Everyone else says "they're fine", and their facebook lives look so cool. Am I the only one that is really not OK?
You may be wishing that you are different to the way you are right now – or perhaps that others saw you differently. This is very common. In fact, in the top 10 “How to……” google searches of 2016 was “How to accept myself for who I am”.
Sometimes we observe someone else and wish that we were more like them. But remember, you are only seeing what is Open, what they are allowing you to see. There is a whole Hidden side that they keep private.
You see, when you ask, “How are you?”, they respond, just like you do, “Fine thanks”, or “OK”. But this is the “Myth of Okayness”.
If you really ask, and they really trust you, then you realise that everyone has insecurities about who they are, and a set of wishes about how they would like to be different.
Consider the people in the public eye who appeared to have everything and yet were fighting inner battles – Michael Jackson, Paul Gascoigne, Prince Harry, George Michael, Tiger Woods, Kevin Spacey. Who else would you add to this list? And these are just those whose struggles make it into public awareness.
Is it OK for someone else not to be perfect? Of course it is. Is it OK for you to be imperfect? Damn right it is. A perfect human does not exist, cannot exist, and therefore it isn’t you and never will be. I am not perfect and never will be, and neither will you. It’s OK to be OK with not feeling OK about yourself…. we all do in some way; it’s what makes us all human.