I use writing as a practice to penetrate my life; sinking beneath superficial conversations to live from a deeply authentic self. The more I practice writing this way, the more it infuses into the way I speak and interact with others. This allows others to open and reveal themselves as well. 

We live in a world of social politeness, judged by our own internal censor that squelches us, as a way of protecting ourselves from feeling exposed. 

Strip yourself of comfortability. Allow yourself to be awkward. Orient yourself to uncomfortable conversations. Resistance to this is just an ego tactic, reminding you of how you must represent yourself to the world: put together, managing well, perfect on the outside, but perhaps lonely. 

We walk through so many myths of each other and ourselves because of this and long for someone to see us for who we are, to accept us.

You must step out of your frozen self. Expose your life, not how your ego would have you be represented, but how you are as a human being. 

Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist master said, “We must continue to open in the face of tremendous opposition. No one is encouraging us to open and still we must peel away the layers of the heart.”