Good morning SLAYER! You can only accept mistakes and flaws in others to the degree that you accept your own.
New blog goes up Tuesday, until then…SLAY on!
flaws
Upside-Down Personality Right-Side Up
I always felt different from everyone else. As far back as I can remember, sitting in school, or standing in the playground, everyone else seemed to have an easier time than I did, or so it seemed, to me. I always had friends, but I had to work at it, it wasn’t something that came easily to me. I would overthink things, try to plan out what I was going to say, worry about what others were thinking about me, and trying to anticipate who everyone else wanted me to be. I always felt like my thinking, my humor, who I was was upside-down.
I managed to get by for a long time pretending I was like you. But eventually all that pretending caught up to me, and I tried to use things to stuff down the anxiety and uncomfortably I felt in my day-to-day life. I thought maybe it was something I would grow out of, but I never did. And as I finished school and started my career that anxiety got worse, so I did whatever I could to suffocate it with whatever I could, to appear normal. Eventually what I was doing to get by stopped working and the anxiety ramped up even more to the point where it became unbearable. I found myself in my mid-30’s not really knowing who I was but not liking who I thought myself to be. If I thought I was upside-down in the past, I was now really upside-down then.
I was fortunate that someone came into my life at that time who had felt the way I had. But, he no longer felt that way. I was intrigued. Was there a way to turn my upside-side personality right-side up? He told me there was, because he had done it. It had never occurred to me that I could, I thought I would just have to find a way to live the way I had been, even though I knew I couldn’t go on living that way. I was desperate enough to try something new and so I set out on this path I now walk on.
The key to finding my right-side-up personality was with self-love, but I also a heavy dose of forgiveness. Some things were easier to forgive than others, but the more I was able to see that the way I felt wasn’t always because of my own actions, that I had a mental illness that got in the way of me living and learning like most people, and because of that I did not have the tools I needed to live a healthy and happy life. Even that took some acceptance, even though it made sense to me and I was identifying with the symptoms and actions of my illness, I had to get over the stigma of being labeled with one, but once I was able to accept that, I wanted to gather as many tools as I could, because I knew I had to get to work, and I knew if I did, I could get better. I realized that how I had felt as a child was not my fault, there was something else going on that I couldn’t have understood, and that I did the best I could with the information I had. Did I go on a spree of self-destruction later in adulthood, yes, but again, I had a disease I didn’t know I had and without the proper information I just reached for what I could to quiet it down.
Today I know the difference. I know who I am, and I love who I am, flaws and all…remember those aren’t really flaws they are what make us flawsome. But I’ve done enough work to know what I’m dealing with today, that doesn’t make every day easy, but it makes it manageable, and if it doesn’t feel manageable, I have places to go to hit the reset button, and people I can talk to walk me through it. I’ve also learned that some of my personality is a little upside-down, but today I embrace those upside-down parts, it’s what makes me me, as long as I make sure that most of me is right-side up, I know I’ll be OK. And you know what, you will be too. SLAY on!
SLAY OF THE DAY: Do you feel different from those around you? How so? Do you think that what makes you different makes is wrong? Why? Who says they’re wrong? Do they hurt you? Do they hurt others? What parts of you would you like to change? How can you? Why would you like to change those things? Is there someone or a group of people who can help you do that? Have you reached out to them in the past? If not, why haven’t you? If you have, why didn’t you continue to do the work? Is there something you’re afraid of? Does feeling better scare you? Why? SLAYER, you have the power to change, and that’s pretty powerful, I know because I’ve done it. Seek out those who can help you make the changes you want to see in yourself. Love yourself through those changes and find forgiveness in the past when you didn’t know the difference, and love yourself for knowing what you do today.
S – self L – love A – appreciate Y – you
Slay Say
Good morning SLAYER! You’ll never notice the beauty around you if you’re too busy running around trying to create it.
New blog goes up Friday, until then…SLAY on!
Embracing Is Acing
Before walking this path the only thing I was embracing were the outside things I thought would fill me up. None of them ever did, not in the long-term. Sure I might get a hit of satisfaction or relief, but soon after that emptiness would creep back in. Back then, I couldn’t even fathom embracing something I deemed negative. Which, was pretty much everything in my life, including myself.
When I sought help and started to change my behaviors and embarked on a path of self-love, I had to learn to embrace all of those things I didn’t like. Those imperfections in myself, and in my life. Which was a lot to take on. I was pretty much unhappy about everything. But I started with learning to find acceptance first. And boy, that took some work, but learning to ease off, to let go, to look at each thing and ask if there was something I could do to change it, asking myself, honestly, why I didn’t like it, and using that information to move forward. If there was action I could take I had to take it, otherwise I was not permitted to complain about it. Fair enough. And if I wasn’t ready to take action, I would write down what the action should be, will be, because that was the only action I was ready to take in that moment. Finding acceptance for the things I couldn’t change came next. I felt frustrated, trapped, and discouraged. But if I was going to get better I had to learn to let those things go, they weren’t serving me, they were only bringing me down.
