It's one of my favorite stories. Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022, was once going on an outing with her mother, the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother happened to be having a hard day. She was in a bad mood. She was grouchy. At some point during their outing, she snapped at her daughter. She turned to her and said, "Who do you think you are?" Her daughter responded, "Who do I think I am? The queen, Mommy, the queen."
I love this story because I think a version of it happens to each of us. There is a voice in my head, or in my nervous system, or a voice that comes from outside of me. And it tells me, "Who do you think you are?" It makes me feel like a piece of garbage. It makes me hate myself, loathe myself. And then I'm just looking to numb my pain, to escape my anxiety. And it's at such moments that I have to be able to look at that voice and say, "Who do I think I am? The queen, Mommy, the queen." As the Mishnah says, "Every Jew is a prince or a princess." The Zohar says, "You're not just the son of the king or the queen. You are completely one with the king." To be able to identify the infinite goodness and value in myself, in yourself. And when I can really, really pay tribute to that and recognize that and hold on to that truth, automatically my thoughts, my words, and my actions want to reflect that innate intrinsic truth.