Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, I want to talk about how we can sometimes mistake our fear of being seen for humility. So I want to start by sharing a quick story. I had a friend who had an opportunity to take a leadership position within her company. It would often involve her being on a stage presenting, organizing different events where she was, in many ways, the center of attention, or at least the organizing force behind it.

And it did involve being seen a lot. And the narrative that she told herself, because she ended up not taking it was one of, you know, I don't really need to do something like that. I don't need the spotlight. I prefer not to be in the spotlight. And it had this flavor of trying to be humble, almost as if it was a virtuous thing to let someone else take that position.

But over time as the years went on and we talked more and more about it and look back on that moment, what emerged was less that this was a an experience of humility and a virtuous decision and more that it was actually a fear of being seen, a fear of taking up space, a fear of putting herself out there. And this is a common experience that I see a lot. I've also seen it for myself, where we can mistake our fear of being seen for humility or at least position our fear of being seen as humility. And disguising fear as a virtue is a convenient way to avoid feeling the pain of not having stepped fully into our life. If we do feel fear around doing something, which inherently has some discomfort to it and we don't want to take on that fear or move through it, one of the ways that we can justify it or the mind justifies it is by saying, well, you know, I don't need to do that.

I'm fine where I am right now. I'm a humble person. I don't need the spotlight. Someone else can take that on. Do you see how that narrative can be a compelling way and a convenient way for us to not actually moved through some discomfort that does involve us stepping into something that may be uncomfortable and fearful, but is actually important for us to live a more fully expressed life? Now I'm not saying we have to move through all those fear barriers.

And I'm not saying we have to move into positions of being seen, if that doesn't feel right for us. But I do want to invite you to explore this in your own life and maybe times where it can be a convenient switching of language or reframing of the experience as, oh, I'm just, I'm taking a back seat. I'm letting someone else have the spotlight. When really it's a fear of taking up space and being seen, and that might be a growth edge for you. Sometimes the growth edge is the opposite.

We're very comfortable being seen and what we do need to do is practice taking a back seat for someone else. So it's, it's always a process of discernment for what our path is and where we are in that moment. But I hope it's something that you can consider on your own growth journey. That fear of being seen is not the same as humility, but sometimes we can hide behind the virtue of humility to not feel the pain that comes with not stepping into our life fully. Thank you for your practice.

Let's settle in for today's meditation.