Embracing ourselves means we’re surrendering to who we are and unloading who others want us to be. I read a quote from Charles

Bukowski, “Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?” So, today, whenever you are listening to this podcast, pause to surrender to who you are. Pause to embrace you. Stop right now in your thoughts and choose to take off the face of who others have been telling you to be and remind yourself of who you are. My message in this podcast is also that we can surrender the burdens that life has put on us to uphold someone else’s standards. We can surrender to so many ideas and ideals shaped and fashioned by someone else who isn’t living our life. By doing this, we are owning our own power to embrace who we

choose to be.

Don’t bring too much of the baggage from yesterday and past moments with you as you move through life. Erykah Badu sings

a song titled “Bag Lady” and the lyrics are about this concept. The song came out many years ago in the year 2000 but the words are worth revisiting:

Bag lady, you gon' hurt

your back

Dragging all them bags like that

I guess nobody ever told you

All you must hold on toIs you, is you, is you