Relinquish my Strength?! Uh, No.

Hello, beautiful souls 💖

I’d like to discuss something that has been tugging on my heart strings lately. Ive noticed that there has been a reel trending on social media about ‘strong black women’. In case you aren’t familiar with it, it goes a little something like this:

I am not a strong black woman. I am delicate, fragile, and I can’t do it all on my own…

There’s more to the reel, and I don’t remember the audio verbatim but I’d like to address the sentiment. I viewed this audio as a cry for help from my queens who are tired of carrying the load alone.

Being strong is a blessing and a curse in today’s society. When a person is strong, they are often given more weight to carry. The growing assumption is that since you’ve carried so much, you can carry a little more…and a bit more…and wait, here’s a little more. People typically don’t check on or offer assistance to strong people. And that can cause even the strongest of people to be weary.

Yet, strength is a gift. It is earned based on perseverance and is the by product of experience and wisdom. Strength is an invaluable attribute that should be celebrated.

I am strong.

I didn’t think of myself as strong at one point. I endured quite a bit of misfortune as well as mistreatment from people I loved and to be honest I felt anything but strong. At times I felt broken, lost, and out of control. And that’s okay too. A strong person doesn’t feel strong all the time. In fact, a person is strong because they go through painful experiences and still stand.

Strength is often appreciated in the hard times. In relationships I was often commended for my strength when I helped my mate with an issue they were facing or found a solution to a problem when my partner didn’t have one. But when I stood up for myself, I was told often that I was “too strong”.

What does that mean?!

The same strength that was admired and appreciated was quickly shunned and viewed as a negative attribute once I established some boundaries. That is not how things work.

That being said, strength is an attribute that I’ve earned and I will not relinquish my strength so that a person will accept me. I am strong, I am soft, I am fierce, I am sweet. I am human. We are human. And we all deserve to be loved and accepted as we are.

Until next time, beautiful souls 💖

Be Intentional

Hello beautiful souls 💖

This week is all about the second step in The Evolution to our best selves: Be Intentional.

(Step one was last week’s topic: Show Up For Yourself!)

To be intentional is to be mindful of your thoughts, aware of your actions, and to be deliberate with your time and energy. In short, being intentional means that your actions have a specific aim or purpose.

Here are some tips for being intentional:

1. Prioritize tasks

2. Create a schedule

3. Set boundaries

4. Form good habits

An accountability partner may also be useful if you find yourself losing motivation.

If you’d like some suggestions or have any that you’d like to add, feel free to comment and let me know!

Next week, we will be talking about the third step in the ongoing process of evolution: Self Evaluation.

Always remember; you are heard, you are loved, you are seen.

Until next time beautiful souls 💖💖

Confidence Challenge

Hi!!

I hope that everyone is happy, healthy, and abundant!

I don’t have much to say at this time. (I’m working quietly and manifesting things that I will speak on later.) but, what I did want to reiterate is the absolute power and importance of affirmations!

We are all divine souls encased in human bodies, right? Well, as human beings, we forget our purpose and mission in life as we become accustomed to earth and programmed by society. Things happen to us and we learn certain behaviors as a result. There’s not much we can do about the way we were raised. But as adults; we can fix this!

That is the beauty of technology! If you have a problem and are looking for a solution to it- you can easily find it by doing a little bit of research.

This being said; during the course of my life I had developed some very low self esteem. I felt unattractive, unworthy, and overall unsure of myself on multiple levels. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life this way; so I knew that I had to do something about it!

So I began my plan of action. I was practicing the law of attraction and things started to improve, but I needed more. I looked into hypnosis to clear my subconscious of negativity. That felt great! But I aspired to even greater levels.

I began saying affirmations. Make no mistake- I had been affirming the entire time but after a while; I needed affirmations more catered to the issues that I sought to improve. I researched and found some confidence affirmations. Now, this hit the spot!

I began to say them everyday. I modified some of the affirmations and made them my own. I only kept the affirmations that resonated with me. Now, I’m getting somewhere!

Right?

Well, somewhere isn’t quite there. I felt good, but truth be told; I wasn’t really getting out of the house much because of the pandemic.

I returned to social media. And that’s when I saw that I needed yet more work in the confidence department. I went to take a selfie and I completely froze. I had taken multiple selfies and could not find one that I deemed worthy of posting. I hated each one! I struggled with the sight of my own face.

I felt broken. I thought those affirmations were working! I thought to myself. How disappointed I was. But then I realized that with some lessons, there are tests. It’s pretty easy to say ‘I am beautiful’ in a room by myself. It was time to actually believe it.

So, I created a #ConfidenceChallenge for 45 days and began taking selfies everyday. Each day, I post a picture of myself along with an affirmation. As time went on, it became less difficult to find a picture of myself that I deemed acceptable. I even starting doing short videos (I didn’t really like my voice either).

And now, here it is 31 days later and I can see and feel the difference in the way that I view myself. It wasn’t all about looks- looks only get you so far- but I realize that as I practice all of this self care and self love, that I am able to speak my mind and look at myself instead of cringing.

I began the challenge on social media thinking that maybe it would catch on and make me famous…lol. It may still do that- who knows? But I realized that I’ve already gotten something valuable out of this experiment. I didn’t post any selfies hoping for likes. My aim was to validate myself. And I did that.

That; my friends, is priceless.

Until next time, much love. Be blessed and be free!

Love and Light- Mimi 💜✨