Yesterday I had a pretty incredible experience.
(Hi. My name is Yonci and I'm a recovering people-pleaser.)
For the first three and a half decades of my life I found myself desperately trying to please those around me, often to the detriment of my own emotional health.
While sometimes I was successful in making other folks happy, other times I was not - but one thing stood true: I was never perfectly comfortable speaking up and expressing my unfiltered truth.
Yesterday, however, was different. I have been practicing going against my personal grain and decided to override the temporary feelings of discomfort (from telling someone how their actions negatively made me feel) and speak my peace.
The night before I decided to speak up, something happened that didn't sit right with me and it really put a damper on my evening.
When I awoke the next morning, I reflected on the stressful situation from the night before. (One of my promises to myself is to always unpack emotions that are unpleasant and not let them just freely linger in my spirit unchecked.)
As I pondered, I realized the root of my discomfort was the fact that I wasn't completely transparent in communicating how I felt with the person who offended me. I decided to put together a thoughtful message and express myself as openly as honestly as I could.
To my shock, my message was not only not taken offensively, but it was warmly received ... well beyond any expectation! Furthermore, our text correspondence led to a much-needed conversation... forty years overdue.
It appears that a relationship might be mended and a friendship could possibly emerge.
My motto is "everything we desire is on the other side of fear" because usually the one thing keeping us from achieving our what our heart longs for is fear alone.
