Last week, I participated in a wonderful event called Shine Synergy Inspiration Summit, hosted by my client who is a Life and Wellness Coach. The theme included “advice we would give to our younger selves.” I hadn’t planned to stand up and speak, much less be filmed (I would have at least put on lipstick!). But as I sat and listened to 20+ women share their stories of personal growth and what they would say to their younger selves, I felt inspired to contribute my voice.
Many (most…ok, possibly all) of my clients share a common desire to feel radically BETTER, and in that process, inevitably share stories or bits of stories about past struggles with self-doubt, self-hatred, or self-ignorance. Growing up, many of us choose to annex parts of who we are, because we received a message that we weren’t good enough. Maybe that message was “inherited” wordlessly from a parent(s) who also hadn’t been mentored in the practices of self-discovery and self-love. Most of us arrive at the threshold of the Palace of Self with knees bloodied from crawling through obstacles of our own making, wrong turns we were unaware of, or a soul shredded by jobs, relationships and social situations that drain- rather than sustain- us.
How much trouble could we have saved ourselves…had we only known…had we only been warned…had we only been taught…? Truth is, it doesn’t matter how you arrive or how long it took you to get here. Part of the beauty of living a conscious life and loving ourselves, is loving our story. The WHOLE story. The Shine event gave many women the stage time to hear her own voice, speaking her own truth, to her own child inside. The girl who didn’t have the answers when she needed them; the girl who didn’t have the guidance she sought. So she made it through, and she made it matter. She owned her whole Self, and used her voice to speak her truth and encourage her sisters.
What advice would you give to your younger self (at any age)?
Sometimes, I give advice to the Connie I was yesterday. Sometimes it’s Connie circa 1983. Every time I offer guidance to my niece, I’m also speaking to my younger self. The key is to take my own medicine in the Now, even if the trigger was a previous past experience. We live in a constant state of Revision. Knowing this, we are freed to keep re-creating, day by day and moment by moment. Leaving shame behind, we are free to shine.