A lesson I would share with my younger Self

To my lovely people out there who are reading this, if you are someone who had some point in their lives have felt the constant need to over-accommodate and extend yourself to everyone around you, having this automatic habit of shrinking yourself down, I want you to take a moment and really take this in,

You are worthy of taking up space.

Your thoughts, your opinions, your ideas are all worthy of being shared with the whole world, or whoever needs to hear it.

I am here to reflect this back to you because I know what it’s like living life feeling like the only thing that was safe was hiding behind a curtain, and whispering my big ideas to myself in the corner.

Taking up space does not mean simply competing with every other person whose nose couldn’t stick up in the air any higher for no reason; but metaphorically, it means being able to express yourself at the highest, most authentic iteration of who you are at your core.

It means allowing yourself to be seen and heard, expressing all of your wild, creative ideas and opinions with absolute conviction, and having the courage to occupy the spaces you deserve.

Personally, I’ve had this internal battle of fighting myself from sharing my story thinking, “who would even care,” or “who am I to share this?” and realized, it’s this diminutive, narrow-sighted kind of thinking that was not only a hindrance to myself and what was meaningful to me, but most importantly to those around me who could possibly gain any kind of light or guidance from my own unique perspective. And to top it off, I realized that these weren’t even my own thoughts playing in my head, but instead from past moments in time that were no longer relevant to me now.

I’ve realized more and more how important it was for us to stop playing the background characters in our OWN lives, no longer talking ourselves out of big opportunities that could really make an impact on the trajectory of our lives.

— This is not how we change the world, where clearly we’ve seen that the world needs a major frequency shift. And the only way we can do that is when the good-hearted people in this world take up the space and step into their power, embodying and acting upon whatever their soul-aligned, dharmic purpose in this life is.

How to do this? It begins with a subtle, yet powerful shift in the way we experience how it feels to take up space.

I know personally something that I still continue to work on is this innate sense of guilt that comes up for me, thinking that I might be coming off arrogant, obnoxious, or full of myself by doing so, but in reality when I take up space from an authentic and genuine place to me, I am allowing myself to show up for myself and allow myself to occupy spaces I know I deserve to be in.

So remind yourself, in moments you typically feel like shrinking yourself down in social settings, work settings, or even relationship settings, that you are worthy of expressing yourself at the highest level of who you are possible!

There’s clearly so much more that goes into this, such as starting to also notice people in your life that may start dropping out of your life as soon as you start stepping into your power and your light, but recognize that as long as you are well-intentioned and are not causing any ill-harm, the way people react to you being authentic to who you are is NOT your problem. If people treat you any differently or any less, that is more so a projection coming from their own insecurities or inner workings that need to be dealt with. And so we move on.

All in all, if there is anything you can take away from this it is a reminder that taking up space is almost like a muscle that needs to be worked every chance we get until it just feels natural to us, wherever we go. And in the moments it feels uncomfortable, remind yourself this quick mantra, "

“My thoughts, ideas, and expression deserve to be seen, heard, and shared,” or

“I am safe to express myself in my fullest, authentic expression,” or last one,

“I am safe to express myself in ways that feel good, whether that be through my voice, my mind, my body, or my soul.”

And as you continue to go down this journey, I celebrate you and the this incredible journey of stepping into your power more and more each day.