The Courage to Be
What is all over the news now is the interview with Bruce Jenner and Diane Sawyer. Bruce Jenner is a former Olympic US Athlete and stars in the show Keeping up with the Kardashians. You may recognize him as Kris Jenner's ex husband. He recently had an interview with Diane Sawyer in which he decided to reveal to the world that he is a woman and feels like a woman as appose to a man. As I was watching the interview, he stated that he has always felt like a female from a young age and that was his true self. He has hid it from everyone for many years.
I wanted to write about this because most people struggle with showing up authentically and really being who they are. Many of us and I know I have and do this sometimes, live our lives like "we have it together" when in reality we are burning inside with the desire to burst to be our true selves. We lie to others and ourselves and portray ourselves as being ok, as being happy with our job, as being happy with our life circumstances, as being happy with our health and the list goes on and on. It almost seems like there is this idea in society where if we become honest and say that we are struggling, we are seen as weak, and we are seen as an outsider to the majority of people. We may also feel like something is wrong with us because we can't get it together or can't conform to what we have been taught is "normal." We have a really hard time showing up as we are in the moment. Why can't we show that we "don't have it together"? What is wrong with that? I ask myself that as well at times. Sometimes we feel we need to hide how we really feel or how we are to "protect" others. The reality is that the only person that truly suffers in this circumstance is ourselves.
It is not an easy thing to fully be who we are. In a world that tells us that we need to be a certain way, we question and doubt our inner voice, the inner voice that is only rooted in truth. It takes a lot of courage and strength to live a life that matches who you really are. However we can work towards this and nothing is impossible. Slowly and gradually we can start day by day to do or say things that are truly us. Pick one thing each day that resonates with your deepest desires and do it. If it is something you always wanted to say, then make the goal to say it that day. You can slowly work towards living authentically. It takes practice and we can start by allowing ourselves to use the courage that is already inside of us to do courageous things each day.
For Bruce Jenner, he was tired of hiding his true self and his true self for him was that he felt like a female all his life. For others, it may be different. We can look at Bruce's courage as a springboard for us to leap from and be courageous. We can use his act of strength as a way for us to slowly be who we are. No matter who someone says they are or how they look, everyone deserves to be loved. No one and nothing deserves less love only more.