Embrace Your Grown

 Six months before my birthday,   I started feeling a little different from the inside.. deep within. Those of you who are reaching milestones may know what I mean. Kind of  like the developmental charts we have for babies..milk to solid food. creeping to crawling.. 



 I felt a change......a shift. .....I coined it ........Ownership! 

Not home ownership ... car ownership ..designer bag ownership, this was not material in nature even a little bit  but. rather .....
Ownership of my life... on my terms....... My  Stage...My Story......My Life...YASS!
 A "I don't really care how you feel or take this but ___________ "attitude.

 A " Well, that is not quite the look I am going for but I have a plan and am fabulous anyway" attitude.

A" My time is better spent doing  X (fill in the blank with anything.. taking a bath, feeding the homeless, putting my kids to bed,  painting my toe nails, A girl's night in the city!  anything but that) attitude. 

This feeling of ownership sprang up in situations where I least expected it. It was almost Euphoric.

Areas where I would naturally acquiesce due to some level of  loyalty for whatever reason,
 "No!" or a "No, I will not be able to! " became so much easier.

 I felt like Steve Urkele,  "Did I do that!"

 Each time I asserted myself, a shackle to my invisible chains of people pleasing, looking for people's approval about my own life choices and self deprecation seemed to break and I began to move closer to my own emotional freedom. If you had asked me prior to this "new awakening" I would have said I had acquired this type of  freedom when I turned 18 and left for college.  

I, a prisoner who did not realize that she needed to be set free like the people depicted in Plato's Allegory of the Cave.  I began to  finally see the light.   I was alarmed at first.even scared that my new found "ownership"  would be off putting , should I retract my statement, cover up, make up something... a little lie to keep the peace.
 


 I have been an executive for many years, so I would not say that I was afraid of asserting my position in the boardroom but in areas of the heart.. family, friends and even to myself, I struggled like so many other Strong women do.

I sat with my sister- in- law at my 40th Birthday party and she said, "You feel different don't you?" and finally I realized that I was not alone.It was an  'AHA' moment like Oprah says.  My sis-in-law understood and I understood. She laughed. We took a shot of something strong and the merriment continued.

 This was one of those moments in life when you do not learn the secret until you join the club like a sorority, Mommyhood or Wifedom. 



"You gave me life like oxygen!" I told her. I told her that I have been grown a long time but now I feel like I am Embracing my GROWN!
 "Embrace my GROWN is my new mantra!"

Embrace My GROWN means: 

I will EMBRACE: 

 G- Giving more of myself to myself

R- Realizing my full worth and not settling for anyone or anything that blocks my shine!

O-Owning my life in every sense of the word!

W-What I feel without apology.  I am wise enough to make my own decisions and old enough to live with the results!

N-  No! No is not a bad word.  People pleasing is so last decade.

Adinkra symbol for independence"Independence comes with its responsibilities."

No matter what your age is  Embrace your GROWN!

How do you "Embrace Your GROWN?" Let us know and do not forget to Strive Daily!