ROOTED & RAW: Unsubscribed: A Manifesto to Myself

This is my manifesto to myself. 

I’m no longer available for shrinking.
For biting my tongue just to keep the peace.
For apologizing for my truth, my tone, or the way I rise.

I have spent too many seasons making myself smaller so that others could feel seen. Too many moments silencing the fire in my chest in rooms that have never even lit a flame. Too many times dimming my light because someone else couldn’t handle the shine. And too many years breaking myself into fractions of softer, smoother, easier versions of who I was made to be just so someone else could feel whole.

That era has ended.

I’m done being polite in places that require my silence to stay welcome.
I'm done explaining my softness to people who mistake it for weakness.
I am unshrinkable, unshakable, and unapologetically me.

Because the truth is:
My softness is my strength.
My fire is my compass.
My emotions are my wisdom.
My light is my love.

This is my manifesto to myself. 

I will not dim, dilute, or disguise them for anyone, at any time, for anything. Ever again.

There’s power in finally saying:
I don’t care what they think.
I care what I carry.

I care about the weight of my integrity,
the fire in my chest,
the peace in my spirit.
I care about what I leave behind when I walk out of the room,
not whether they liked my tone while I stood in it.

I’m not here to be digestible.
I’m here to be whole.

And wholeness is jagged.
It’s raw.
It’s loud at times, and even quiet at others..
Wholeness does not fit neatly inside the narrow margins the world hands to you.

If that makes me too much, so be it.
I’m not shrinking one more inch of my soul to fit inside someone else’s comfort zone.
I’m not intimidating. You’re intimidated. There’s a difference.

This is my manifesto to myself.

A permission slip for every woman who’s tired of contorting.
A declaration that says: I’m unsubscribed from the b***s***.
From the pressure. From the pedestal. From the performance.

I don’t owe pretty.
I don’t owe polite.
I don’t owe easy.
I owe peace to myself.

The world will always ask you to fold yourself.
To sand down your edges.
To tuck your wildness back into the box it made for you.
It will say: don’t be so loud, don’t be so much, don’t be so… you.

But I refuse.

I am not here to be palatable.
I am here to be alive.
To take up space.
To speak when silence is demanded.
To feel it all, and still keep rising.

So let this be your permission slip too:
Stop shrinking.
Stop apologizing for the shape of your truth.
Stop bending yourself into a thousand acceptable versions at the expense of yourself. 

You were not put here to perform.
You were put here to become.

This is my manifesto to myself.. And I hope it can ve yours too.

I will not shrink.
I will not soften.
I will not apologize.
I will rise from the ashes again and again.

I'm not for everyone, and everyone ain't for me.
But if my blaze burns too hot, then step aside from me and my flames. 

Some of us were forged from the fire, and learned to burn brighter.

I'll always be here to fan your flames.