I’ve been wrestling lately with the difference between my limitations and my limiting beliefs. As I look ahead to our upcoming move, I don’t want to succumb to outdated gender roles that have me doing all the moving and managing. I also don’t want to pretend that a year of transition for our whole family doesn’t necessitate my attention and won’t change the way I spend my time.
I don’t want to live according to the limiting beliefs around women. I don’t want to live according to my own insecurities and the way I limit my own potential with messages that I am not good enough.
But I do want to acknowledge and live within my very real human limitations.
My limitations return me to my general humanity, beginning with neediness. My need for sleep and sustenance. My need for love and relationship. My limitations also reveal my particular humanity through my particular needs for time alone and for writing and reading. Those same limitations remind me that I’m not great at all things. I don’t love gardening. Or decorating. Or large crowds. Or cheering at sporting events. If I accept my humanity, I accept that these things I sometimes perceive as deficiencies are simply part of who I am. Limited. Needy. Vulnerable. Dependent. And beloved.
As I look ahead to an uncertain future, I’m looking for ways to receive my limitations without limiting the possibilities for growth that lie ahead.
I want to reject limiting beliefs as the lies that they are and receive limitations as a gift.
More with Amy Julia:
- S5 E3 | The Spaciousness of Limits with Ashley Hales
- Englewood Review of Books Podcast: Disability and Limitations
- Disability and the Speed of Love with Dr. John Swinton
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