When I was in elementary school, my mother brought me to her office party. I was chatting with her colleague, and I suddenly said to him,
“You look really different on the inside than you do on the outside.”
I was really saying, “I see your wholeness. I see who you really are, instead of the way you are presenting yourself to the world. I see your light!”
He was bemused, and slightly intrigued about what I meant because he knew I was onto something, yet he was intellectually trained to look outside, not inside. What I saw was a sensitive and kind person wearing a thick veneer to survive in the world.
He was highly intuitive, just like me, but because he wasn’t aware of it, he didn’t know how to manage that sensitivity in an effective way to support his life except to build a protective wall.
I was genuinely excited to share this insight with him because I thought he would be delighted that finally someone saw him. My innocent observation was shared as a healing intended to help evolve his awareness and streamline his soul purposes.
In my mind this was the best gift I could imagine giving him because I knew it was a key to happiness. After all, what could be better than being seen for who you really are and having someone highlight your unrecognized capability!
While that’s all true, since then, I have learned a lot about who is ready to see and be seen. Seeing and being seen is really one and the same, isn’t it? As you see the truth within yourself, you also see the truth of others. This is foundational for our spiritual growth.
At some point, everyone experiences not being seen. Feeling unseen is a common theme in our culture, made even more frequent as the pace of life speeds to levels of distraction and discord that are off the charts.
On the other hand, when someone does see us, beyond our outer appearance, it’s an enlightening experience for the simple reason that it lightens the load we carry, and helps us remember who we are. It helps us laugh through the rough terrain of life. Part of this is noticing that we are way more powerful than we might recognize.
This is why I find the practice of developing clairvoyance or clear-seeing to be a natural and totally authentic expansion of ourselves. Living our life from a grounded relationship to our intuitive levels of awareness lets us see, be seen, and opens space for our life to be guided from our innermost wisdom and higher creativity.
Traveling the world, I love being surprised at who just naturally sees beyond my outer appearance! It’s often people who are grounded, at home in their bodies, which lets us be present to see.
When you’re out and about in the world, notice when you are seeing beyond the cover or presentation, and notice who naturally sees you!
Whenever this happens it’s a healing for both people. In the bigger scope of life this practice of awareness effortlessly dissolves walls and creates a unity that joyfully ripples . . . out of sight.
When you experience this kind of every day accessible transformation, you might just feel happy for no reason, or be inspired by a brief connection with someone, or you may feel deeply at home in yourself, no matter where you are.
by Gwyneth R Flack, M.A.