This newsletter is for everyone who has ever felt like they have put a muzzle on themselves when they most wanted to speak up.
That statement will resonate with a lot of people but, if my guess is correct, it’s women will feel it most deeply.
Make sure this message gets to the women in your life you care about. It might make all the difference in their world.
For decades, I have mentored and coached and trained and taught people the power they can find in themselves when they learn how to speak up, using their words to express their thoughts and feelings and beliefs. And it never ceases to amaze me how much they hold themselves back, how much they bite their tongues, how much they don't speak their truth.
I include myself in that number. I have a lowlight real that I can pull up at any moment of all the times when 'I wish I had said that.' I held back, even when it was physically painful, and I knew I would regret not saying what was all my heart in that moment. I took me a long time to figure out that type of living had such a hold on me because I was fighting against decades of conditioning.
It almost seems as though we've been training our girls from the very beginning to either say what they think they believe other people want to hear, or just to keep their mouths shut completely.
If that's you, please pay close attention to what I say next.
Living that way is not doing you or anyone else any favors. I encourage you to tell them what you're really thinking because that is an important truth. It's important because it is your truth.
Whenever you open your mouth to say whatever you think someone else wants to hear, or what you think will make them feel better, or will cut down on the chances of conflict and it is not your truth then you are lying about who you are. And worse than that, it means that you are telling yourself and the rest of the world that you are not enough and that is the biggest lie of all.