A gremlin is that voice within who makes a serious game of keeping us from appreciating our life and living our passion. The gremlin voice is NOT our deepest, truest self. Its messages include the likes of: “You’ll never succeed. You’re wasting your time. Why bother? You’ll look silly.” Learning to ignore the gremlin, move beyond its false messages, and “do it anyway” is a topic of many books and workshops! That tells me we are not alone in facing this “opportunity for growth”. One delightful book about gremlins is:
Early on, the author reminds us of the value in noticing vs. straining, striving, forcing change. Regarding gremlin taming, he paraphrases the Zen Theory of Change in this way:
I free myself not by trying to be free, but by simply noticing how I am imprisoning myself in the very moment I am imprisoning myself.
What is your gremin’s prison cell like?