Dear Anita,

Thank you so much for your response. I have been reading the TinyBuddha forums for a few months now, and I had hoped you may see my thread! I deeply admire your methodology wherein you state portions of the person’s response in order to help them gain clarity. Reading through replies including your own has made a difference in my life and self-perception – even when I carried a vastly different problem than the OP.

In regards to your reply: thank you so much, I am so glad to hear your thoughts. Your response has given me a whole new way to look at this. Hearing the comparison of your own experience on this very forum was unexpected and deeply helps to hear. Verily, I do get lost in “how I am perceived” and it stops me from being myself.

Wow, focusing on being me feels like an idea I haven’t consciously explored before. I had never consciously decided to having sincerity as a goal…that feels brave and scary (in a good way)! From a young age my goal was to impress, and in many cases, it still is. Impressing others is a neverending arduous task with external loci, while sincerity seems to light up my world from within. I now see impressing empowers others, while sincerity empowers me.

I LOVE your last analogy because I do dance and it’s one of my favorite ways to express my body! Serendipitously, I have taken a half-year break from dancing classes due to budgetary reasons, but I had intended to go to a dance class tonight specifically, so I will take this as another sign to attend.
In fact, one of my happiest moments was shameless disco-dancing at a 2022 New Year’s Eve event. I think I looked ridiculous and weird and no one else was dancing with my intensity and vigor to Scissor Sisters, but I didn’t care because I was so happy to be dancing as ME!

Focusing on being myself, I feel like I can just have fun with it and think, “What kind of dating profile would [StoutHeartedMen] have?” and “How can I most sound like myself while talking to this person?” Doing this, I feel like I would almost forget about the wall of silence entirely because it brings the dance-party to me, and I barely care what others will think of the fun I am having. What a shift. Thank you for taking me towards BEING and expressing my inner light.

I may take your advice and try an online dating site like Match.com rather than an app. I always thought websites were more fun.

Hearing your perspective has given me a newfound awareness of what to focus on. Again, thank you so much for your response.