Mia Astral started her closing keynote speech giving us a kind reminder:
We are humans
It is time to be 100 % transparent and honest with you.
I’m tired…
I’m tired over many of us highlighting our differences. I’m tired of having to define myself by labels, trying to explain to others what I do, trying to showcase how I can be of help and service, showing “you” that I am worthy.
It is NOT that I don’t want to be present, share and have impact. On the contrary, this is what drives me, what helps me wake up every single morning. It is that every day I get a chance to do something good.
Right now it is on a very small scale, I have a small community, I share content out in the online world, I speak at retreats and events.
I share what feels right.
I also have punished myself many times for not posting every day, for not being consistent, for not putting new videos or content on my YouTube channel every week.
I punished myself for getting it wrong, for not having a clear niche, for failing at my marketing, for simply not being able to stick to the “success” formula. But as I said earlier, I am tired.
I recently heard the founder and CEO of Reel – Daniela Corriente speak at a panel. When asked why she didn’t highlight or showcase her Latin American roots (being born in Venezuela), she said: I don’t want to be defined as a Latina CEO, or as a Woman CEO, or as a Latinx Woman CEO, I want to be the CEO that succeeds, that people recognize for doing something different, for having that impact.
In a crowd full of Latina Women, there were NOT a lot of applauds. I recognized the paradigm right there and then. She was defying what had gotten all of us together.
It is a beautiful mission and cause, because ultimately the We all Grow community is there to support each other, to elevate each other.
As their slogan says: When one grows, we all grow.
It wasn’t until a few days ago when I read a comment on Facebook that it fully dawned on me what I have been feeling.
The story goes as follows: this incredible soul posted a picture of him and 5 other males who were part of an educational panel. His life mission has become spreading the word and educating people on the power of food to heal disease.
A woman commented on the picture saying: “need to get some women speakers in that line up.”
His response was strong and to the point: “I wonder if you might ever be part of an all volunteer panel spilling your emotional guts, trying to help others transform their health, that happens to be all female? If by some chance that ever does happen, I hope no one gives you sh&! because there didn’t happen to be any men on the panel that evening.”
Wow! Someone touch a very sensitive point, but there it was, starring right back at me. The shift that Daniela started to bring up into my conscious, into awareness. The one that Mia reminded me.
It was one of those synchronicity moments were I finally received the message.
We need to STOP highlighting our DIFFERENCES and reminding each other that we are ALL Humans!
Yes, there is racism, class-ism, bigotry, abuse of power, all those things and worst things happening in the world, but if we continue to give our energy to HIGHLIGHT those behaviors, we are giving more fuel to the fire.
Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr brilliantly said:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.“
I am not saying to ignore it. I am just asking YOU to look into your own life, your own circle. Are you inclusive? How many of your friends are gay, straight, non-binary, of different parts of the world, different skin colors, different hair types?
I am too failing at this, but I want to do something different. I want to change. There is SO MUCH healing we need to do!
Talking to my boyfriend last night, for the first time I raised this issue: To someone who needs to put us in a box, who needs to put labels and define their insecurities, they may call us an Interracial couple, something that was NOT acceptable in the US only a few decades ago. His response: I never even thought of that, but I can see what you are saying.
I dare to say there are probably a few places, corners in this country were that is still not acceptable.
I was blessed to grow up in a country where – although we did use labels – we somehow always connected on a human level, or at least that’s what I felt.
This may be something that only happens in this continent, I don’t know. I am too ignorant to speak for other cultures, other countries and what is happening inside their homes, their streets, their lives.
I rather learn by visiting those places, by talking to locals, by observing and trying to let my human brain make sense of it all with as little labels as possible.
I am joining the battle, I am getting in the arena, getting my hands dirty and the only way I can do that is to continue to be genuine, authentic and perfectly myself!