Back in the Fall, I found myself in the presence of amazing Wyoming women as a presenter at the Wyoming Women’s Expo in Casper. To say I was warmly welcomed would be an understatement. I was given a platform to speak on a topic very near and dear to my heart yet different than what I typically speak about to my usual audience of nurses and educators. If you take a look at the bag that my beautiful baby girl, Ellie, is holding in this picture – the topic for our session was called “Your Voice Matters”.

It’s surprising that it took me this long to put this talk together. I think I was hiding my desire to host this type of “class” as a bit of self protection. Despite this, I am confident that we are presented with opportunities to teach the lessons that we ourselves most need to learn, sometimes we have to hear it more than once. The idea of Your Voice Matters started percolating around in my brain back in March 2018, but it wasn’t until the conference that things really started molding into a cohesive class and movement of sorts.
         
When I say that I am committed to this idea, I mean it. I am deeply passionate about all of us knowing deep inside that our voices matter. I have struggled with my sense of self and voice since I was 5 years old and got my first glimpse of the world shutting me down by telling me I was too talkative. I have struggled against that my whole life. I am not exaggerating when I say I face that internal conflict every single day of life. I live in a constant state of wondering whether or not I might be “too much” at any given moment.

I’d like to say that it ends today, but I don’t believe that is entirely possible. I am a believer in the idea that we control our thoughts, but that one is still wired in their pretty deep, so it will take awhile yet for me to rewrite that particular line of code. Instead of self-filtering or worse self-limiting, I will be rewriting that message as I am the perfect amount of me. I am uniquely and perfectly created and I am showcasing my me-ness and much-ness in just the right amounts at all times.
         
Do these negative thoughts sound familiar? Are you someone that struggles with too much-ness or maybe you have the sister thought that is more in the “I am not enough” camp. With either one, I think the new coding is the same, “I am enough.” There was another beautiful soul presenter at the conference who actually gave out temporary tattoos with exactly that message. She self-identified as a member of our “I’m not good enough” camp. Unfortunately, there are a lot of us who hang out there, but we can move to another location, another campsite. We really can learn to rewire and rewrite that code inside our brains. It will take time and practice, but it absolutely can be done.
      
Will you commit to fighting this with me? Do you promise to stop yourself the next time you go down the “I’m not good enough” path? Instead, will you take a nice deep breath and remind yourself that you are perfect. Remind yourself that you are enough, and you are loved? Do it for me and all of the other women who also need to hear, know, and feel this. Maybe you have a daughter or other significant to you younger female perhaps as young or even younger than my little Ellie who needs to grow up knowing this too? Perhaps you can do it for her. Maybe you can think about that little girl inside of you – do it for her. The more you do it, the more it is etched into your brain and becomes the default thought pattern. Pretty soon we will all know we are enough.
         
Imagine a world where we all know we are enough. Imagine how unstoppable we will be. Imagine how much love and amazingness and awesomeness will exist. This is the world I see in my mind. This is the world that I dream about living inside. Will you help me bring it into manifestation? I hope you will.

Much love and gratitude
~ Sherpa Erica