A woman reflects on spending decades meeting others' expectations before a turning point at 40 forced her to listen to herself. She describes the cultural pressure women face to conform and the inner bravery required to accept all parts of yourself without apology.
Chapters
I think for a long time I was trying to please a lot of people and be who I was supposed to be for my parents or my teachers or, you know, boyfriends or whatever. And the day that I decided to be really true to myself, that's when things really opened up for me.
What does that look like, being really true to yourself?
I think that's an important question because we are covered in so many layers of like all of the shoulds and the supposed-tos. And I think especially women in our culture. People don't like us to threaten the status quo. People don't like us to shift our shapes, step outside the lines. I think we really hurt ourselves when we don't really listen to the very essence of the truth of who we are and we don't act from that place. I certainly am guilty of doing that for many years, you know, like the voices in my head about what I was supposed to do or be were so strong and drowned out everything else. And I think when I— about the time I turned 40, it was like that knock, you know, that call to listen to myself and be true to myself just started to get so loud. It was— I couldn't ignore it anymore. And I think we all have that ability to go inward and really listen to who we are. It's just a question of, are we brave enough? Are we really brave enough to listen and to really accept every aspect of ourselves and all of who we are, and then be that unapologetically.
Thank you.
Thank you to the one lady that started that. Love you.
