by Gundula Welti
06 Apr 2020
“1 m 80 [5’9″]?” said the person I was talking to, somewhat taken aback. Well, yes actually, I am every single one of those centimetres. But the thing is, I have spent my entire life compacting them by tilting my hip to one side, hanging my head or stooping to make myself appear the same height as my shorter compatriots.
I used to make myself physically and metaphorically smaller: “I didn’t go to university”, “I’m blonde”, “I haven’t got a witty reply to everything”, or “I don’t understand anything” are all things I’ve heard myself saying all my life.
Nelson Mandela was right when he said: Our deepest fear is not that we are weak. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
For my 50th birthday, I bought myself my nth pair of high-heeled shoes, because women in high heels always look like someone to be reckoned with. I also enrolled on a Master’s degree, because it’s never too late to learn, but the main gift I gave myself was permission to say that I’m clever, that I’m bubbling over with enthusiasm and full of common sense, and most of all, that I’ve got a talent for inspiring others!
Is that big-headed of me? Perhaps. But it’s a much more effective springboard than always starting off by saying that I’m useless!
What about you? What inner light would you like to shine out so that you can change the world in 2018?
by Gundula Welti
06 Apr 2020
When I’m hiking, I’m sometimes overtaken by faster, younger hikers with lighter rucksacks. On other occasions, it’s me that does the overtaking, in which case I think that their rucksack must be really heavy.
The truth is that I’ve no way of knowing how much their rucksack weighs. Is it full of lead or is it full of feathers? Are they whistling as they walk or are they struggling along? Are they half or twice the age they appear?
Sometimes, I can hear myself judging someone’s pace, gait or particularly annoying posture.
But what do I know about how much their “rucksack” weighs? Would I be capable of carrying the same weight, real or metaphorical? Have they just recovered from a long illness? Are they in mourning?
Which rucksack would you like to open up rather than judging someone blindly?
by Gundula Welti
06 Apr 2020
Life consists of light and shadow. There is no light without shadow and vice versa. When something unpleasant happens to us, we try to understand what we can learn from the shadow it casts.
We try to find the light.
There are people who make us light up, others who dazzle us and others who put us in the shade. Our guides and mentors light the way for us, they share their knowledge and pass on some of their light. They come into our lives and leave us a little brighter.
Then there are those who like to shine and others that dazzle us with who they are or what they do. All we see is the huge shadow in front of us produced by such a radiant light behind us.
It’s not always easy to tell the difference between the two, and we can learn from both. The question to ask yourself is what do you see after spending time with one or the other. Do you see more of your shadow or do you feel a bit brighter?
