confidence and joy
Posted on Jun 22nd, 2008
by 
Laura
Laura
You should begin to build up confidence and joy in your own richness. That richness is the essence of generosity. It is the sense of resourcefulness, that you can deal with whatever is available around you and not feel poverty-stricken.
--Chogyam Trungpa
--Chogyam Trungpa
Access: Public
abundance
August 2008 
Great sentiment Laura. Thanks…Albert
Why is the building of joy and confidence such a slow process? Is it because we encourage others to find their confidence outside themselves more than from within? Isn't it actually the case that we find the confidence in ourselves only after we have exhausted ourselves and the horizon of possibilities in the search for it elsewhere?
Is it necessary for others to bolster us up with layer upon layer of their own confidences and joys in order to get us to the point where we can tear it all away in the desperate search for ourselves? Or is there a way to cultivate the individual from the beginning, confident, full of joy and full of self?
I wish I knew.
When I lack confidence - which is still quite often, despite my advanced age - it's usually because I don't want to look stupid or foolish or incompetent. I need to remind myself, who exactly is going to think those things? Until I can stop judging others, the fear of being judged will remain. And the funniest thing about the whole process is, we often judge others, because it makes us temporarily feel “better” than. I imagine the Creator sitting on a park-bench watching all of us humans and saying, “Folks whatya gotta understand is … adjectives like good, better, best, awful, stupid and disgusting are not in my vocabulary.”