Unapologetically You - Mini Series #1-The Journey

Are you feeling lost in the expectations of others? Welcome to Unapologetically You, a new mini-series all about embracing your true self—without apology. In this first episode, we explore the struggle of seeking external validation and the patterns that keep us stuck, offering insights to help you break free.

From childhood conditioning to the fear of standing in your truth, we dive into why so many of us dim our light to fit in. But radical self-acceptance isn’t just about confidence—it’s about understanding your fears, moving through them, and taking real steps toward authenticity.  Next week we will dive into 'How To Release The Need For Approval'

.Action Steps to Step Into Your Authenticity:

✨ Self-Reflection Journal Prompts

• Who am I when no one else is watching?
• Where do I feel most like myself? (Certain environments, people, activities?)
• Where in my life do I hold back? What am I afraid will happen if I show up fully?

✨ Identify One Small Act of Authenticity

• Choose one small way to show up more as yourself this week.
• Examples: Wear what makes you feel good, speak your mind, set a boundary, express a creative idea.

✨Mirror Exercise for Self-Acceptance

• Stand in front of a mirror, look into your own eyes, and say:
  “I see you. I accept you. I give you permission to be fully yourself.”
• Notice any emotions that come up and journal about them.

✨ Awareness Challenge

• Pay attention to moments when you hesitate to express yourself.
• When you catch yourself holding back, pause and ask:
  “What am I afraid of? Is this fear real, or is it a conditioned response?”

✨Affirmation to Anchor In

• Repeat daily:
  “I am worthy of showing up as my true self. My authenticity is my power.”

Join us as we navigate this journey together. If this episode resonates, share it, subscribe, or leave a review—we’d love to hear from you!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back to Pure Possibilities
• 5:58 Introducing "Unapologetically You" Series
• 45:58 Action Steps for Embracing Authenticity

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:59

Welcome back to the Pure Possibilities podcast. I hope you had an amazing week. I went to a coaching retreat in West Palm Beach and it was beautiful and magical and I had such an incredible time and I'm excited to be back. We're gonna do a new mini series called Unapologetically you and it's gonna be about really truly embracing who you are and letting go of external validations and stepping in to radical self-trust and authenticity. This has been something that has been a practice for me for quite some time now and, believe me, it is a practice. There's something about really truly understanding what it means to unapologetically be yourself and recognizing where you hold yourself back and taking those steps towards being who you truly are and your most authentic self. And I know that the word authenticity gets thrown around a lot these days, but we spend so much time with a mask on and pretending to be someone that we're not to please other people, to not disappoint anyone, because we have fear and past experiences that have held us back, or beliefs or perceptions of reasons why we feel like we aren't able to really step into who we truly are. And, honestly, I didn't even know who I was for the longest time and I've spent quite a bit of time figuring that out and it's actually been really quite a beautiful journey that I've been on. I'm not saying it's been easy, not by any means but it's been pretty incredible. So it was interesting.

Speaker 1: 2:55

When I was traveling I was at a couple of different airports and standing in line waiting to get on the planes and there were two different moments that really stood out to me. One was there was this little girl that her dad was holding her, I don't know, she was probably anywhere between nine months and a year old or something and she was just kind of looking around and observing people and she made eye contact with me and smiled and was just being very sweet and she'd look away and then she'd look back and you know that true childhood innocence and childlike wonder. And then I was waiting to get on another plane and, you know, standing there waiting to board and there was another little girl who was probably I don't know six or seven and she was standing. There was like the little edge on the walkway and part of it is marked off and she was standing there and leaning back and smiling and talking and asking questions and you know how tall am I and then she would like stand up on the thing and then stand back down, and it was just so sweet and she was just being her and didn't really care what anybody thought of her, because she's a little kid and when we're children we don't really care what people think. And then different things happen over the years and it starts to push us down and we forget who we truly are at our core, and so I'm hopeful that this mini-series will be helpful for you and maybe taking a few steps into your authentic self.

Speaker 1: 4:37

So what does it mean to be unapologetically you? It's not unapologetically you. We're not talking about being reckless or inconsiderate and rude. It's about truly honoring your truth and who you are and what you desire and what you love and what you don't love, and just being truly honest with people. Again, it's not to be rude or disrespectful, but just because you feel a certain way about something doesn't mean it's wrong. Living in alignment with your values and desires and your authentic expression, truly trusting yourself to take up space even when it feels uncomfortable. And that's kind of a tough one for me. Sometimes.

Speaker 1: 5:27

I spent a lot of my life feeling like I didn't have a voice and what I said I always felt like what I said didn't really matter. And even over I mean over the years I've started to recognize that one of the reasons why I wouldn't speak up is because I felt like I would sound dumb or nobody would care what I had to say. And these are all my built-in beliefs and perceptions. It's not like anybody specifically said, but maybe I perceived a certain look from someone and I took it personally, or maybe I didn't feel like I knew the subject well enough to actually talk about it, and these are things that I created in my mind. Nobody specifically said anything to me, or when I would speak up, I would feel like I wasn't heard or acknowledged, and so it's taken time to really move through that and realize that I do have a voice and my voice does matter and I deserve to take up space. We all deserve to take up space and allow ourselves to be expressed.

