Bottled Up: Are You Like Me, Do You Hold A Lot In?

1960s Sad Crying Woman Trapped Inside Glass Bottle
IMAGE: © H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Corbis

You know what...
I'm just gonna be very real, very honest.

Are you anything like me?

Do you start each day (before applying your clothes, before applying your make-up, before applying that new perfume) applying your strong-face?

I usually try to apply it before I get out the bed. Sometimes its the only way that I even make it out of the bed each day.

My strong-face is me at my optimal self. That me that I portray to the world.

My strong-face is an outer mask and an inner stopper.

It outwardly projects to everyone around that I smiling and okay, that I'm strong and fearless, that I can quickly overcome obstacles in a single bound... Like SUPERWOMAN

It inwardly plugs a cork into my fermenting, bottled up emotions, allowing me to not feel them right now, allowing me funtion in accordance to societal standards accepting inhumane circumstances such as:

• 3 paid days of grievance after losing a parent
• women having to work up to their pregnancy due dates because they can't afford not to then to have to return a week after delivery just to keep their job
• having to accept minimum wages and deadend jobs
•  not understanding the reasons why
• never feeling fully in control of your life because there is another system in place established to control it.

As Women, We MUST have Standards!!

Even though this post title is targeted at women, the topic actually applies to everyone.

I was sitting "with myself" enjoying a wonderful breakfast, mango mimosa and taking in a wonderful view, when I started thinking. "What Happened to Standards?" Have I lost touch with mine? Have I ever really taken out the time to truly establish them? Do I uphold them in every situation? With each person equally?

Take time to ask yourself and really evaluate where you stand and what you stand on. Do you have a firm solid foundation or just a flaky, crumbling crust?

So many times during our growth we refer to or envision the person that we want to be, our ultimate, empowered self. Why aren't we that person now? What keeps us from being that person?
We should put our best efforts forth each day toward implementing and putting into practice a single element  of our "ultimate self." One element at a time we blossom into that person, a new and improved self.