Being our authentic selves gives us power: the power to enter into relationships based on love and respect, the power to achieve great things, and the power to accept ourselves.
Being who we are is a way of accepting ourselves and daring to show our true selves to the world.
Too often, outsiders–and possibly we did too, early on–equate symptoms with personality traits.
“Am I crazy? I don’t want to be crazy,” we tell ourselves.
You get over the diagnosis by taking action to celebrate and be proud of who you are, apart from the illness. You engage in goal-seeking behavior. You defy others to stigmatize you–and you go on your merry way by doing the things that give you joy and satisfaction.
You stomp on the stigma by creating a “full and robust” life for yourself.
That’s all there is to it: you dare to boldly be who are you in a world of fake people who covet normalcy and seek to hide their flaws and quirks at all costs.
I’m a big fan of Brene Brown and her research on vulnerability. Read her book The Gifts of Imperfection. It’s only 126 pages and it’s well worth the read.
You’ll understand why the act of revealing our imperfections, of celebrating the quirks that make each of us who are, is a great way to go bold and not be embarrassed or ashamed that we have an illness.
Go ahead, dare: shine a light on your beauty instead hating yourself for having a diagnosis.
It is the imperfect that makes a person beautiful: a beauty mark, a scar, a big nose.
Celebrate your and others’ individuality instead of seeking to repress it.
Go bold. You don’t have to take a backseat after you get a diagnosis.
In fact, what the world needs is your brilliance. The world needs all of our imperfections.
Go ahead. Shine.
Left of the Dial 