Perfectly Perfect

I have never considered myself "perfect" in any sense of the word. Aside from being a perfectionist and having tendencies of OCD to have things done just the way I want them done and in a manner that I see as "right," the word "perfect" rarely comes to mind when I'm speaking of myself. I've always been on the low end of the self-esteem scale, and even in my finest moments can find eleventy-nine things that I don't like about myself.

In the past few months, however, I've learned that things do tend to be more perfect than most of us are willing to recognize. My meetings with Nithya Shanti and others have begun to shift my thinking. I'm beginning to realize that, as Nithya says, "Everything I need is within me now. Everything is perfect, and joyfully improving." These are somewhat obscure concepts, I think, to most people. But I've come to appreciate the healthy perspective that this type of thinking can give me.

I came across a few different emails and posts today that seem to support the "Everything is perfect" way of thinking. The first was on a friend's Facebook page: "If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough." Pretty profound, when you really think about it. The other was a blog that I read quite often, called Zen Habits. Today's entry is called "You're already perfect." (It's short, I suggest checking it out.) "Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." -Lao Tzu.

All of these concepts that I just mentioned go hand in hand. Be content with everything you do have, instead of focusing on what you don't have, and you'll always be grateful and happy. When you can look inside yourself and realize how much you have to offer the world, you can accept that you are perfect on some level, and you can be grateful and happy. Perfection changes with the moment, and whereas you are perfect already, there is always something that can be changed for the better, so we are all constantly improving. These are all such beautiful concepts to me, and it's a helluva place to find moments of AHA!

I still manage to nitpick and dislike things about myself, but I'm learning to become much more tolerant with myself as well as others for what usually amounts to trivial things. And the major things that I don't like about me I can work to change! I have countless things and people to be thankful for, and in all reality I have absolutely no right to complain about anything. My world is perfectly perfect in this exact moment. And tomorrow, I will improve on it, and my world will be perfectly perfect again. And too the next day, and so on and so on. If you can open your eyes in the morning and say, "I'm alive!" then your world is perfectly perfect, too. It's not always easy to see things in this way - trust me, I know this! - but I think it is well worth every ounce of effort you put into it. The payoff of being able to honestly say "Everything is perfect" unquestionably outweighs the burden of being miserable. Wouldn't you agree?