Own Yourself

Branching off of my post last week on authenticity, I felt that it would be pertinent to talk about the concept of owning yourself, owning who you are as a person.

We are constantly surrounded by so many pressures that try to tell us what we should look like, who we should be, how we should live our lives.

But those thoughts don't take into consideration how we actually want to live our lives.

Instead, we try and change who we are to fit the idea of what we think others want us to be. We try to be thinner, prettier, smart, richer - but it's a constant rabbit wheel of a chase that doesn't end up with you being happy. Trust me.

Or we avoid telling other people aspects about ourselves for fear of judgement. For instance, a lot of my sugar detox group participants hesitate to tell other people that they are on the detox because the people they tell will make a big deal out of it, bigger than the participant really wants. Those people are reflecting their own judgements and fears on the person choosing to transform his/her health, and that isn't fun to deal with.

I've dealt with this concept of owning myself for over ten years, especially given the fact that I choose not to drink alcohol. Coming from a small town, that is far from common. In high school and college, it was something I simply didn't talk about or bring up when I met people. It was almost as if I was embarrassed. But once I left college and entered the working world, I realized that I didn't care. I was tired of hiding who I was in an effort to make sure that people were comfortable around me.

Was it easy? No. I've had friends who don't understand this and have tried to push me to drink and wouldn't leave me alone even after I said "no" 100 times. I've been on dates who made a big deal about me not drinking and swearing up and down that they really don't drink very much or very often (fun fact: I. Don't. Care.).

But through it all, I've learned to own this aspect of my life, along with how I choose to fuel my body with real, whole foods. That is a part of me and a huge part of my health and healing journey, which I'm still working on. And I've learned that if someone has a problem with either of those aspects of my life, they don't need to be a part of my life. My choices to eat healthy and not drink do not effect the world in a negative way; therefore, there is no reason why I need to change in order to make other people more comfortable.

What about you? What aspects of your life do you struggle to "own" more often than not, or parts of your life you try to keep hidden? Is that really serving you in a positive way?

xoxo Olivia