Speaker 1: 6:38

One of the ways we lose touch with our authenticity and our true self is societal expectations. There's messages of how we should behave, how we should dress, how we should think, how our life should look, we should go through school, then go to college, get married, buy a house, have kids all of those normal societal expectations. I've realized I'm a little bit of a rebel in that department. The way my life has gone and with the decisions and choices that I'm making, because I want to live a life that I actually enjoy and that doesn't always fit into that normal box that we get put into to Childhood conditioning is another way we learn to seek approval from our parents and adults in our life other kids and avoid rejection.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Past experiences that we might have had moments where you might've felt judged or unaccepted. Maybe you spoke up in class and somebody laughed, or and that really had something to do with them and probably nothing to do with you their own insecurities, and that's just one example that I can think of. I never really used to raise my hand in class because I felt like it's interesting, I never felt smart enough. Huh, I wonder why that is. That's interesting, anyway, something for me to look into, I guess. And then there's fear. Fear comes into play Fear of judgment, fear of losing relationships, fear of not being accepted by people.

Speaker 1: 8:34

But the thing is, when you're living your life to please others and maybe that's unintentional you're really not allowing them an opportunity to get to know who you really are and you're kind of honestly living a lie and lying to yourself, and I know that I want the people in my life to feel free and open to be themselves and be vulnerable and open and honest with me and with themselves. So what are some signs that you might be holding back from your true self? You could be constantly seeking approval from other people before making a decision, saying yes when you really want to say no, dimming your light or adjusting your personality in different settings. Are you truly the same person when you're at home as when you're at work, as when you're out with your friends or with your family? Are you really the same person, or are you kind of that chameleon that shifts around depending on your environment? Maybe you feel exhausted from keeping up this persona of this person that isn't really you, having a deep desire for more but feeling stuck and afraid to take action. Those are some ways that you could be holding back on being your true self.

Speaker 1: 10:02

It's time to release the mask and step into your truth, because what is it costing you? No-transcript? It drains your energy, it keeps you from having meaningful connections with people and, honestly, it truly limits the joy that you have in your life, that true, authentic joy. What would it feel like to have? More ease, more self-acceptance and opportunities align more for you. When you're being your true self, because you're being an integrity with yourself, you're being honest with yourself and you're fully expressing who you are, you'll attract the people that you're meant to connect with, you will attract amazingly beautiful experiences, and it's truly life-changing.

Speaker 1: 10:57

So I wanted to offer a couple of different action steps that you could take if you would like to do so. The first one is a journal prompt. I'll put these in the show description so that you can easily refer back to them. So the first one is who am I when no one else is watching? Where do I feel most like myself? What environments, what people am I when no one else is watching? Where do I feel most like myself? What environments, what people am I around? What activities am I doing? Where in my life do I hold back? What am I afraid will happen if I show up as my full, true, authentic self?

Speaker 1: 11:38

The next one is to identify one small act of authenticity. Choose one small way to show up more as yourself. This week, for example, wear something that makes you feel good. Speak your mind, set a boundary, express a creative idea shake your ass if you want to, throw in your earbuds and just dance, dance like no one's watching, no matter where you are. Do whatever. Take one small step towards your true authenticity. You could do a mirror exercise for self-acceptance. You could stand in front of a mirror and look into your own eyes and say I see you, I accept you, I give you permission to be fully yourself. And then notice any emotions that might come up when you do that and then journal around them. The next one is awareness. Pay attention to moments when you hesitate to express yourself, when you catch yourself holding back, pause and ask yourself what am I afraid of? Is this fear real or is it a conditioned response? And you can repeat daily I am worthy of showing up as my true self. My authenticity is my power.

Speaker 1: 13:08

So next week, in episode two of the mini series, we're going to dive into how to release the need for approval. It feels good. It feels good when you feel confident enough to be able to fully express yourself and be who you are. It's exhausting. It's exhausting to put on an act, put on a show, pretend to be someone that you aren't. So I invite you to maybe try some of those action steps and, if you feel called to, feel free to send me a text there is a link in the show description If you want to share one step that you might've done, one small act of authenticity that you might've tried this week.

Speaker 1: 13:50

And now, as always, we're going to end the episode with a card poll from the magic of what if? Card deck volume two, and we'll see what we have this week. Shuffle these up a little bit. I don't know if you can hear me shuffling, but I'm shuffling. Okay, here we go. What if I'm capable of turning every challenge into a powerful lesson, of turning every challenge into a powerful lesson? That kind of goes along with being authentic Sometimes when you're being your true, authentic self. There can definitely be lots of challenges and lessons in that, and maybe it's setting a boundary, maybe it's having that difficult conversation. It's funny.

Speaker 1: 14:40

I had a conversation today that I had kind of built up in my mind that I thought it was going to be a difficult or challenging conversation and the person I was talking with completely responded absolutely the opposite of what I expected.

Speaker 1: 14:56

I was pleasantly surprised. But I had kind of put off having the conversation because I had a little bit of discomfort and finally decided that I needed to have that conversation and it was really interesting. It was just another reminder that sometimes we just want to say make things up. But we kind of make up stories in our head sometimes about how we think somebody is going to react to something that we're going to say and that's literally our own perception, and we're not even giving the person an opportunity to actually respond. So talk about authenticity. Allow the people in your life the opportunity to express themselves without you deciding ahead of time how they're going to respond. That was a good lesson for me today. Anyway, I hope you have a beautiful, beautiful day and an amazing week and I can't wait to dive in next week to how to release the need for approval. Much love.