It can be painful to acknowledge the illusions you’ve believed as truth in your sleepwalking slumber. It can be hard to wake up and take responsibility for your own stuff, and see the part that you’ve played in perpetuating the lies, the programming and the conditioning to stay asleep.

It can push you to the very edge of your comfort zone, to be honest and brave enough to acknowledge that you’ve unknowingly buried your head in the sand to stay unconscious, so as not to have to face the truth of who you really are and the enormity of what you came to this planet to do and be.

Why do you choose to stay asleep and ignore the truth of who you truly are?

This is what you are taught. The fear of being rejected is programmed into your very survival. You conform to be safe, to fit in, to succeed — you learn to stifle your truth so as not to make other people feel uncomfortable, and so that you won’t feel uncomfortable either.

I have news for you…

Awakening to truth is not always comfortable or pretty. It’s messy, it’s jarring, it’s disruptive, and it can be downright brutal.

I was not born to play small, and neither were you.

I didn’t come here to please your personality self by sugar coating my message or downplaying my truth. I came here to speak directly to your soul, by expressing my authentic truth, and shaking things up, to wake you up. And sometimes this ruffles feathers and upsets the apple cart.

Yet I haven’t always spoken my truth so boldly.

I learned to be a people pleaser. To shut myself down. To play small.

I learned to be who I believed other people needed me to be.

I allowed the judgments and opinions of strangers to influence the way I felt about myself and in such, how I expressed myself. I agreed to the lies and gave my power away. I danced around the truth, dimmed my light, and silenced my voice, so that people would like me.

I believed the lies that said I am only worthy if: I am pretty, a size 2, a good girl, a pleaser, a rule follower, someone who always says and does all the right things, someone who looks and sounds a certain prescribed way.

I judged myself. I judged my body. I judged other people.

I bought into the social program that says “you need to be perfect to be okay”. I bought into the fear-based social conditioning that says, “don’t shine too brightly”, so as not to upset or out do other people.

And because this was so unaligned with my truth, at times I was harsh and brutal in my delivery of attempting to assert my power while feeling suppressed and judged and misunderstood.

Other times, I censored myself and held back authentic parts of me out of fear.

I was stuck between my desire to be liked, and my anger at feeling completely stifled by a system that was killing me.

Until one day, I woke up and saw how this program was sucking the very life out of me. It was siphoning the energy from my soul. I could not bear it for one moment longer, and I knew, it was time to break free.

The more authentic you are, the brighter you shine, the more you illuminate the shadows in others.

The more light you hold, the more truth you shed on the world around you, exposing the illusions that are hidden in the darkness.

This makes some people very uncomfortable.

Because what lurks in the shadows is there for a reason; it does not want to be seen and exposed for the lie that it is. Waking up and facing the truth of what lives in the darkness, shakes up the status quo and stirs stuff up. This is not always fun nor pretty to witness or experience.

However, I didn’t come here to play small. And neither did you.

You didn’t come here to dance around the truth censoring yourself, pretending to be something or someone you are not.

You came here to shine brightly. To encourage other people to shine brightly as well.

You came here to connect and to experience the fullness of being your true authentic self.

You came here to love fiercely, to live authentically, and to be exactly who you are at your core.

You came here to be authentic, however unique or awkward that may be. You came here to be silly, to be a nerd, to be a dork, to geek out — to embrace all the divine aspects of yourself fully.

You came here to express the fullness of who you are at the core level of your soul.

You came here to wake up to the truth of who you really are, to dismantle your ego — the programming that keeps you separate and angry and in constant competition with others — and to rock your divine, awesome, beautiful, messy, opinionated, sassy, brash, bold, and fierce self. You came here to be free.

You did not come here to be afraid of your emotions or to constantly judge them. You did not come here to be stuck in a continuous competition or battle with others over whose opinions are correct. You did not come here to stay asleep and become part of a complacent homogeneous herd of sheep.

You came here to wake up and remember who you really are, and in this, to experience a spectrum of emotions and experiences, and to authentically express yourself from the depths of your soul.

You came here to drop your ego, to connect with others, to be real, and to share your unique voice with the world. This includes sharing your vulnerability, your pain, your love, your sadness, your joy. Without judgment, your emotions become your teachers. They enrich you, allowing you to experience the contrast, the gift, of being in physical form.

You came to remember that we all come from the same source, and in this, we are all connected by the same energetic thread, the same glowing divine light, the same consciousness that is woven through everything on the entire planet.

You didn’t come here to play small. So wake up and start being your true authentic self.

Not your angry ego self, not your programming, not your social conditioning, but the truth of who you really are underneath all the illusions, all the lies, all the garbage you’ve believed.

The world needs you to claim your power now. It’s time to shine. It’s time to illuminate the landscape around you. It’s time to show the planet how incredibly powerful, beautiful, and strong your spirit is, to unapologetically express your authentic truth, and to honor the divinity of your exquisite sparkling soul.

Because you didn’t come here to play small, you came here to be authentic, and to shine.

This is all part of what I call, The Alchemy of Awakening.

About the Author: Diana Rose KOTTLE, MA, MFT is one of Your Monthly Mentors, a Consciousness Architect + Soul Alchemist + Soul Alignment Guide. She helps people align with their soul’s true purpose, so they can live their highest vision and impact the world. Diana’s approach bridges psychology + spirituality + consciousness + technology. Her professional training and education includes a BA in Psychology, an MA in Counseling Psychology, and a license in Marriage and Family Therapy. She is currently writing several new books including: ‘Soul Alchemy’ and ‘The Alchemy of Awakening’. Read More…

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