And that’s it really. It’s taking a look at our lives and what is helping us and what is pulling us back, or keeping us staying stuck, and then doing something about those things that aren’t helping us get to where we want to be, or, robbing us of our peace and serenity. There are a lot of things I have no control over, and once I was able to let them go the happier I became. In terms of myself, I was eventually not only able to let go of my hate, judgment, or disappointment for those things n myself I didn’t like, I learned to embrace them. Embracing my flaws made them my assets. And yes, there are some that do hold me back, but the more I practice living in the light and living in my truth, the more those personal flaws start to lessen their grip on me.
As you know, I am a big believer in contrary action. Doing the opposite of what we’ve always done. That is the only way to get different results. And when we practice contrary action not only do the results change, but so do we. Our self-confidence grows, our self-esteem gets bigger, we start to love ourselves for who we are, and we start to see what makes us special. We learn to embrace who we are, all of who we are, and we begin to live a life that supports that love and is more loving to ourselves. When we are embracing we are acing. A reminder that we need to embrace our true selves, it’s only then that we begin to ace life, in whatever that means for you. SLAY on!
SLAY OF THE DAY: Do you struggle with embracing who you are, flaws and all? What holds you back? Why do you think you have trouble? The reasons you’ve cited, are they stories from your past that you’ve continued to hold on to? Let them go, those stories are old, and no longer you, only if you allow them to control your present. Write out who are you, as a person, what makes you you, write out your hopes and dreams, and then write down what holds you back. What can you do to diminish or get rid of those things that hold you back? Maybe even embrace them and make them work in your favor. You can SLAYER, if I can you can, I believe in you. Start looking at those things as something positive, something you can overcome, work around make you stronger to go after those things you want in your life, to be the best version of you. Take charge and focus on what you can do to move forward, and letting go of the rest. Embrace who you are and what you are, and you’ll see many of those obstacles fall way.
S – self L – love A – appreciate Y – you
Shutter Shame
How often have we let shame get in the way of living the life we want to have? How often have we let it limit us, hinder us, and diminish us? We think our shame is a way to protect us from being hurt, from being rejected, from allowing others to see who we really are, because we believe we are not good enough. All of this thinking is false. Shame isn’t real. We can make it real by believing in it, by buying into it, but it’s no more real than The Boogeyman, or whatever else we hid from as a child. We give it life by feeding into it’s energy. We give it permission to be active in our lives. We let it in by and let it grow by not talking about it, not sharing with others, and believing it’s lies.
Shame can manifest from many places. Childhood trauma, addiction issues, or even just the failure in something you place importance and value in. Once we have let shame in we typically engage in a series of behaviors as a result of feeling shame, we try to cover up our perceived flaws by overcompensating, by blaming and shaming others, by perfectionism, by lying, or by isolating thinking we don’t deserve or are not good enough to engage with others. Shame has a ripple effect, it’s not just our own stinking thinking that disrupts our lives, but it ripples out to all relationships we have affecting us personally and professionally. Shame holds us back from connecting, from sharing, from allowing us to be our best selves and from celebrating that. Shame steals our light and causes us to choose self-destructive behaviors to reaffirm shame’s negative voice that you are less-than and not good enough.
But really, shame doesn’t exist. Not unless we let it. When you think about it, you can’t touch shame, smell shame, taste shame, it’s not really there, so why do we give it so much power? Why do we have so much fear around it, when, only we can give it the power to hurt us? Why would we turn our power over to something that, when we let it, becomes so strong it can manifest itself physically in our lives? Many of us, while in shame, will feel flush, dizzy, have tunnel vision, have an inability to focus, hear loud noises in our ears, feel a tightness in our chest, have shallow breath, or not be able to make eye contact. When we’re experiencing this level of shame, we have lost control. We have completely given into it. So, how do we overcome the shame we feel and allow ourselves to be who we are meant to be, flaws, and all, and not only be that person, but be proud of who we are?
First, shame is a feeling and feelings are not facts. As I say all the time, what are the facts? What do we know to be true? If the answers start with “I feel,” that’s shame talking, not what is fact. Second, shame can’t thrive when we talk about it, when we share how we’re feeling with others, it diminishes it’s power. When we talk about our truth it brings in the light, shame can only survive in the darkness. Also, when we share, we realize that shame is not a unique feeling to just you, we all can relate, and when we feel a sense of connection of our common experiences shame starts to die and our relationships get stronger, and we feel a bigger bond to those around us, we realize that we are all the same, and that really, there is nothing to be ashamed of, we all make mistakes, we all fall, we all have lessons in life we need to learn, we shouldn’t feel shame over not getting something right the first time, or at all, because our path and our journey is on it’s own timeline, not someone else’s.
