Do you wear the "S" on your chest? I don't mean Superman, I mean being looked at as "the Strong One". For was long as I can remember, I have been the strong one, the bold one or the one who carried it all. I proudly wore each of those titles until I couldn’t bear the weight of them anymore. It’s a blessing and a curse because they shaped my sense of self. It evolved from a coping mechanism as a shy kid who experienced situations that I didn’t realize weren’t normal but I knew I had to figure it all out. It guided me when my mom, our rock, was falling apart after becoming an amputee. It was certainly exaggerated when I moved thousands of miles away from friends and family for years when I joined the service. It protected me when I lost my brother to the streets. And it decided to stay as I endured the struggles of a working mom.
For one reason or the other, I was never in a place that gave me permission to be vulnerable or weak. As a result, I began to associate feeling emotionally vulnerable as being weak, and I wanted to avoid that ish like the plague. But as someone who who seeks to serve and act as a catalyst for growth in so many, I didn't realize that being the strong one made me unrelatable or untouchable. In this episode, I discuss the blessing and curse of being the strong one and how I ultimately realized that it was failing me. Press play right now to find out more. neshavfrazier.com
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