Dear Marina,
At 20 you know very little about life yet you sense that there is something much more to what your five senses are telling you.
What you perceive is an illusion, but you don’t know that yet.
Dig deeper for you will find the truth.
Authenticity
I see that you are already weaving your mask. The mask that you think the world wants to see. But that is not who you are.
Put the needle and thread down, they are not necessary. For the mask will serve no purpose but to hide the real you.
Stand naked in front of the mirror and see your beauty.
Stand naked in front of others and let them see your magnificence.
Stand naked in front of God and be grateful.
Relationships
You will meet many people. Some will be in your life 20 years from now, but most will come and go.
Relationships will offer the greatest lessons, especially the ones you hurt and hurt you.
People serve as mirrors into your soul. What you dislike most about your partner is what you dislike most about yourself. Use that as a guide to purify your heart.
Change your thoughts to love, instead of molding the other person to how they should be according to your ego. Apply the latter and it will be a fruitless effort.
Life Purpose
Through decades, you will continue to ask your purpose in life but you’re searching for answers in the wrong places.
The answer is not out there. It’s not in the farthest corner of the world, even though you’ll soon discover your love for travel.
And it’s definitely not in your lover or anyone else for that matter.
The answer is not without but within.
You also ask the wrong questions.
Ask from your true self, your spirit, and your consciousness, not from your ego.
Ask from stillness, and the search will cease.
Ego questions like what can I get out of life or how much money can I make or how can I get the biggest house or how can I attract a handsome partner will receive ego answers.
Instead ask: how can I serve others in the best of my ability?
When you ask this question genuinely you are aligning your purpose with the Universe.
You are allowing the Universe instead of the ego to lead the way. From here on, all that is required of you is to be alert and be open to receive.
Adversity
At 20 you have felt little pain. Yet you want inner peace. There is a darkness deep within that taints your experience. Your ego has got a grip on you from an early age, and it will continue its choke hold unless you realize that it’s illusory.
The darkness in you is where your ego likes to loiter. Your ego doesn’t want any light shone upon it, as darkness is its home.
Love is the light. Open the doors and windows of your heart, so that light can penetrate through, and that no crevices of your being shall remain dim.
As you get older you will reach mountains but you will also traverse many valleys. There will be days where trekking these valleys will seem like a punishment without end.
Although you might not understand it now, but the trying times will be the greatest gifts more valuable than gold.
These are the times when answers will be presented. But you will need to open your heart in order for you to receive them.
Shut your heart and your ego strengthens its grip.
Fears
At an early age, you already have many fears. Fears are the domain of the ego.
These fears will make you stay up at night and they will bring you to tears.
Fears will keep you in the past and the future, but not in the now where your ego doesn’t want you to be because it wants glory. It is selfish and powerful.
They will drive you from relationships and coerce you into them. You will cause and receive pain because of fear.
Fear will prevent you and others from seeing your magnificence. Your full potential will be stagnate because you’re afraid.
Fear will close your heart and prevent love from penetrating within you and without.
Fear will shut out God.
What you will realize is that fear is not real. It is a mere illusion that the ego creates to prevent you from accessing your magnificent being, your true self.
By removing the layers of pretense created out of fear, you allow your authenticity to come through and out.
Through stillness and love, you can allay your fears.
Through stillness and love, you will find the truth.
Through stillness and love, you will awaken from your dream.
Writer and globe wanderer, who's interests not only take her to distant corners of the world, but also to undiscovered regions of her inner Self. Marina is a student and facilitator of A Course in Miracles (ACIM). She practices forgiveness and gratitude to transform her relationship with herself and others.
Hi Marina, thanks for sharing your life lessons. Those were really helpful.