Are you living fully?

I was inspired to write this question by reading this quotation from Virginia Satir today:

“I would like all of us to live as fully as we can. The only time I really feel awful is when people have not lived a life that expressed themselves.

They lived with all their “shoulds” and “oughts” and their blaming and placating and all the rest of it, and I think, “How sad”.”

Remove shoulds, oughts, blaming and placating and how might life be? Some shoulds and oughts enable us to live fully of course - I should get a dental check up, I should ring my friend I ought to get the tap fixed. Some are what is in the way of  expressing ourselves fully. How might life be if I did wear different colours that I like, did speak my mind in the committee, did start writing a novel, did shirk a couple of responsibilities to get to an art class, did set off with a back pack? What if someone stopped blaming a health issue for not being able to do what they wanted to do and started taking full responsibility for improving their health and moving towards their dream in some way? What if someone stopped making excuses for the shoddy behaviour of someone near them and stood up for their own self esteem. It might be obvious what changes you need to make or it might be quite subtle and you might have to observe yourself closely for what your personal escape routes from responsibility are, but when you weigh up the cost of not doing what you need to do in order to live more fully - in whatever sense that is for you - with the benefits of actually living more fully then what shows up on the balance sheet that might inspire you to root out outdated shoulds, oughts, blamings and placatings - however deep-rooted they are????? How nice it will be when asked whether you are living fully to be able to say, hand on heart, “Yes!”