One of the most freeing things in life is to be able to discover other people for what they are, without worrying about whether they like us. However, few of us are willing to like someone without there being a clear indication that the other party will like us back. That's risk-avoidance behaviour and ultimately not very satisfactory - because we hold back how we feel to avoid rejection.

Yes, we might go after someone, but this will mainly be in attempt to feed our ego - get them to like us. After that, we might feed off the high of being liked, or we might then choose to invest in them emotionally as well.

And to a certain extent that makes sense.

Nothing is more waste of time, than trying to get people to like us. It is insulting to who we are - as if we NEED someone else's approval. We do not ever need someone else's approval, what we need is our own acceptance to be okay.

The more transparent we choose to be, the more naked we dare to be, the better the chance is of us actually connecting with others - and that they actually like us for, well, us.

I don't think there is anything more attractive in life, than when we can feel people. Most of us hide so much behind words, clothes and images, that we never allow anyone to see us at our core. When no one knows us, no one can love us. And we feel... well, alone. Alone because we are not connecting with other people, but rather we are busy trying to get people to like us. Instead of just being at peace with who we are, and then listening to the other person's story - and figure out whether WE like THEM, not the other way around.

There is great satisfaction in deciding what and who we like in life, rather than trying to get other people to like us or wait for approval.

Whenever we wait, we wait in vain - there is no approval to be had but our own.

Deciding to be as transparent as is possible, makes us less anxious. This simply because we are not hiding. When we are less anxious, we are less prone to seek refuge in drugs, alcohol, food etc. We are who we are, and people can choose to like us or not - we are not busy adapting, pretending and chasing. We are just true to who we are, what we like and don't like - thus we can also better feed our needs and wants, let go and move on.

Where do you need to be more naked in life?

Where can you start to be more transparent about what you want without caring about what other people think or might respond? Our wants remain until they are expressed - either they then vanish or they can be fulfilled. It's very simple. But as long as we repress them, they are exactly that: repressed. And that which is not expressed tends to control us, when we express something it loses its power over us - and we can let go and move on, if that's what we want to do.