to begin to address this?
Begin with acknowledging that this is a deep operating force within and set an intention to face it head on.
Next, start to self-observe, get into the inner witness and see when it operates. Notice when you feel this feeling of ‘not good enough’ or even shame. What triggered it? Once aware this is happening, tune into your body; where are you feeling this, how does this feel?
Last, do not try to change it, and this is very important. No matter how much you do not want or do not like feeling this way, you, on your own, cannot change it. Your main effort is to observe and bring it into your awareness. Just watch, experience and be with it.
Simply, breath in and out, and feel. Notice how your mind wants you to run away… just stay with it for a few minutes. This brings it into the LIGHT, and now it begins to change by (I say, ‘grace’) some say, real I, higher energies or whatever language works for you. Usually, this transformation happens gradually.
It’s the acknowledging, the watching, the holding and grace that now transforms it into your becoming aware of your value and worth. You are always enough!
Love and Blessings
— Jean
If you feel inclined to go further….
Write to me at: www.jeanhausmann.com/contact
We can have a talk and see if 1 on 1 work would be useful or perhaps working in a group.
“The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a person’s life, to get behind the facade of conventional gestures and attitudes which are presented to the world, and to bring out the person’s inner spiritual freedom . . .” — Thomas Merton