One of the hardest things for me has been reading into what people are saying.

Do you relate?

You know, when someone says: Hey, Rachael , you’re doing a great job!

Rachael’s brain would go into “ha! but honestly, you’re not. Here’s all the reasons why. And what they really mean is they are having a pity party for you and just telling you what you want to hear.

 

Or : The scene from mean girls: Oh my gosh I love your skirt!(That skirt is so ugly)

You get me?

People’s opinion and view of me determined how well, or unwell I functioned.

For the majority of my life, I have been a people pleaser. A peace maker. A ” Let me make sure you are happy , and I will put my happiness aside to make sure you get that.”

But it wasn’t until I was super honest with myself and saw the importance of boundaries , that I realized,peace comes when we honor ourselves and the people around us within the framework of boundaries.

This has been a learning process for me, but I feel joy when I can see how far I have come and the progress I have made.

One of the hard things , an obstacle of mine , was that I held the belief that the way I treated people would be the way they treated me. The way I spoke to people would be the way they spoke to me. The way I believed about people would be the way people would believe about me.

Truth is: There are people who do not like us, and that is okay. I promise. It doesn’t necessarily mean their beliefs about us are true.

People get to think what they want. I get to think what I want. But the only person who holds authority over my opinion of myself is me, and a few people in my inner circle who I trust to speak hard things when I need to hear them.

When I was able maintain set and believe I was worth appropriate boundaries, and having people in my life who would respect those boundaries: I was able to experience freedom from opinion.

Now , I’d be lying if I said I don’t get caught in old habits of “Rachael Brain”  The, obsession over opinions. But I am now able to recognize when that is happening, acknowledge it and let it pass.

 

Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in your power. Take away then, when you choose, your opinion, and like a mariner who has rounded the headland, you will find calm, everything stable, and a waveless bay.

Marcus Aurelius

Does your brain obsess over people’s opinion of who they think you are?

What would it look like if you let go of that?

Be encouraged,

Rachael