We all feel shame from time to time, but when we live as our authentic selves, when we share our feelings and connect with others, shame goes and hides. We have the power to stop shame in it’s tracks by not apologizing for who we are and who and what we love. Things may not look the way we think they should, but they look the way they are supposed to look, it’s up to us to find the good within that place, and to change those things we can that we feel we can do better. Tell shame to hit the curb, it has no place in your life SLAYER, practice self-love and acceptance and allow yourself to make mistakes, there is no shame in that.
SLAY OF THE DAY: Do you feel a sense of shame about yourself? Are there certain events or incidents that you carry around as badges of your shame? What are they? Have you ever told anyone about them? Why not? What do you think will happen if you do? What do you think is happening because you don’t? When you think about your shame, is it based in reality? Or is it based on your own perception of how think it should have looked or should look? Is it based on what others think it should look like? All that matters is that you live in your truth, through the highs and lows, just be you, no one gets it right all the time, it’s part of our journey and part of this path, shed your shame and shine bright, celebrate everything that is you, and take your power back over shame.
S – self L – love A – appreciate Y – you
Slayer Say
Good morning SLAYER! Learning to celebrate our flaws, loving them, and turning them into strengths makes us flawsome! We have the power to do that. Loving ourselves and embracing our uniqueness gets us on the road to flawsomeness, as we continue to accept and love ourselves we work towards finding a place where we stop judging ourselves and start to shine, and that, is true perfection!
New blog goes up Tuesday, until then…SLAY on!
I’m Not Perfect, I’m Flawsome!
The photo that accompanies this post is one I never thought I’d share.
I’ve had it since 2003, and aside from the person who took it, I showed it to only one other person for years. Before I stepped onto this journey, there was no way I would have let anyone see it. In truth, it’s taken me more than a decade of healing to feel ready to share it at all.
That photo isn’t a picture of someone who had it together.
It isn’t the version of me I worked so hard to present to the world.
It’s a picture of a woman in pain.
In fear.
Holding on by a thread.
I look at her now and I recognize her immediately. She’s still inside me. But today, I feel compassion for her instead of shame. I understand what she was carrying. I understand why she was afraid. And I appreciate her—because she didn’t stay there.
She kept going.
And that’s what made her flawsome.
What Flawsome Really Means to Me
Flawsome isn’t pretending we don’t have flaws.
It’s not polishing them up or hiding them better.
Flawsome is learning to celebrate them.
It’s letting go of the impossible standard of perfection and choosing something real instead. Because perfection doesn’t exist—and chasing it only keeps us stuck in self-judgment.
Flawsome is turning the parts of yourself you once hated into sources of strength. It’s living authentically, loving yourself fully, and recognizing that who you are—right now—is already worthy.
Perfection isn’t attainable.
But flawsomeness is.
How I Learned to Become Flawsome
This didn’t happen overnight.
It came from learning who I actually am, not who I thought I needed to be. From loving myself unconditionally—even the parts I wanted to reject. From letting my freak flag fly instead of trying to tuck it away.
And yes, it came from forgiveness. Again.
Forgiving myself for the choices I made when I didn’t know better.
Forgiving myself for the years I spent believing I was unlovable.
Forgiving myself for thinking my flaws made me less-than.
Letting go of that judgment freed me in ways I never expected.
Loving Yourself Is the Work
I had to learn to look at myself with love—the same love I so easily offered to others.
To stop living in the past, replaying mistakes that couldn’t be undone.
To stop living in the future, chasing a version of myself I thought I had to become.
The only place healing actually happens is now.
I learned to focus on what I’m good at. To celebrate my strengths instead of obsessing over what I thought was broken. To build on my talents and share them with others.
One of the most powerful parts of being flawsome is letting other people see it. When we own who we are, we give others permission to do the same.
The Woman in That Photo Didn’t Stay There
There’s nothing flawsome about the woman in that photo—except this:
She didn’t give up.
With every bit of strength she had, she fought for herself. She started a journey toward healing and self-love. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t fast. And yes, she put herself through hell for years after that picture was taken.
But she got there.
And now, that woman is me—writing these words.
That’s flawsome.
If You’re Struggling Right Now
If you’re feeling lost, empty, beaten down, or hopeless—please hear this:
Today can be the first day of the rest of your life.
You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to decide that you’re worth fighting for. The journey won’t be easy, but I promise you—it’s worth every step.
And you don’t walk it alone.
You have all of us SLAYERS walking beside you.
So go out there today and be flawsome.
SLAY Reflection
Let’s reflect, SLAYER:
S: What parts of yourself have you labeled as flaws?
L: How have those “flaws” actually shaped your strength or resilience?
A: What would change if you looked at yourself with compassion instead of judgment?
Y: How can you begin turning what you’ve judged into something flawsome?
Make a commitment today to stop judging yourself. When something comes up that you usually criticize, pause. Smile. Ask yourself how you can respond with love instead.
You’re learning.
Be kind to yourself on the way to SLAYDOM.
And never forget—you are flawsome.
