Living authentically and shedding the ‘labels and boxes’

I received this lovely message in my inbox a couple of days ago from a brilliant and beautiful young lady I met a few years ago whilst she was studying in Cape Town (she since graduated with a BSc in Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics ???? cheers to beauty with brains ???? ). I wanted to share it because I know a lot of women understand and feel the pressure of fitting into the ‘boxes’ that she alludes to. That constant pressure to be and act a certain way to fit into labels of ‘wife’, ‘mother’, ‘career woman’ etc that carry terms and conditions that are mostly constructed by others or society or culture or media… But rarely defined by ourselves.

The issue with trying to fit into other people’s standards is that they are just that – other people’s! And so even when you try so hard to ‘fit in’ you end up feeling limited or worse still inadequate and still unable to please ‘everyone’. It’s exhausting!

It’s important to stay true to yourself and to live by your own definitions and standards and not be afraid of what ‘people will say or think’. Because people will say and think whatever they want whether you try to conform to their standards or not. But when you live authentically, the people who matter will love and accept you even more and you ignite your true essence and power and give others permission to do the same. And you find that even the people who doubted you will start to call you ‘lucky’ not understanding that it’s just you running your own race.

Here’s to living authentically and by our own standards ????