How to Truly Be Yourself in a World That Keeps Telling You How To.
When Was the Last Time You Allowed Yourself to Be?
Have you ever felt like every pair of eyes is watching you, silently judging?
Judging from the limited capacity of their own minds, from the narrow lens of their consciousness.
Yes, it matters.
We see the world not as it is but as we are.
Through the filter of our experiences, the information we've absorbed, or the lack of it.
Our judgments, projections, and assumptions? They're mostly echoes of our own inner landscape.
Wild, right?
Here you are, shoulders tense, breath held, shrinking in spaces where you were never meant to shrink
All because someone thinks you’re too much, or not enough.
When in truth, you’re simply showing up as you.
Living from the pull of your own soul, not for approval, but from an inner freedom that dares to express itself.
This piece, my intention is to awaken this knowing in us:
You are allowed to be.
And when you truly embrace that, you stop policing yourself to fit into a mold carved by others’ fears and limitations.
Like a child, wild and unfiltered anything we try to control too tightly rebels.
Because there’s a force inside of you that’s been suppressed for far too long, aching to be expressed.
It doesn’t seek validation.
It only asks for permission.
Your permission.
The need to be accepted yes, it once meant survival.
It’s woven deep into our evolutionary story.
But we’re no longer tribes hiding in caves, waiting for the leader to tell us who we should be.
The world is shifting.
People are reclaiming agency, awakening to free will, and rediscovering their own voice.
There’s power.
And that power is accessed inwardly.
It comes when you learn to listen, not just with your ears, but with your whole being.
There are many voices within you:
The inner child, longing to be seen.
The inner protector, forecasting all that could go wrong.
The existential wanderer, asking, “Why am I here?”
And the profound, knowing voice that speaks with no words.
It doesn’t shout.
It remembers.
To hear it, you must get still.
Sit in silence.
Breathe.
Meditate.
Let the noise settle until you can choose who gets to speak in your inner court.
You become sovereign, king or queen of your own realm.
And from that place, you take aligned action, not out of fear, but devotion to your truth.
Allowing yourself to be doesn’t mean others have to accept you.
The real liberation is in you accepting you.
Everyone has the right to express whether or not you fit into their world and you have that same right too.
When you catch yourself judging others, pause.
That judgment is often a mirror reflecting a part of you that still aches to be loved, held, and brought to light.
We all do this.
We make others wrong because we haven’t made peace within ourselves.
But the more we understand that everyone is navigating this same human mess
Figuring it out, fumbling through their own stories
The less we judge, the more we soften.
The more we see.
This is an invitation.
To take a deep breath.
To check in with yourself before you speak, before you assume.
Not to police yourself
But to release the inner police.
And instead whisper:
I am allowing myself to be.
I am safe to be.
And I am allowing others to be.
When you feel safe in your own skin, others feel it too.
Even if your words say “I’m fine,” the body never lies.
Energy doesn’t lie.
So pause.
Go inward.
Ask yourself:
Am I truly allowing myself to be me?
What does that even mean for me?
No one can teach you how to be.
That’s not something you learn from others.
It’s a homecoming you gift to yourself.
And one last note:
If you feel like you’re fighting to figure out how to be…
Maybe that’s your soul whispering that the current way isn't it.
That it’s time to pivot.
To shift.
Not to be validated
But to offer the world the overflowing essence of who you truly are.
Love&Devotion, Joanne Genoza
Joanne Genoza
