OnTheBeach: Be Fully, Beautifully, Unashamedly You

I was reading this post by Leonie Dawson, and I just loved how fully, beautifully, unashamedly Leonie she is. She makes no apology for who she is, what she does, and what she likes. Her sacred mantra: if they don’t like it/me, fuckem! I love this woman – I have been a member of her academy for nearly a year, and I adore her attitude, her courses, her community, her business, her honesty, and her courage.

(Yes, I’m a bit of a fan-girl of Leonie’s, what of it?) It takes guts to be fully, beautifully, unashamedly YOU. It is a hard thing in a world where conformity is the name of the game to stand up and say “this is me” – with all my weirdneses and oddities and geekiness hanging out. Most people are not fully, beautifully, unashamedly themselves. Most of us hide parts of who we are out of a fear of being seen as weird or odd or different.

But we’re all weird and odd and different. We’re unique. Each one of us is the only ‘me’ in all creation. And whenever we hide a piece of that uniqueness, you not only deny yourself, you deny the whole world the pleasure of who you really are. Fully, beautifully, unashamedly yourself. Have you ever wondered why we’re attracted to ‘authenticity’? Because when people aren’t hiding, they’re gorgeous. As Marianne Williamson said “And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Yeah, some people won’t like your brand of dazzle, but as Leonie would say, Fuckem.

Real, genuine people shine – they’re beautiful. And despite the weird society pressure to conform and fit in, we know that’s bullshit. We don’t like fake, we don’t like phony. You don’t often hear of someone being praised for being a fake, or being lauded for being a sheep! “Oh, I love that woman, she’s so … conformist!” Nope, never going to happen. Unless you happen to be a dictator who wants everyone to conform to your world view of course.

But you’re not, I can see that from here. I can see that you, yes YOU, are beautiful. You are unique. You are your own brand of effing genius. If you could only see how wonderful you are, how special, how you do not need to hide any part of you…except for modesty’s sake, if you flash, they’ll arrest you – I’m talking about personality-wise, sharing your gifts-wise, going after the life you really want in your heart and soul-wise. You are enough for the life you want. But you’ll need every bit of you for it. You’ll need to be fully, beautifully, unashamedly you.

I know that’s hard for some of us. Especially if we’ve got some odd vision of what Perfect Me looks like. She’s probably got really shiny hair, doesn’t lose her temper or her keys, is elegant, confident, serene, fabulous at everything she turns her hand to, never makes a fashion mistake or goes out with an unsuitable man and always knows what to do. Am I right? I got news for you babe, that woman doesn’t exist! And if you keep trying to live up to that impossible ideal, you will miss the fact that you with your messy hair, scatterbrain, old comfy jeans, your blushing cheeks and your mistake making…YOU are 12 times the woman that plastic person will ever be.

Even with all your foibles and quirks and weirdnesses and embarrassing revelations. Even with your negative traits and shameful habits. Even with all the things about yourself you don’t want to admit or show to the world. You are beautiful. You are a shining light in the world. Clear the dust off the diamond that is you and let yourself shine, awkward admissions and all. I’ll start.

I love kid-lit (I didn’t even know there was a proper name for liking children’s books until this year – thanks Gretchen Rubin!), I love “self-help” books, although I absolutely bloody hate the title of the genre – why couldn’t they call it “Inspirational” books eh? I am a total bookworm, if you wanted to torture me, you’d only need to take away my books. My favourite movie is the Jungle Book. I find most ‘critically acclaimed’ books and films stunningly boring. I love dancing around my office and singing into my hairbrush. I often ‘do the dance’ that goes with the song, or make up one (not just in a Beyonce-way, in a ‘tortured modern dance’ Emo way too!). I love sweets. I am a total scatterbrain.

I hate crocs with a passion (the shoe, not the animal). I wear jeans and a t-shirt most days. I dream of being elegantly fashionable, but most of the time I’d rather be comfortable. I find a lot of ‘business’ advice snore-worthy and I like to ignore as much of it as possible. I sometimes sit at my desk and wonder why the hell I’m putting myself through this and daydream of the days when I was a wage-slave and they paid me the same every month and told me what to do (sometimes self-employment gets you that way).

I have a lot of journals – I have a morning pages journal plus 5 or 6 more for various other things I want to write. At some point I’ll have to throw them out or move to a bigger house. Although I am generally happy, confident cheerful and friendly exterior, sometimes I revert back to being the painfully shy “girl with the invisible smile” (my nickname at my first job!) who wouldn’t say boo to a butterfly, never mind a goose. I blush for no reason. I’ve watched the Lord of the Rings films so often I wore out the tape in the video. Yup, I’m a Geek. I know that geeks are cool, and non-geeky people who think they’re cool are foolish for not realising Geek is Chic.

I believe in magic. I believe in YOU. I believe in Big Dreams coming true and I believe EVERYONE has the potential (another word I can’t stand, but I can’t think of a better one…and nor can my thesaurus! I love my thesaurus, even though the synonyms for “potential” SUCK!) Anyway, I believe EVERYONE has the potential to make their Big Dreams come true IF they’re prepared to put in the elbow grease and get over the shit that’s holding them back. I don’t care if some cynical, negative people think that’s naive. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being naive, frankly, naive folks are a lot more blimmin cheerful! I want to live in a world where people have Big Dreams and go after them, in the process making this world a pretty awesome effing place.

All of this together, plus more random personality quirks, likes and dislikes, desires and opinions, beliefs and experiences makes me who I am. And I think I am FABULOUS! Even if I am very messy and always losing stuff (the latest is the band for my yoga mat…it doesn’t leave this room, and I can’t find it anywhere!). Your unique collection of random personality quirks, likes and dislikes, desires and opinions, beliefs and experiences make you FABULOUS too – you’re the only you there is in the whole of creation (well, I have a doppelganger apparently, but I bet she doesn’t sing into her hairbrush with emotion like what I do). Anyway, you’re the only one of you there is. Allow that you to be fully, beautifully and unashamedly ALL of you. I’d love to hear some of your random personality quirks, likes and dislikes – leave me a comment below.

Love

Donna.x