The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come… We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell
Is your life too constricted, too confining, too limiting? Imagine what it would be like to shed all that confines you, holds you down, pulls you back. Picture yourself standing on a clear path with no burdens or hindrances. Just you with an expansive opportunity for an unencumbered life before you.
Over the last few years, I have been on a quest to better know and understand myself. I’m into my fifth decade on this planet. You would think that I would know myself pretty well by now. But not so much. I got tired of the constant churning of my mind and the lack of control that I felt around my thoughts. I got tired of not feeling content with my life. I got tired of trying to control things that I had no control over. I got tired of comparing myself to others and feeling like I didn’t measure up. I began to ask myself, “How did I become the person that I’ve become? Why am I plagued with all of these thoughts and feelings? What can I do to better understand my thoughts and emotions? Why do I do the things I do? What is holding me back?” Thus began my journey towards self-awareness and shedding my skin.
In order to know ourselves, it is important to identify those things that are restricting us or holding us back so that we can be who we were meant to be. Others have used the example of the cocoon and the butterfly to describe this process, so I am stuck with a less attractive analogy – a snake shedding its skin. My daughter has a snake – this I will NEVER understand. She was talking about her snake shedding his/her skin (I’m not sure what sex it is and not going to check) so I conducted a little research on the topic. Turns out all animals shed their skin – even humans. But with us it’s an ongoing process that we don’t really notice. Instead of doing so on an ongoing basis, reptiles shed their skin periodically.
With snakes, their skin comes off in one piece. This process is called ecdysis, and is also known as sloughing and molting. Now I love me some snakeskin shoes and pocketbooks but never really thought about where they come from. Snakes shed their skin to allow for future growth because, unlike human skin, their skin doesn’t grow as the snake grows. Thus, a new layer of skin grows underneath the current one and, as soon as it’s complete, the old skin peels away along with any parasites that may have attached to the old skin.
Snakes shed their skins to grow into a larger, more capable and more evolved body and existence. While snakes physically shed their skin, we metaphorically shed our skins when we grow personally, professionally, or spiritually. Our “skin” may include things like emotional barriers, fear or lack of confidence. We should regularly examine it to illuminate where we have allowed it to become too small, too confining, and/or too restrictive. Then, we must take steps to shed our restrictive skin, our confining ideas, and anything else that’s holding us back.
As with the snake example, in shedding our skins, we can get rid of our parasites or things that are limiting us or are no longer serving us well – or perhaps never served us well. A parasite comes in various sizes and attaches itself to the dark corners of our minds. It can grow so slowly that we barely notice it and how it is affecting us. Part of shedding your skin is to get rid of the parasites in your mind and in your life, paving the way to become the person that God made you to be.
I have been so fascinated with this topic that I have started to write a book about it. Who would have thunk that I would write a book centered around snakes? 🙂
God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ Job 37:5-6
REFLECT
What skins do you need to shed?
As mentioned, sometimes things that are holding us back, aren’t even really within our consciousness. What will you do to begin the work of becoming more self-aware?
