It can feel so hard to reveal the TRUE YOU in our world. Especially online. It’s so easy for people to criticize, naysay and hide behind snark.

As a business coach, I’ve listened over and over again to INCREDIBLE women who are scared to be their wonderfully imperfect selves online. I’ve been there many times too.

When you share your creativity, your gifts and your light, I know these things are true:

• You will be criticized…
• You will disappoint people…
• You will make people uncomfortable for a wide variety of reasons…
  ◦ They might realize they aren’t showing up bigger for themselves…
  ◦ They may feel envious…
  ◦ They may worry they will be left behind…
  ◦ They may wonder “who the h*ll do you think you are?”

I’ve been working hard on not comparing myself to others or feeling envious or jealous of other people’s success.

In doing so, I discovered that one of the things I’ve allowed to hold me back is that whenever youdoing BIG things, people in  life get uncomfortable, envious and jealous. Especially family and friends. They somehow feel that my success is an indictment of their perceived “failure”, when the comparison should never be made in the first place.

Into The Art Studio

I process and work things out in my art journal most of the time, and that’s exactly what I did with these thoughts. The woman in this painting and the rules I came up with are the result.

As you can see the women in the drawing is REMOVING her mask to reveal her true, imperfect, courageous – yet scared – REAL self.
It takes REAL courage to remove the mask of perfection and just be YOU!

You can sign up for free Heartwork Journaling lessons here:

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Rules For No More Hiding

Feel free to borrow my rules for No More Hiding below and adjust them to your needs so that you STOP HIDING YOUR GIFTS AND YOUR LIGHT!

The world needs you now.

IF I feel like staying small and invisible so that people will like me and feel better about themselves, THEN I will remember what it feels like to stay small, purposeless and dead inside.

IF I feel afraid or uncomfortable making offers (particularly for my art), THEN I will remember that I cannot create meaningful, courageous art without art supplies or if I have to get a job.

IF I feel that I am disappointing someone by saying “no” or changing my mind (being “selfish”) THEN I will remember that I have big dreams, a big mission and a big purpose that I will be unable to accomplish if I am depleted trying to satisfy other people’s demands (or my perception of their demands).

Here’s a time-lapse video of the creation of this work (This piece has been sold):

The conclusion of this piece and the inner work I did around creating it is:

• You cannot tie yourself into enough knots to make other people comfortable and happy.
• You cannot control other people’s perceptions and judgements about you. You must let that go 100% in order to live your happiest, most fulfilled and best life.

Thanks to my wonderful and super intuitive friend Tracy Hall who coined the phrase “No More Hiding” = NMH. It’s PERFECT!

No More Hiding. Be You.

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