We all go through life thinking that we know who we are but when we experience trauma, that picture we paint of ourselves becomes more and more smudged. The only one who can correct that picture we have painted of ourselves is us.

I have experienced a lot of traumas in my life and so my picture has been really smudged throughout the years. The greatest gift I have given myself was the choice to heal from the trauma I have experienced.

Initially, I thought that it was a small journey I was taking but the more I worked on myself, the more I liked and loved who I was. I was coming to realize there were so many thoughts and visions I had of myself that were not true. I am coming to realize that I created limiting beliefs of myself throughout the years in order to cope with the traumas I was experiencing.

Growing up, I always came across as a total bad ass and not concerned about what anyone thought and I did my own thing whereas inside, I was a scared little girl who thought the world would be a better place if I was not in it.

As an adult, I was much more confident but when certain things triggered me, I would go back to that scared little girl. In business, I was strong, capable and very good at my job. I never second guessed myself and kept the fears out of the workplace. When I was not at work, I was strong and fierce but sometimes things happen that would trigger those limiting beliefs again.

I struggled for many years with negative limiting beliefs about myself and though I always worked on myself, understanding and learning to deal with those thoughts, I never did the right work to really learn to love myself. I never did the work to actually change those limiting beliefs within my subconscious so that I was not triggered.

I always thought that the love I so desperately was looking for could be found in the relationships that I had in my life. The reality was that I just became co-dependant on others for my sense of love, joy and happiness. The ironic thing is that now that I look back, the love that I so desperately felt I needed was caused from the fact that I did not like myself, let alone love myself.

As I started on my healing journey, I still thought that what I needed would be found in other people’s actions towards me but what I realized was that I had everything I needed all along. The answers I was looking for could only be found in one spot and that was within me.

As I have continued my healing journey, the greatest thing has been learning to love myself. I now know that I can handle anything. I have found internal strength within myself and the ability to understand that I am as worthy as anyone else to live on this earth and I deserve to make myself a priority. I have come to realize that I have the ability to change those limiting beliefs once and for all and fill myself up with positivity and increased self awareness and self confidence.

I have come to realize that the greatest gift anyone can give themselves is to learn about self awareness and work towards healing those limiting beliefs and letting the emotions of the traumas go so that you are able to lead a healthy, happy, fulfilling and peaceful life. There is no greater feeling than that!!!! I encourage everyone to make themselves a priority and fill those voids within yourself with love, joy and peace!!!