Choosing to honor yourself in a world that expects you to sacrifice requires courage. It requires courage because even today, in the final days of 2019, choosing to hold yourself in the highest regard is still a revolutionary act – on the inside and out.

Women have been taught to:

Give more than receive
Be a good girl
Please others at the expense of themselves
Ignore their needs to be able to meet the needs of others
Prove their value and worth at every turn
Never get too loud, too big, too boastful
Tear each other down
Override their bodies and their health
Judge and punish their so-called imperfections
Avoid ruffling feathers and making waves

… And so many more things that they don’t even fully realize.

Isn’t it amazing that a woman who knows who she is, who celebrates herself, her successes, her beauty and her sexuality, who shamelessly takes up space in a room with the upmost grace, presence and power is perceived as a threat?

Who does she think she is?
She’s not all that.
She’s just selfish, self-centered and vain.
She’s not spiritual at all.
She’s gotten too big for her britches.
She needs to dim that down.
Someone needs to take her down a notch.
She’s hurting her children.
She’s gotten power hungry.
She’s really lost her way.

Choosing to be a woman who honors herself sometimes means you will be the focus of people’s judgments. Their projections. Their jealousy, guilt, shame, shadows, and unresolved wounded places.

It sometimes means you’ll feel like a fraud, a failure, a hot mess… all because you’ve internalized those negative voices and judgments yourself, or because you don’t think you’re doing things fast enough, perfectly enough, or as well as someone else.

Honoring yourself asks you to take a stand for yourself in a world that would much prefer you just sit down. It also asks you to look inside of yourself for the places where you are telling yourself the same thing – so that you can unwind the places inside of yourself that have understandably bought into the idea that you are less than who you really are.

None of this is your fault. Today’s world is imbalanced at best. Any world that would make honoring yourself such an extraordinary thing can only be described as unhealthy. There are few things more natural, essential, significant and important than honoring yourself – no matter what anyone tells you.

As we enter into a new decade, there are still so many risks involved in choosing to honor yourself. You risk…

… Being called a bitch
Disappointing others
Losing “friends” and loved ones
Shaking up the status quo
Rattling people’s expectations
Shifting family dynamics
Being misunderstood
Becoming a target
Not being liked by others
Needing to be super honest with yourself
Standing out
Being different
Un-numbing and feeling more

But amidst all of these things that so many of us fear, we have to ask ourselves what’s really at risk if we don’t honor ourselves.

What happens if we keep burning the candle at both ends? Putting our happiness and fulfillment into someone else’s hands? Waiting for someone to be nice to us? Wanting someone to give us permission to dare, dream, desire? Delaying those changes we know we need to make? Ignoring our bodies for the sake of productivity? Postponing our lives? Abandoning ourselves?

If we keep this up, we not only perpetuate and prolong the pain and yearning and hunger that lives inside of us, but we also stay in collusion with a culture that tells us that’s the way it’s always been, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Take a stand with me. Create the happiness, fulfillment and LIFE in your life that you know you’re here to experience. Change your life and change the culture for the better with me.

How? Where to begin? Is it possible for you?

It all starts with choosing to love yourself. Accept yourself. Be generous with yourself. Listen to what you really need and honor it.

You don’t have to be flawless or perfect. You just have to begin.

The world needs more women to step into self-honoring. And the women who are choosing to honor themselves need you to join them. Together we are so powerful. Together we can shift the way the world sees women, the way it treats women, and the way it values women.

In turn, you will start living the freedom, joy and most fulfilling life you can image instead of a life you have to escape from. And you’ll do it with all of you and your power in tow, not just the parts that someone else says are lovable, acceptable, and worthy.

I say that the next decade will be a crucial time in history when women begin to radically shift things by fiercely loving themselves, and taking a stand for their truth, their value, and their worth. And by doing so, they… we… can heal a world that so desperately needs their presence, their power, and their wisdom.

What do you say?