Imagine a flawless, perfect, beautiful diamond.

Shining so bright, and yet made only of carbon.

Stronger and more resilient than any other natural material, the word diamond comes from the Greek ‘adamas’  meaning “unbreakable”.

I love the metaphor of a diamond deep inside you which represents your true nature.

At your core, you ARE a diamond – flawless, perfect, beautiful, strong and resilient.  And not just you.  Every human being.

Sometimes, the diamond gets covered up and surrounded with erm… let’s call it ‘manure’ – made of Thought.

Our ‘story’, our baggage, our self-created limitations, our ‘not good enough’ thinking.

And then, because we’re terrified that others will see the manure, we surround that with a layer of thick red nail polish.

The mask that we show to the world.  The armour we put on every day to be acceptable, to conform, to not ‘stand out’.

Actually, even sharing our manure (guided by wisdom) with others may be healthier than covering it up – this is the true strength of vulnerability.

But the diamond is always there, and if we begin to peel off the nail varnish, most of the manure falls away on its own – there’s nothing to keep it there.  It’s made only of thought, after all.

And then you’re free to just shine!

In my workshops, I’ll often ask the group to face a partner, and show up as their nail varnish.  People are generally very skilled and experienced at doing this, communicating through the mask of what they think is appropriate.  But it doesn’t feel good.

Then I’ll ask them to face the same partner and just show up as their true nature – the diamond.  From a place of knowing that which looks out of your eyes is the same thing as that which looks out of my eyes.

Two things invariably happen at this point:

• Most of the group start to cry – but not with sadness.  They are literally moved to tears.  Just through the power of ‘seeing’ and ‘being seen’.
• Nearly all the pairs spontaneously move towards each other and hug (yes – the men too!)

Showing up as your ‘diamond’ changes everything.

Does this mean that we never forget who we truly are, and get caught up for a while in our thinking about our manure (and that of others!)?  No.  But then we remember again, which means that we’re never more than one thought away from a whole new experience of being alive as who we really are.

This is not to be confused with what some people mean when they talk about ‘authenticity’.

You see, if you believe you ARE your story, your experiences, your human frailties and flaws, your history, your personality, your feelings – then it follows that you’re being “authentic” when you share these with others.

But what if you weren’t any of those things?

I’m talking about who you are at your core – the one before and beyond anything that’s been created by thought.

Pure consciousness.  Pure awareness.  Pure love.