This Is Your Permission To Finally Embody Your True Self
It's about time
For a long time, you did what you thought you were supposed to do.
You adjusted. You accommodated. You played the part—sometimes so well that even you started to believe it. You became someone who could hold it all together, make things easier for others, stay two steps ahead of discomfort. It worked, in a way. You got by. Maybe even succeeded.
But deep down, something didn’t feel right. Not broken, just… off. Like you were living slightly outside of yourself. Like your life made sense on paper, but not in your body.
And maybe you didn’t have the words for it at the time. Maybe you still don’t. But there’s a quiet knowing that’s been building in you. A sense that there’s more to you than what the world has seen. That you’ve been editing yourself to survive, and you’re finally ready to stop.
I know that feeling intimately. I’ve spent years feeling disconnected from myself, pushing down pieces that didn’t fit the story I thought I was supposed to live.
And today, I’m here to tell you…
The version of you that you’ve been hiding isn’t the problem. It’s the truth. And it will always keep calling you back, no matter how hard you try to ignore it.
The Masks We Wear
We live in a world that encourages us to wear masks.
From an early age, we learn which parts of ourselves are acceptable and which are too much. We’re taught to perform, to adapt, to keep things smooth and palatable. Be agreeable. Be capable. Be strong. Don’t ask for too much. Don’t make people uncomfortable. There’s an unspoken script for how to belong, and most of us learn to follow it without even realizing.
But over time, those outside expectations get internalized. The masks we wear aren’t just for them—they become something we rely on. Because the truth is, they help us feel safe.
Wearing the mask of the overachiever gives us a sense of control. Being the peacemaker lets us avoid conflict. Playing the caretaker makes us feel needed. These roles may not reflect who we really are, but they give us something to hold onto: predictability, approval, survival.
And for a while, it works. The world feels less threatening when you’re playing a role that people seem to like. But the safety these masks offer is thin and conditional. It’s not real safety. It’s performance-based safety. You’re protected only as long as you stay in character. Only as long as you keep abandoning parts of yourself to make everyone else comfortable.
Eventually, that kind of false safety starts to suffocate you.
And this is where things get hard—because taking off the mask means asking questions most people spend their whole lives avoiding.
What am I afraid will happen if I stop performing?
Who might I disappoint if I tell the truth about what I need?
What part of me have I been hiding because I thought it wasn’t lovable?
There’s no shortcut through those questions. But asking them is how you begin to come home to yourself.
The Power of Permission
One of the most powerful things you can do in your life is give yourself permission.
I’m not here to hand it to you like a gift you don’t already have. You carry it inside you—it’s always been there, waiting for you to reach for it. I’m just here to remind you that you absolutely should give it to yourself.
Permission to rest when exhaustion drags at your bones, even if the world expects you to keep going. Permission to set boundaries that protect your energy, even if that means disappointing people you care about. Permission to honor your desires, even when they feel unfamiliar or selfish. Permission to embrace your quirks, your contradictions, your messy, beautiful complexity.
These are not small things. They are acts of courage.
Permission invites you to rewrite the story you’re living right now. It calls you to stop measuring yourself by external approval and start measuring by how you feel in your own skin.
Imagine what it would be like to show up for yourself fully. To give your energy where it’s truly wanted and needed. To rest without guilt. To say no without shame. To ask for what you need without shrinking.
Wouldn’t that feel like relief? Like finally exhaling after holding your breath for years? Wouldn’t it be something to feel at home in your own life, simply by showing up as you are, with all the honesty that brings?
That’s what permission makes possible. It doesn’t erase fear or doubt. It just tells the truth louder. And the more you practice giving yourself that space, the more you realize how much more life expands when you stop asking for approval to be who you already are.
Whatever mask you’ve been wearing, it’s served a purpose. It helped you navigate a world that can feel unkind and overwhelming. It offered a kind of safety, even if that safety was fragile and temporary.
But the truth is… No mask, no matter how carefully crafted, can hold the fullness of who you are. The weight of pretending, bending, hiding pieces of yourself eventually wears you down. And beneath it all, your true self waits—steady and patient, waiting for you to remember what it feels like to simply be.
So today, I invite you to ask yourself: How can I connect more deeply with what feels real inside me? How can I honor the parts of myself I’ve been hiding or silencing?
You don’t have to drop the mask entirely all at once. You can take it off here and there, and put it back on when you don’t yet feel safe enough to stay uncovered. In my experience, that’s part of the process.
But with each time you loosen the mask, you give yourself a little more space to breathe, a little more room to grow. And bit by bit, the real you becomes harder to hide and easier to live.
That’s where your true life begins.
Thank you for reading 🫶🏼
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Thank you for being here and for walking this path with me 🤍
Brilliant & Beautiful! It’s so overwhelming to see that there are people out there who are going through the same emotions that I am battling constantly. Reading this surely gives me a food for thought. Thanks for penning this down!
shhh im confessing here