Week 8 & 9: A Letter To Myself. #GETLIKEME #authenticlife #journetytoauthenticity #loveyourself #naturalauthenticlife

It's the final week Authentic's!

It's the final week of my nine week blog, Hiding Behind My Glasses. I'm sad to say goodbye! I'm thrilled though, to communicate to all who joined this journey with me, how this experience has been a game changer! I have gotten my natural authentic life! I wanted to end this by writing a letter to myself, and ultimately to those of us in the world who hide behind anything physical or otherwise. I want to apologize, forgive, and liberate the authentic me before my readers in hopes that you to may find the courage to do the same. Dare to be IN LOVE with the being you are!

Hiding Behind My Glasses...
Dear Sharhonda,
Your name means love, among other great things. Isn't it crazy that the very thing we deny ourselves lies within us. In this instance it's in your name. You were destined to return back to love. I'm thankful God orchestrated it to be so! I want to apologize to you, to me, for hiding. For snuffing out our light, for looking to others when all along we were the love that we needed. You and I, as ONE, were enough and I didn't know it. Thank God you, my spirit sister, did! I've learned that our spirit, because it's connected to the divine knows all. I'm glad that we connected! Sharhonda I honor you, and I forgive me. I love the parts of me that were broken, shaken, damaged, pulled apart. I love me. I love me because that's what I needed. Love heals all things. I know better now that all of those things that occurred in my life aren't reflections of who I am. It had nothing to do with me. I always was Sharhonda, and always will be. I've learned that what people do to me doesn't define who I am. I have learned that I grow through adversity. I positively evolve! The toughest times in my life have been turned into positive energy that is used toward my good. I'm eternally grateful for grasping that. I love me. I love me because it's the antidote I needed all of this time. I pledge to continuing learning how to love me so that in all ways I can show up authentic. YESSSSSS!!!!

Thank You.
Thank You Sharhonda for doing the work! Thank you for being! I'm Honored to be me. I'm thrilled outside my black and pink heart socks that I've learned to love Sharhonda!!!!! *Insert Fireworks*



Authentic's take a moment and rejoice for liberation! Liberation from messy minds and stinking thinking! I have came along this journey with several realizations. One of them is that I see the world through different lenses. We are all snow flakes and each of us have our own design. In the end we are all snowflakes. Individually-collective, if that makes sense. I'm never on an island, because I'm in this world with so many who's spirit I connect to. I'm also unique and alone because my experience is my own. I honor that. I welcome and embrace that. Because it's me. It's who I am.
I have grown to love my laugh.. my story isn't this sorrowful and shameful story anymore..it's now this story of courage, triumph, and success. I can see my resilience, my effort, my fight. I can see the greatness that is Sharhonda. Lord I denied myself my truth and my grace for so long!How about that! My task, and yours now is to keep the momentum going. Remind ourselves daily that we are loved. We are loved. We are loved.

I listened to Mary J. Blige and Jada Pinkett Smith on the radio a few days ago. They were discussing how women get married and expect their husbands to love them in areas they don't even love themselves. Jada mentioned how she's screaming out, love me...pay attention to me.. and she realized it was coming from a place of need for her to love and know herself. I could so relate. I would ask and cry and yearn for love...thinking my life partner wasn't delivering. The shame I must have heaped on his head telling him that he wasn't meeting my needs. I craved affection. I'm keeping it real y'all. I'm a kissy face person. Very affectionate! My kids get kisses and hugs daily. :)  I also now know that I didn't love myself. I had hid myself not only from the world but from myself. I didn't love me. Now that I'm out of the closet so to speak, now that I'm no longer hiding, I am so in love with who Sharhonda is! She's awesome sauce! I dig the chic that I am. YESSS!!! Like my spirit is cutting cartwheels! ( I have to add here that there's something about knowing yourself and loving who you are. People can't step to you or effect you the way they used to.) I want to say GET LIKE ME lol it's rap lyrics that come to mind when I celebrate! Authentic's don't be like me but get like me, get this authentic life! Be you, in your being, the way you were absolutely created to be. Don't you apologize for it either. That means don't be sorry for being who you are, you can't change that when its true, healthy, and loving. Don't dare apologize for being quirky, laughing loud, singing to every song on the radio, or wearing blue lipstick if that's you! Don't apologize, just BE. Be inspiration for someone else to get their natural authentic life too!

I was used to living a life hiding. Having lived in the shadows for so long I have a few habits to break. It's no overnight trip. It's a journey my dear loves and I'm practicing everyday!

In Conclusion:
Authtentic's I don't have a lot left to say... If anything I end this series with this.

