Real Out-loud authentic raw
Being Real Out-loud Authentic and Raw is easy, when you are yourself, it fits, it sits easy with your spirit, there is no competition, no expectations and most of all brings peace. This is what you bring, being real to yourself, not putting on a show, means you can sit back and be comfortable in your own skin. Out loud, shining, the best you, no one wants to see people hide behind others, I certainly want to see you. Authentic, when your thoughts and heart desires match your behaviour or actions there is no stress. Google it, stress comes from a rift in our behaviour and our thoughts, being authentic to our thoughts and dreams brings peace. Raw, vulnerable can be quite exposing, but when people know you are the real deal, a confidence opens up and they let you in, friendships are built and you walk together. It takes practise, overtime things will shift and revelation will come, you are okay being you.
Definition: Emotional health is a person's ability to accept and manage feelings through challenge and change. Someone who is emotionally healthy can allow their emotions to be digestible. The mundane hassles of daily life offer opportunities to practice responses, rather than reactions to allow emotional health to flourish.
Sitting here, the day is overcast and the sun is hidden behind the clouds. Its strength is zapped, it’s cool and the rain on the grass is shining. For most that would be a dull day, but for me, there is no striving for the sun, it’s light shines regardless of what covers it. When you are covered by what other people think your heart can shrink back or you can SHINE. We are built to SHINE our love, our hearts and our dreams, this is what makes us unique and it is what we bring to a world that needs us to be real.
Real, I like the saying “A real friend is one who walks in, when the rest of the world walks out.” Thank you to those real friends in my life, I pray that I am one of those friends. When lies form part of your identity it is hard to remember who you have said what to, yet speaking truth and being real, you never have to remember what you said, because you believe it, live it and are who you say that you are. It is the best compliment someone can give me.
Out loud, for most that sounds offensive, quiet is so much more revered (My perception only). Yet here I am using it in the context of being an out-loud YOU….. You shining at your best. (if you are quiet, being the best quiet person you can be, for others, being the best they are, trying to tell a confidently spoken person to shut up, is as tough emotionally as asking a quiet person to speak up). Why are we trying to be someone else, when that place is already taken. Be who you are meant to be, you are unique and BUILT TO SHINE – YOU.
AUTHENTIC to self, INTEGRITY to others. These are two of my values for life, added to being CREATIVE in my thoughts and deeds and having the COURAGE to risk it.
Becoming authentic to myself, has brought a freedom I did not expect, when I did my values years ago. Now I regularly run my thoughts and behaviours through these values, when I get caught up trying to be someone else, or someone wants me to do something that is not me, I now feel comfortable saying NO. Saying no and/or yes, it takes practice and may frustrate other people, but I am better for it. I love doing what I am doing now. Breathing on peoples dreams and seeing them come to life, getting alongside people and building them up to shine their best authentically. Recognising that my passion to do what I am good at has only been a recent thing, I was good at a lot of things and this allowed me to do a lot of things. But now, in the last couple of years, I have only been doing what I want to do and part of that is running head long into my dream of owning a retreat. That has taken me on one emotional rollercoaster I would not swap for the world. I have stepped up to the plate and done things I thought I never could do, I have met people that I never would have met and I have grown in leaps and bounds in ways I thought I never could. I love being me.
RAW - Seeing someone try and smile, when they are hurt breaks my heart. The best gift I gave myself was to cry. Yes, I know most of you have had this covered for years, but me, I was taught to suck it up. Which for many years I mastered and got me through a lot of tough times. But the release of tension in your body when you grieve through crying is what our bodies are meant to do. I remember when my nana died, I did not cry, I let my sister do it for me, crying through someone else is not the same. When your emotions are raw and on edge, be in the moment. I guess the hard part is not staying there, experiencing fear, anger and defeat can be discouraging, but they too need to be felt, for you to take a leap and change, they are often signs we are not in the place we are meant to be, or we are taking on brave challenges.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” Nelson Mandela
We are built to shine, dare I say, shine God’s love to those around us, to do this we can ROAR, it our turn. God wants us to be who we are created to be and flourish.
Psalm 1:3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
When you are watered by what you love (for me Jesus and the word of God), you yield fruit in season, for me that means a life that is in sync with our thoughts and behaviours. I thank God that he created me to me and no one else.
Psalm 139:13-15 For you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.