Last week, I shared a writing prompt with the intention to help you all reclaim space that you may have given up, at one time or another. I shared this exercise because I know that this process is critical when there are times that we have felt small. More often than not, we continue to carry those feelings and experiences and embodiments with us long after whatever it was that caused it.
But, when we give these experiences the chance to express, they can move onward and upward. And, it gives you permission to do the same.
This means that some of you spent last week identifying a time (or many times) when you shrunk to meet a person’s (or situation’s) expectations. This time, you talked back, and I sat in my corner of the world applauding!
[I LOVE when my fellow Queens rise. UP!]
This week’s exercise builds off of that practice. As I had mentioned, if there are many different-perhaps even unrelated-occurrences that applied for the previous exercise, it is key to begin by addressing each individually. If you have done this, then great!
Pt. II gives you a chance to unify the experience. Ready. Set. RECLAIM.
Writing prompt:
Go through what you wrote for Pt. I of the writing prompt (here) and circle every word or phrase you find that makes you feel authentic, empowered, validated, at ease, BETTER for having said it. Compile everything that stood out to you. Combine it all together and rearrange it into a poem.
Here’s what mine looked like:
// A performance //
They were not the ones. That sounds amazing. Thank God, I wrote,
You made me feel ordinary. This is how you made someone you love feel. I wrote,
You can’t be you and love unconditionally. I wrote,
I’m not changing for anyone. I don’t deserve to be invaded. I don’t owe you anything. Don’t talk to me that way. Don’t expect anything from me. I’m not here to serve you. I’m not sorry you didn’t get what you wanted from me. I wrote,
It’s okay if what you’re experiencing means NO. to something (you otherwise considered), and you do not need to justify your NO. or turn it into anything it isn’t by explaining yourself. No one gets to know your story. No one is entitled. I wrote,
I’d like all the little parts of myself that have felt unsafe to rest. And be loved. I wrote,
If you are your most you and there is love in your heart, you are not an island. I wrote,
Do you know the parts of her she doesn’t, the ones she cannot know? Do you think of them? Were you devastated? I ask you these questions (about me) in my mind’s eye sometimes. In the space between ask and the creation of an answer, you respond affirmatively. I wrote,
I deserve happiness. I deserve love. I am going to be more than okay. It is my time. I will sit with whatever I have to to get there, because I am worth it. I wrote,
I will be made to feel like I am silk. I wrote,
THEY WERE NOT THE ONES. THAT SOUNDS AMAZING. THANK GOD.
When we stand up for ourselves, we give others permission to do the same. There is so much adversity in the world, and no one is immune. Learning to rise UP and stand up for yourself (and others) and take up SPACE can be such a powerful quality to embody. This exercise is a great way to become more comfortable doing that, and to identify in the moment when someone or something thinks we shouldn’t be as big and bold and beautiful as we truly are.
Best wishes to you and your highest good as you reclaim your space.
❤
this is sacred space 
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