The Missing (Unthinkable) Piece Of My Story
Brené Brown said it best, “You either walk inside your story and own it or you stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness.”
“What is my story?”
The question I’ve been asking myself since a few years back when I did My Own Irresistible Brand—the most excruciating, excessive thinking class I’ve ever taken. Painful but oh, so worth it.
I took it searching for the clarity I needed to get my personal brand going, realizing whatever I learned at Uni was lacking depth. Looking back, that class was like going to therapy, getting to know ‘me’ in a way I had never before…
The questions asked were deep, forcing me to magnify my past.
Why do you do what you do? the not-good-enough answer would pop up forcing me to ask myself “but why”? and then again “why”; until the layers have been peeled off right to the rawness.
The answers helped me understand I’ve always known myself, I just didn’t know how to verbalize it. I then found a couple of childhood memories that served me for a while, to root my first brand, A Second of Whimsey.
Still, the question remained: “what is my story?”.
Little did I know I had been sitting on it all my life, apparently so close I couldn’t actually see it anymore.
Either that or, I didn’t want to actually see it for what it was.
Is like when I’m praying to ask Him for something but the answer that keeps popping into my brain is not the one I think is right. I’m a believer so my faith is an intrinsic part of everything I do. So I was like: “Yes, that’s exactly it—but not that please”.
Who would have known the answer was going to slap me on the face when my therapist said “you have a lot of Trauma”.
Time stood still at about 10 am, and minutes later that day.
A second felt longer, I sat there unable to process as the soft words came out of her mouth on the other side of the screen. I do therapy like I’m at work. Zoom calls and sits like a “proper boss”… only I’m hiding my hands under the desk, profusely fidgeting with a stress-relieve puffy toy.
Apparently, there are two types of trauma, the ones with a big “T”, and the ones with a little “t”.1
The thing is, often people (like myself) ignore the little ones for far too long until they become… the big ones. Like a million paper cuts, one single is “nothing”, a ton more and you need to go to the hospital.
Life in a Third World Country has left me with more “paper cuts” than I can count... the unfairness of life kicked me over the head with scaring loss at a very young age.
The reason why that branding class felt way too out of my comfort zone wasn’t clear then, it is now. Now I know I wasn’t really looking at my real, complete self. I wasn’t really owning who I was.
I was pretending my life began the moment I landed in Pennsylvania, ignoring my past in Guatemala, ignoring all the darkness, brokenness, and desperation (as dramatic as it might sound); that made me feel I have had enough, that made me feel I needed to move away from there.
As I sat here typing, running to catch my words and thoughts before they escape me, accepting the fact that I didn’t know what “wholeness” really meant until a few weeks ago, my hope is for you to read this, take a brave step, and kindly lift the lid up of your own entire life story.
Let the steam make its way out… explore it, and cover it back again until you are ready to fully take it in.
Why? Because it matters.
Your story matters. Your story created the iconic values you have woven in your life; the way you interact with your loved ones, the way you run your business, and the way you serve your clients.
You know, these days whenever I read B. Brown’s quote… I get goosebumps. For years I looked for my worth on glimpses of my life story when in reality it was in the whole.
I’m over here being an advocate of anything that will make our life better, anything that will make us stroll a little lighter, and anything that will make us happier.
I want that for me, I want that for you. I want that for the world.
Let's walk inside our own story, shall we?
With that in mind, I wanted to let you in on a little secret… I have a new free series coming up called “Three on 3-Ways to DIY’ing your brand from the inside out”. Meant to help you explore your own storyline, and show you how everything is connected.
So that you feel like you can finally stop tweaking your brand. Giving you the confidence and peace of mind that your brand is working for you, instead of against you.
Want to be first to know when the free branding series is live? let me know where to send you a reminder, here.
In it with you,
I really love this. Part of the work I do is to help clients with uprooting parts of their story, integrating that which we prefer to avoid. It has been eye-opening, and such an honour to do this with people, to see how liberated they can be after the whole process. But that doesn't mean I don't still struggle when sharing my own traumas or things I still hold shame around! Will definitely be subscribing to this :)