Question Everything
Have you ever taken the time to question your beliefs? To ask where they come from? Why *you* believe them? Why you judge, reject, and resist anything that counteracts those beliefs? If those beliefs are serving you? And if they’re really even yours to begin with?
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Last night over dinner, my friend and I talked about the myriad of ways one can view relationships, politics, sex, body image, and religion.
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That the ideas, beliefs, and stories we hold—especially the ones from our earliest years—were given to us; some were even pushed and forced on us. By the culture we’re born into, by our caretakers, by our ancestors, by our teachers, by our friends, by the people we follow on Instagram, by the books we read and the shows we watch.
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Many of us never truly acknowledge that. We just believe the things we’ve been told without exploration.
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And in a lot of ways that can hurt us. It can lead to unhappiness, insecurity, suffering, closeting, and even, our demise.
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To speak from my own experience, I grew up in a religious and conservative household. I was told I needed to go to college to be successful. That having sex with multiple people was a sin. That I shouldn’t cry. That identifying with anything other than straight is wrong and weird. That my worth is placed in my appearance. That I should put others first.
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For a awhile, I believed them, I lived then, followed them, and I did—unfortunately—defend them.
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And that was before I took the time to unpack them, to realize they’re not mine—they’re someone else’s.
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And now those are all beliefs I no longer hold.
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I wouldn’t be this sex-positive, body-positive, bisexual, spiritual, monogamish, emotional, ethical slut who puts herself first, if I didn’t take the time to question my own beliefs.
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And I can’t stress enough the importance of that for you, too.
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To sort through it all—the beliefs about your body, your worth, your religion, your political stance, your insecurities...hell, even your music preferences.
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I’m not here to tell you what’s right or what’s wrong, but to remind you to question everything—including and especially the things I say.
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To tell you that you get to choose.