I am who I am and who I am is who I love because who I am is authentic. YESSSSS!!!

Get into the business of loving you Authentic's!!!!
And show yourself off sometime don't worry about the people. When you like you, the right people will like you to! Everybody else doesn't matter. <3

God bless my loves.

Week 7: The Revelation #JourneytoAuthenticity #HidingBehindMyGlasses #

Good Morning Authentic's!

Oh what an awesome and amazing journey it has been with you the past 7 weeks. You have been very supportive in providing feedback and sharing your thoughts with me as I delve deeper into my own life concerning authenticity. I wanted to reveal to you what Hiding Behind my Glasses means and why this journey has been critical to my personal development.

Hiding Behind My Glasses...
One day sitting in my life coach's office we were of course discussing things that include how I can be an effective leader. During that discussion she pointed out my glasses that I show off in my blog post each week. She looks at me and says very directly, "Tell me what's going on with these glasses.....I mean I know that they are really cool and you like them because they are retro but what are you hiding behind them?" I just smiled as only I could. I then said, "Wow!" I could immediately see why she'd ask me that question. I felt it. I knew it deep inside that I don't share my genuine authentic self with the world. I don't share the REAL REAL Sharhonda at all times. I mentioned to her as I have to you in previous post that I have safely guarded myself behind a Berlin wall and I didn't realize at the time that I was hiding from people who may need me, I was putting a plug on my own development, and I was not able to fully live out my purpose because I was hiding. My coach then says, "I want you to start a blog". I want you to call it, Hiding Behind My Glasses. She gave me the hashtag to! I wish I could take the credit for such a great eye catching name but I can't. Precious Bivings is the amazing woman who poured into me and pulled out of me what was needed in order to make this possible. She is a great instrument of the divine!

So Yes Authentic's I had to get real about why I was hiding critical pieces of myself from the world. That realization was eye opening but more than that I felt free and beautiful when she explained why this blog was important. It's important because what you have gotten from me each week has been Sharhonda. The words I write I look over, I publish. I go back and edit again. I re-read it to see how smoothly it flows. It's like honey and milk to me. It's like sweet and smooth at the same time. I re-read it to feel again the magic I felt when the words flowed from my mind down the slopes of my arms through my fingers and onto the grand canvas that is this blog you read today!

Hiding Behind my Glasses was a launch to the real me. I wasn't a fake before as in beinHoweverying, mean, or malicious. However, I was inauthentic in that I protected myself from you so I didn't give my all. I didn't release all of me and it was so I would be accepted by you. I am realizing now that with glasses on or off I am Sharhonda. I am her expressing herself through large retro glasses. It's a bold statement! I am also the less animated but strikingly curious, beautiful gem that is without glasses. I am fierce with them on and off! I am love with them on or off! I don't have to hid behind anything.

When she said that I was hiding behind my glasses, spiritually I knew that I was keeping secret pieces of me that were safe to show to the world. My glasses were prescription so I had to wear them but they were a statement that sole loudly, "see me", even though I'm not showing anyone my complete self! How do yo do that? How can we cry for attention and then reject it at the same time? We can. I don't think I realized how much I was rejecting my own self. My own authentic self. How dare I kill off the part of me that is genuine and in love with my creator therefore in love with life. My authentic self doesn't care. She looks at the world through different eyes. Sometimes very different than my peers. I feel alone in that often but while writing this blog I realized that I am not alone and I realized that I liked me. I am not sure about everyone else yet but that's okay. What matters is that I'm loved by me. I think everything else will fall into place. I can now see why people do like me. I didn't understand that before. I didn't have a clear view of what made me special. I see her clearer now. I needed this journey to authenticity. I needed to understand that I can make a bold statement and in that statement allow people to see me without hiding behind it. I'm fierce!

I have enjoyed this journey. I had my ups and downs as I've shared with you. My health has been a constant issue for the last year. However in that the universe still had something for me to learn. God still had a truth nugget in there for me to get. It's been one of the harder things for me to grasp but I'm still working on it. I have to accept things I can't change. UGHGHH LOL I am embracing each day though. I'm praying each day. I'm listening each day to the spirit of God. I know he allows me to move through each day with grace and mercy.

Authentic's I have two more weeks with you so let's make them count! Let's be authentic on purpose! Let's be about this authentic life! Let's rock the heck out of it! Let's not be apologetic about it and long after this blog is gone stay committed! Our lives depend on it!
I am a better woman.
I'm grateful for that.
I'm living it everyday.
I'm grateful for the awareness.
I'm grateful I get it!
I'm grateful to have been able to share the experience of growth with you.

