How do we go from speaking our mind, 📢 to saying what we believe others want to hear? Why do we go from joyfully playing 🤹🏻‍♀️to acting out a role we believe we must filled? 🤷🏻‍♀️ It often starts with the best of intentions, our concern for others. Parents teach their children consideration for the thoughts, feelings and needs of others, an important trait for individuals in order to build and maintain a loving community. 💑 Unfortunately, this consideration can be amplified to be what’s often referred to as “people pleasing” or more negatively put “codependency”. 👥 As we mature we tend to embrace ourselves less, choosing to reflect our community back to them for the sake of acceptance. There is, thankfully, a balance we can achieve. ⚖️ As Plato said “courage is knowing what not to fear”, if we function from a place of self love and love of others, 💚 there’s no need to fear what others will think of our actions. We can teach our children how to rather than what to think, 🏫 but first we must practice what we preach. Children may not be able to quote the adults around them but they never fail to imitate them. We must learn to bravely and lovingly be ourselves, 🙋🏻‍♀️ remembering that though we have an impact, we are not responsible for the feelings of others🚫. Epictetus tells us to make the best use of what’s in your power and take the rest as it happens. 🤸🏻‍♂️ When children are at play, they are deeply present. To play, is to learn, to learn is to live, when we have stopped learning we have stopped living.👩🏻‍🎓 “This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. 🧘🏻‍♀️ And instead of calling it work 💼, realize it is play”,