Owning your story is the bravest thing you’ll ever do.
-Brené Brown
These wise words are the definition of what KITK is all about: Sharing my story hoping that it’ll make even the tiniest impact on your lives & inspire you to take a leap of faith, make a change or do something scary that falls out of your comfort zone in the pursuit to living your best possible life.
BUT MY LIFE HASN’T ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY.
I (somehow) got through life repressing & covering up almost EVERY traumatic experience I went through.
My marriage fell apart but I continued to post beautiful wedding photos & #tbt to that day all over social media.
My eating disorder spiralled out of control but I continued to cook beautiful, delicious & very complicated dishes for everyone but myself. Little did I know, I was doing it to compensate for my induced starvation & to vicariously feed my mind.
My mom passed away but I pretended I was okay & strong & that I didn’t need to talk about my feelings or shed a tear.
I realized that I found passion in health, wellness, nutrition & fitness but I was afraid to admit it because of all the hard work invested in obtaining my law degree & becoming a lawyer.
I had countless anxiety attacks & avoided social situations but I did everything in my power to not seek help to learn to cope with the anxious feelings & triggers.
Weeks, months & even years later, I realized that no matter how hard I tried to deny, repress or internalize all the trauma & setbacks I’d been through, truth be told, THEY HAPPENED.
While they don’t define me, they’re certainly a part of who I am, what shaped me & they’re what make up MY STORY.
Everyone around you has a story. The trouble with society is that we’ve been taught that if our story isn’t a fairytale, we should feel embarrassed, guilty, afraid & skeptical about sharing it.
Recovery taught me to rebel against that stereotype & to SHARE what I went through.
Eventually, I stopped posting photos of my fantasy wedding all over social media because truth be told, my relationship wasn’t a reflection of the fantasy those photos depicted.
I stopped cooking intricate meals for everyone else & instead, focused on preparing easy, quick, simple & delicious recipes for myself & my family & I ATE THEM.
I saw a grief counsellor to finally grieve my mom’s passing & to learn to accept it.
I pursued my passion for health & wellness at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition & I stopped feeling sorry for myself that I “wasted” my time becoming a lawyer.
I realized that true happiness is attained when you are passionate about & live, love & breathe what you do everyday.
I sought help, got diagnosed with anxiety & found ways to cope with my triggers.
And then, I broke down every single one of my experiences & took on the commitment & challenge to share them with YOU every single day.
I chose to own my story.
To be proud of it.
To embrace it.
To cherish it.
& to appreciate it for EVERYTHING it taught me, how it shaped me & helped me grow & how it paved the road to where I am today.
If you have a story, OWN, SHARE & LOVE IT.
It has more power than you’ll ever know & if it can inspire even ONE PERSON, you can be proud you made a difference.