I look forward to the next two weeks we have left. I'll bring more revelation to you concerning what walking authentically feels like and what that looks like. It may touch someone. It may not but what it has done for me is incredible!

Until next week my loves! 

#Beauthentic

#JourneytoAuthenticity

#BeBold

#Hidingbehindmyglasses

#LetsBeGreat

Do you love you?

Hello gorgeous authentically made people!

I wanted to briefly check in and share a few thoughts about authentically loving yourself.

Behind my glasses.......
I've mentioned in previous blogs how I can be hard on myself. I understand that for many of us were can over analyze and examine ourselves over and over again. We will constantly look over the same problem picking apart every detail to see how much of a screw up we are!

I would like to purpose something to you my dear readers. I would like for those of us who hate on ourselves to begin to practice self love.
When you make a mistake, of course take responsibility for it, but also apply love instead of  criticism.

Think if your child brings in a bad grade on a test she prepared for. Would you then say to her,"gosh, you're so stupid"? Or would you kindly talk with her, administering a firm but caring attitude?
Authentic's we will compliment a stranger, go to bat for person we don't know, before we administer that compassion toward ourselves.

This post is brief I know.... I want us all to look within. Let's discover what we are saying to ourselves when we make wing choices, or when we're forgetful, out when we work past a deadline. Are we cruel and condemning ourselves? If so I challenge you to begin to stop poisoning yourself any further.

Let's administer love to ourselves!

Until next time gorgeous people.....
#hidingbehindmyglasses
#lovethyself
#journeytoauthenticity

Week 6: Be Patient with YOU! #journeytoauthenticity #bepatient #hidingbehindmyglasses #youhavethepower #goatyourownpace

Beautiful day here in South Carolina Authentic's!

I have missed writing. I have not been feeling my best so I needed to take some time off. My mind just doesn't flow very well when I'm enduring sick days. I'm still learning health management in that area. I hope you are forgiving my loves!

So this week I wanted to discuss being authentic through your process. What does it mean to connect with yourself, and be true to yourself while you go through healing of emotions, health conditions, career transition, building a business, etc.? All of those things are different types of life processes, right!

Behind My Glasses.....
A year ago I was working with the youth, planning workshops, and had 10 children yelling Mrs. K for about 5 hours a day! Today I'm unable to hold a 9 to 5 due to health issues. To have that happen at what I felt was the height of my life in terms of marriage and career is disheartening to say the least. I went from planning and building my future to being uncertain about it. I'm still in the learning phases of navigating life with an illness. Sometimes my goals are set back a few days. It makes me super frustrated because I'd like to be further ahead than I am. I am horrible with myself. I do my best not to think negative but I often find myself feeling sorry. I worry tremendously about when will I accomplish my goal. I promise this post gets more positive! ☺

 Thinking the way I have is a dangerous thought pattern because it can put you into a place of depression. I have found myself thinking, "I might as well give up". Giving up meaning stop working toward this goal for a while because right now my health doesn't allow me to do what it is I need to do consistently. It's amazing how we as people can allow one problem to come up and begin to dictate the rest of our lives! How do we find ourselves in a place where we will forfeit our goals as if we don't possess the power to overcome? I know that in my mind I can see things through a very narrow and dark tunnel. I can't see past what's right there in front of me. It's like I'm no longer aware of the other things that are occurring around me. Great things, you know! So that tells me it takes awareness. Awareness of the possibilities that are available to you!

The good out of this Authentic's is that God has allowed me, especially throughout last week, to see people who have suffered like me continue to create the life they desire to live. These people had successful career paths and all of sudden those things had to change. I was able to speak to someone who has exactly the illness I'm showing symptoms for and she discussed with me how she made lemons into lemonade! I understand now that the first thing I have to do is be patient with myself. Authenticity takes that we be patient, look at our situation fit what it is and work through it.

I have to continue to LOVE myself. I have to be real....be authentic, about how I feel. I have to correct negative self talk. I have to be aware of it. When I'm aware I can nurture myself. I can re frame my thinking. I can look at life and know that yes something has come up, but it's only a detour. Detour signs take you a different route but you still end up in the same place you desired. You can also end up somewhere else after discovering along the detour a different more satisfying place.

Don't lose heart my loves! I'm not! Be authentically in tune with yourself so that you can go through the process responsibly. Don't give in to the hardship ahead. Love yourself and be patient. Don't beat yourself up about slow days. See the truth, that it's hard, that it's frustrating, that its uncomfortable.... Also see that you can change these feelings by how you think about yourself and the situation at hand. You absolutely have the power!

Until next time my loves.....

#journeytoauthenticity

#bepatient

#hidingbehindmyglasses

#youhavethepower

#goatyourownpace