Bernadette Petrie asks, is how we see ourselves really what others see?

Have you ever considered if what you see in the mirror is different to what other people see? What if they see and experience a really beautiful essence shining through your avatar and it is your limiting beliefs about you that prevent you from seeing what they see – prevent you from seeing who you really are? It is also the limiting beliefs that you have unconsciously picked up, which prevent you from being all those things. Therefore other people get the best of you and you are left wanting.

If you think about the people who like and love you, and how they can light up at the mere sight of you, you might well start to become more curious about what it is that they see that maybe you don’t. 

Your ‘ness’ are all aspects of you which shine through when you are fully present. Some of you will be aware of what it is and others may have no idea. We will all have experienced both perspectives, the better we know and accept ourselves fully the more we see. 

Have you ever seen a photo of you looking at someone you love or doing something that you love – a photo you didn’t know was being taken? If so you will probably agree you look different? Those are the moments when your ness shines through brightly. It’s the GOD (Glorious Onward Direction) essence within us all, which is revealed when we are fully present, enabling the divine part to shine through. This happens to us in moments of time which we may overlook. It is often witnessed by strangers, more so than people who supposedly know us better. Your smile, your compassion, your humanity is a gift you probably give to many more people than you realise. It is the part of us that will never die, and was with us from the beginning. Therefore, in terms of loving and cherishing it is important and right that we learn to own it and step into the presence of it more frequently. From that place we can truly feel at one with the Universe.

I am long time member of an online group calledB School led by Life Coach Marie Forleo. As part of the initial programme, I took in 2014, we had to ask friends and family for feedback about our best qualities. When I reached out to people for feedback it confirmed what I had already begun to own. Mainly the feedback was that people see me as warm, passionate and enthusiastic. 

But for the longest time I could not see this and I certainly didn’t give warmth or love, or with enthusiasm cheer myself on in the way I clearly did to others. However, in the four years post the Priory, that is exactly what I have been doing. Like any good best friend, I began to cheer myself on and was already making sure the woman in the mirror was getting the very best of me too. By being this person in the mirror I was loving and cherishing those parts of me which needed help. I was realising slowly, but surely, that my most important job was to show up more and to shower those attributes towards her. 

By loving and cherishing myself and being even more present, more of me was coming through. No matter what we have experienced – even depression or anxiety, the story we tell is blinkered. Yet our essence has a way of shining through more than we know and we will be blessed by people who see it. Loving and cherishing who you are will mean accepting what is inherently shining through from other people’s perspective. So, please do ask your close family and friends this question. Ask about 25 people; “Please tell me what my best qualities are?” You can then choose to own them and lean into them more. Let yourself be led towards things that will bring these qualities out in you. Your job is to love and cherish yourself for those qualities – that is what your inner-self is crying out for. 

You can buy Bernadette’s book from: NØRDEN 82 High St, North Berwick.