“When people went on vacation, they shed their home skins, thought they could be a new person.” Aimee Friedman
I love this quote. Have you ever been somewhere new, perhaps on holiday, where you pretend to be someone different? Where you play around with your identity? Perhaps trying on ways of being that you’d like to be, but don’t have the courage to at home, with the people you know. They might think you’re weird, too much, too different from normal…
When we go somewhere different, we have the opportunity to ‘shed our home skins’, to review what we just accept as the norm.
Whether that’s small daily habits, such as eating, drinking, exercise, managing stress, or bigger things, such as our passions, interests, relationships, work.
Are we the person we want to be? Are we in alignment with our values and goals? Are we living our dharmas? Or are we just going through the motions of daily life, on autopilot, unaware?
There is no judgement here. I have done both.
Sometimes life circumstances mean that getting through those motions of daily life is all we can do. In fact, getting to the end of each day more or less unscathed can be a big achievement!
But if you can and if it doesn’t feel too overwhelming, try asking yourself; Who would you be without your ‘home skin’?
How would you live? How would you interact with others? How would you walk, speak, move? In exactly the same way? Radically differently? Somewhere in between, tweaking a little here and there?
Sometimes being somewhere different can be enough to nudge us, to sow seeds of possibility. That we don’t have to do what we’ve always done. We don’t have to be who we’ve always been.
We can choose again – in small and in big ways. Everyday. And with most things I write and teach about, it all starts with awareness. Noticing, tuning in.
Being aware of what I like to call ‘icky moments’, when something doesn’t feel quite right, or feels out alignment in some way. Becoming curious and exploring. What is this?
And just as importantly, being aware of moments and situations where we feel completely alive. energised, creative, free. Exploring those, so that we can build on them.
Instead of reacting to life, which leaves us on the backfoot and with less agency, we can choose how we want to be in advance.
And then embody it. Which means to feel it physically in the body. To become it. For example, what does my body feel like when I’m feeling completely alive and energised? In which part of my body do I notice that? Does it vibrate, tingle, resonate anywhere? Can I sit with that feeling? And then practice it with intention? So that it grows and gains momentum?
Have you experienced being somewhere different, which has nudged you to reassess? What was that like? Do you know who are you without your ‘home skin’? Is it who you are now, or quite different? Who would you like to be?
I’d love to hear.
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