What if this year were different from other years? What if instead of making resolutions that you’ll never keep and looking everywhere outside of yourself for answers to a better life, what if you already had all the answers? Right there in your body, in your heart, right this minute. And to get to these answers all you had to do was be truthful to yourself about yourself. You just had to live in your raw truth? And living in your raw truth was the key to uncovering your own personal superheroine self?
What if hiding beneath all the bells and whistles of the self you present to the world lies your superpower? What if you had the hidden skills of one of the DC or Marvel comic superheroines like: Storm, Invisi-girl, Wonder Woman, Wasp, Wanda-Vision, Zephyr or Vixen? And the only way to resurrect them was through going raw? And I don’t mean eating raw foods. I mean living in your raw truth.
But what does that mean, living raw? It starts by questioning everything you ever thought you knew about yourself. What if you weren’t who you have always thought yourself to be? What if you’ve told yourself lies about yourself all your life? Lies that made you feel better about who you are, or lies that made people like you better? Lies that helped you “fit in”? What if you aren’t really all that? What if you think you’re kind but really you’re frightened of not being liked? What if you aren’t all loving but are actually needy of love? What if you aren’t really as interested in other people as you make yourself out to be but you ask questions to keep yourself hidden? These are some of the truths I have unearthed about myself that I am coming clean to you with.
I’d always needed to see myself as being sweet and kind and loving- until now. Until I practiced stripping off one false mask after another to see my raw self. At first, it wasn’t so pretty. It was painful. I didn’t want to say those seemingly negative things about myself. But through journeying into the depth of my emotions I realized that there are no negative emotions. All emotion is vital life force energy. Each and every emotion you experience are all biological tools of survival. But today, in our “civilized” world, we stray from some of the more volatile emotions to put on the face to meet the faces that we meet. To be liked.
In my case, what I revealed to myself about my inner self was that my fear of not being liked was trapped behind taking care of others. If I took care of others, then they would like me–this giving of myself to earn the gratitude of others became my pattern of behavior. The mask of kindness was trapping my disgust of wanting love and kindness myself, but being too afraid of asking for it. The more I stripped these “acceptable” emotional masks I had constructed off the more space and power I was able to unleash in my own life. And the more easily I could truly love and be kind from an authentic place not a constructed one. This was the journey of stepping into the superheroine version of myself. So no, I am not the kind, sweet, loving woman I came into 2021 as. I am in fact discerning, brilliant, and expansive. I am a wonder of a woman. I am the raw queen I’ve always known I was. All the work I was doing to be liked is over. Now I soar with my raw truth in every area of my life. And you know what? People still like me–but now they like me for who I truly am rather than what I can do for them. Now my relationships are based on honesty and realness, true connection, rather than exchanges of kindness or favors. The kindness is still there – but it comes from a place of honesty rather than a place of need.
I dare you to join me. Dare to be raw with me this coming year. There is a heroine in you. She may be tucked away inside and it’s been a while since you’ve felt her. She’s been through a lot; you’ve been through a lot. But no matter what, you are the one who doesn’t lose. Who stands back up when it seems like the world is crashing down on you. You are the one who succeeds above all odds. You are the one who is courageous enough to strip false masks. And know that stripping false masks that have been patterned into our behavior can be incredibly painful. Sometimes we have to pull ourselves through the shattered glass and rubble after an explosion of masks falling off. There are days, weeks, even entire years that challenge us and can make us feel like we’re sliding back down the mountain just as we have it’s peak in our sights. But you will not be lost to these false ways of being. You are the one who is brave enough to see deeply into your truth and reveal it for all to see. This may mean releasing the you you’ve come to know. It may mean facing who you thought you were, releasing that image and allowing the raw truth of yourself to come to the surface. Standing for the truth. Finding your inner heroine may mean holding your world and everyone in it up to new standards of truth as everything you have known falls away. The rawness of your courage will change you.
You have the power to emerge, even when you thought no one would accept your true self. You are the one who will stand firm in the chaos, refusing to be lost to someone else’s idea of who you should be. This epic journey starts with your body. As simple as that. Who are you at the core of your flesh and bones?
From birth, everyone from our parents, to religious institutions, partners, and even the government tries to shut down our feminine bodies in an attempt to protect them from unwanted sexual attention – and so we shut down. We hide our raw selves and create false behaviors in an effort to be accepted. Along with our feminine bodies, we put to sleep the very fuel (energy) we need to thrive — our intuition, our knowing, our heartfelt emotions, our yearning to connect, our simmering sensuality, our god-given curvaceous sway. Our magic. Our super-heroine selves. Truth is, most of us are living behind the safety of constructed behaviors and ways of being. Ever yearning to come out, to be seen.
Be the heroine who fights the urge to stay in the status quo. Dare to be the trailblazer who effortlessly flows through the brambles and takes action when others only wilt.
Push yourself to do the hard work of unraveling your false masks. Contribute to something that matters to you. Savor the small, intimate successes and carry them as you expand higher and higher toward greater achievements.Be genuine in your relationships, and accept what comes back to you with an open heart. You have this strength, you just have to dare to embrace it. You in your raw truth are the one you thought would come in the shape of a savior, a teacher, a guru, a partner.
