Am I the most myself
When I am all alone?
Free from others’ judgement,
All the feelings and thoughts I own.

But the voices of the critics
Don’t enter through my ears.
They emanate from within,
And they’re borne from past cried tears.

Too fat, too skinny, too dumb, too lazy,
Worthless, useless, inadequate, and crazy.

These adjectives we conform to
To make us “accepted” by society,
Are dungeons created by our minds
Guards armed with shame and anxiety.

When we take a broader look around
See everyone else serving their terms,
We realize no one else is judging us
With nearly as much cruelty or concern.

We all suffer from the same condition
Of being too afraid to be seen.
So at the risk of rejection we can dismissively say,
“They never knew the real me.”

Yet we profoundly underestimate
Our deep need to be understood.
Over time if we abandon ourselves,
Our spirit loses its shine for good.

We find it hard to fully own
The power we have within
To completely shape our realities
It’s safer to never begin.

The most courageous among us
Will undergo this quest.
Plunging into their greatest fear
of being outcasted by the rest.

But that is just a distortion,
One we can’t fight at face value.
To disarm the guards of the dungeons,
You have to look within you.

The blueprint to your inner self,
You already knew at birth.
The keys to being your absolute truest
are acceptance, compassion and self worth.