Sandi Boucher, a member of Seine River First Nation, explores the third principle of personal power: living up to your true self instead of trying to prove yourself to others. She shares stories and teachings from her mother to show what this means in practice.
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Foreign. Hi, everybody. This is Sandy Boucher, Red Thunderbolt, woman of the loon clan. I'm a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Northern Ontario. And I'm here once again to expand on the third of 12 principles of personal power. These are the principles I live my life by. These are the principles that helped pull me out of poverty and violence into the amazing life I now live. Now, this month, I introduced you to the third principle, as I mentioned. And here's just a reminder of what that principle principle is. You are not here to prove yourself to anyone else. You are here to live up to who you truly are. Now, as always, I have a story to share with you. And I swear this series of videos is starting to become into or turn into a humility lesson for me where I get to share all the embarrassing things I used to do. Well, this definitely qualifies. But first, I have a question for you. Have you ever met someone who, from the second you met them, they're like nails on a chalkboard. You know who I mean? Sometimes we meet someone and we hit it off like we've known them forever. But every now and then, the nails on the chalkboard, people. Now, when I was a younger woman, I used to get really upset with myself when that happened. I would start berating myself like, Sandy, why are you judging that person? You don't even know them. What? What. Why are you doing this? What I used to do, believe it or not, because I felt so bad about thinking that I didn't like this person, that I would go out of my way to spend as much time as possible with the nails on the chalkboard person, only to discover two, three, four weeks later that we weren't meant to be walking together, whether that was as a friend or as an intimate partner. Now, now I know better. And it's because of a teaching of my mom's. You see, my mom's Anishinaabe Kwe, she was an indigenous woman from Kuchicheng First Nation. But my mom was born in 1927, and she lived in a time where everything about being indigenous, well, she was taught that was something to be ashamed of. So at the same time, however, she also believed that every single person should have what she called a backbone. And what she meant by that was a belief system of some sort that would help you stand back up on the days when your knees get taken out on those days when everything, you're reduced to the floor, something that'll help you stand again. So because she couldn't out and out Share her teachings with us. She did the next best thing. She took us to church to follow my father's religion. We went to Roman Catholic Church. And I still hold a great respect for that line of teachings, even though I no longer practice it. But every Sunday, the same. Same thing would play out. Because my mom could not help being who she was. She wanted to be a good mom, and she wanted to give us teachings that would help us after she was gone. So every Sunday, she would stop us and make my brothers and I look her in the eyes like parents do to little kids. And she would always say the same thing. When you go inside and the man starts talking, if he says something and the little voice in your head goes, wow, yeah, that makes sense. Then you take it and you keep it and you use it. That was meant for you. But if he says something, the little voice in your head goes, what? Leave it here. Doesn't make him a bad person. It just means that teaching was meant for somebody else. Use your brain. That's why Creator gave it to you. You see, my mom felt that blind faith was the most dangerous thing a human being could do. Just believing every word that comes out of someone else's mouth without ever questioning it and using your own wisdom. I now know that when I meet those nails on the chalkboard, people. One, I should probably ask myself why they upset me so much because there's definitely a lesson there. And two, if we're not meant to walk together, that's okay, too. It doesn't make them a bad person. It just means we're on two different paths. So there you have it, my friend. This week, remember, you are not here to prove yourself to anyone else. You are here to live up to who you truly are. Until next week. Take care of you. I love you. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.
