Becoming Ourselves
Cathy Shuter is a wellbeing-focused writer and coach with a background in special education. She has published over thirty books and founded Cathy’s Wellbeing Club, a community-driven initiative promoting connection, creativity, and compassion. Her vision is to open an inclusive seaside wellbeing center offering workshops, arts, coaching, and a vegetarian café. Learn more at www.cathyswellbeingclub.co.uk and www.trustylifecoaching.co.uk.
I have been thinking about how important it is that we embrace our uniqueness and become our true selves.
From a very young age, we learn to please people and often try to make ourselves into the person we think others would like us to be.
This dims our light as we tend to hesitate, procrastinate, and try to fit in.
In reality, people tend to value our uniqueness if we are confident enough to be ourselves.
Life would be boring if we were all the same.
Let’s start wearing what we love to wear, spend time doing the things we love to do, and be inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt, who is thought to have said,
“What other people think of me is none of my business.”
I am writing about the importance of being ourselves and daring to be different in my latest book, as I feel there is more pressure on people than ever to conform and look and act in ways we think we should.
Social Media can give the impression that everyone else is living their best life, looking beautiful and happy, when in reality, the enhanced photographs may not be telling the whole story.
When we scroll through endless perfect photos, we can compare ourselves negatively to our friends and feel we are not enough.
Artificial Intelligence can contribute to this, too.
When humans write and create art, music, and film, the results aren’t always perfect. When AI creates, the quality of the work can be excellent, but there is something that AI cannot do- it cannot communicate directly to our human hearts.
Humans are messy, humans are not perfect, but each and every one of us is unique, and so we can offer our uniqueness to the world.
The way we can do this is by having the courage to be our true selves.
It is time for us to become ourselves, and then we can share our gifts and learn from one another. At that point, we are able to work together to make this world a kinder and fairer place to be.
How Can We Do This?
There are a number of steps we can take to help us feel free to become ourselves:
Forgiveness: We can learn to forgive ourselves and others for our mistakes.
Gratitude: We can notice, on a daily basis, the things we value about ourselves and others.
Create: We can decide to create art, music, film, poetry, comedy, whatever it is we would love to create for the sheer joy of doing it.
So what if the results aren’t perfect?
You bring your own take on the world, and this place simply wouldn’t be the same without you.
TAKE ACTION: Check out Cathy’s author page to access all her books!
"Life would be boring if we were all the same."
Cathy Shuter is a wellbeing-focused writer and coach with a background in special education. She has published over thirty books and founded Cathy’s Wellbeing Club, a community-driven initiative promoting connection, creativity, and compassion. Her vision is to open an inclusive seaside wellbeing center offering workshops, arts, coaching, and a vegetarian café.
Read more from Cathy Shuter or connect with her on Substack, Facebook (Trusty Life Coaching, Cathy Shuter, and Cathy Shuter), Instagram, or her websites (www.cathyswellbeingclub.co.uk and www.trustylifecoaching.co.uk).
