Say Yes to the Things That Make You Feel Like You

Live Your Purpose

March 25, 2022

Say yes to the things that make you feel like you.

Say yes to the things that make you more of who you are.

Say yes to the things that bring you to life.

Say yes to the things that feel fully aligned.

What a profound way to live, right?

This bit of wisdom found me at 3am at a time when I was questioning a lot.

“Say yes to the things that make you feel like you.”

Not the things that make you feel small, less than, or like a tiny fraction of yourself. Not the people who make you feel worthless or like you have to be who they want you to be to “earn” love, acceptance, safety, and security. Not the situations or experiences that close you down, dim your light, or stagnate your soul.

Say yes to the things that make you feel like you, not the things that other people think you should be doing, but that your heart can’t get behind.

I’m beginning to understand the energetics of this more and more.

Looking back at relationships, clients, work environments, and situations where I felt small and worthless. Times when I worked so hard to tuck myself into the open spaces other people wanted me to sit inside of. Where I tried to “fit” and be like everyone else. From school to family to partners and clients… there have been far too many times in my life when I’ve done this at the expense of myself.

When we say yes to things that don’t make us feel like ourselves—things that actually make us feel the opposite of who we are at our core—we begin to die a slow death while we’re still alive. We begin to stall and stagnate, and it seems like nothing will flow for us anymore. We get sick and depressed, anxious and apathetic.

We wither, and the gifts we’re here to give the world fade with us.

I’m not here to be the person you want me to be. Just like you’re not here to be anyone other than exactly who you are.

And not just who you are in this moment… but the most fully aligned and expressed version of yourself.

The person you’re here to be. The person you become when you stop contorting yourself to fit and pacify and play nice. The person you are when you’re not longer afraid of failure, judgment, loss, or change. Because becoming who we’re here to be often requires a tremendous amount of change.

It requires unlearning, deconditioning, rewiring, and reconfiguration.

It requires coming home to who we’ve always been before the world, family, and societal systems told us who we had to be to stay safe, secure, and successful. To “win” love and acceptance from the people around us.

Being who we’re here to be is terrifying work for most.

The systems of our world are design to actively strip us of who we are—from birth, throughout our education, inside religion and our workforces, and within every other existing system. It takes a certain set of rare circumstances to feel (and actually be) safe enough to show up as exactly who you are throughout your childhood and into adulthood. Most people don’t have those circumstances.

But, worry not.

We can always choose to become who we’re here to be.

We can, at any time, choose to do the work of living our purpose.

But, contrary to many conversations in this space, living our purpose isn’t simply about the work we’re doing. It’s about who we’re being in the world, and how who we are contributes to the world around us. That’s the critical and essential work.