You’re Enough.

Happy Friday, Cadre. It is Shannon from aloud. I am post workout. You can see, I think I told you earlier this week, when I'm wearing a hat, this is my uniform of, like, hey, man, I'm in the middle of life. So this is it today. And it's Friday. So it is. It's awesome. All right, so on Fridays, what we're gonna start doing is I'm gonna share with you. Today, I'm going to share four things, and they are in service of the idea that you are enough. So why am I sharing that? For those of you who don't know me, if you're here for the first time, I'm Shannon.

I'm the founder of allowed and aloud. Exists to be a place and a space for people to say things that are true out loud so that we can be seen, we can see others like us, and we can talk about things that sometimes can be awkward to talk about. So, in my journey to get here, I have been in therapy for seven and a half years. I am not a therapist. So I want to reiterate that. So what I share with you today are the things that I reached for, continue to reach for today. When I'm in those moments, those in between moments when I'm maybe alone, maybe a couple that I'll tell you about today I'm definitely.

We're part of. I can remember moments in my life when I was in not a crisis moment, but just a hard moment. I felt really alone, and I was like, oh, my gosh, what do I do? So I'm gonna share four things with you today that have been helpful to me, and I hope that they'll be helpful to you. Okay, so the first one I'm gonna share, I'm gonna show you. Hi. Good morning. Speak wonder. Happy Friday is this book. And I talked about this book in another live at some point, so I think it's backwards, but it's called the way of integrity by Martha.

Finding the path to your true self. So, this book, for me, was a guide, really, honestly, what got me was the title is how to find your true self. So I did it a couple years ago. I went through it. It's got all these exercises of things that you can do to sort of understand yourself. And so when I was in moments of not crisis, but pain, I guess, or not knowing I would reach for this book, I actually audioed it as well or audibled it, and I would do these exercises. And how it was helpful to me is in those moments, I felt like I was doing something that helped me.

I didn't have a therapist I could call. I didn't necessarily have a friend that I, you know, how do you say, like, I don't know who I am at 45 years old. So this was a resource for me. So definitely recommend it. Martha Beck is a super interesting person who was not living in alignment with herself and eventually did. And it's just a beautiful book. So that's number one. All right. Number two that I'm going to share with you today are some song lyrics. I'm not going to sing, and I'm not going to play it because I don't know if I can get in trouble for that.

But this is another one for me. Pink, I don't know if you'll. Pink, the musical artist, she, too, is someone who, I think she had a challenging family situation growing up. She's just been through a lot of stuff, and so that's reflected in her music. So the song that really. I'm gonna. I'm looking at it on my, on my computer. So that's why I'm looking over here. This song, for me, there was a time when I was commuting back and forth for work, and I'd be in the car for 4 hours and I would be sad and I would listen to the song, and it was something I could sort of cling to as I was like, okay, you're gonna get through this.

So I'll just read a little bit about it or a little bit of the lyrics. It's called all I know so far by pink. Haven't always been this way I wasn't born a renegade I feel alone I still feel afraid but I stumble through it anyway I wish someone would have told me that this life is ours to choose no one's handing you the keys or a book with all the rules the little that I know I will tell to you when they dress you up in lies and you're left naked with the truth you throw your head back and and you spit in the wind let the walls crack cause it lets the light in let them drag you through h*** they can't tell you to change who you are and that's all I know so far I'll do just one more and when the storm's out you run in the rain put your sword down and dive right into the pain stay unfiltered and loud you'll be proud of that skin full of scars that's all I know so far that's all I know so far so for me, this was like.

It was an anthem that I would play in the car and I would sing it. And I truly, in this moment, I can remember it was raining and I was crying. And I think I listened to it like 30 times in a row. And by the time I got to my meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, I was like, completely emotionally spent. But I felt better. So that's number two, pink's song, all I know so far. I'll share these, by the way, in the Cadre community. com. So Nate Wrights is this guy. I don't even know how I found it. I think his name.

It's hard to pronounce his last name. It's Nate Postlete. com. So Nate has also an incredible story, as you all know. I think people who help people go through a lot, and so that's why they do it. And so Nate, I'm not going to try to tell his story. You do it. But Nate speaks to trauma. And so a lot of what Nate will say, I needed to hear. If you're in a moment where you're struggling with a sense of self or worthlessness or, you know, am I worthy? Am I enough? I would listen to his. I would read his stuff.

I would go to his websites. And he actually has calls you can join. And so I would join again. I'll tell a brief story. When I was commuting, I went to a meeting and I was in my hotel room and I was dealing with something, and I went to innate rights. I got on this call. It was a global call. I think there were 400 people from around the world who were sharing parts of what it means to live with trauma. And I will tell you, I sat in a hotel room and I was ironing my clothes. I mean, it was like I had a client dinner that night and I was getting ready and all the things.

And to know that I could hear people or see people, honestly, like in Wales, in Australia, right next door, hundreds of people just sitting and holding space for each other to acknowledge trauma was unbelievable. So that's been another fantastic resource for me. com. All right, the last one I'm going to do is one more poem. Because I know, you know, speak wonder. I'm an english major. Hi, Jopa Joy. I'm so glad you're here. All right, this is called. Again, it's backwards. I wish I knew. And it's poems from Donna Ashworth.

All right, this was called. Followed the. Follow the flawed. Follow the flawed, the real, the messy. Follow the women who say it like it is. No filter, no glossing, no bowl. Follow those people who accept themselves and you as you are and leave the rest to edit their lives to perfection if they must. But follow the flawed and you will learn to see yourself the way that they do. And you will be spared a lifetime of misery trying to live up to an ideal that no one actually achieves. Follow the flawed.

They will teach you how to be just as you are and to like it, too. That's my last one for today. Donna Ashworth. I wish I knew. That's it. I know it can be hard at those in between moments. You know, we might have therapists, we might have friends. We might have. We might have some great support systems. Yep, you got it. Speak, wonder. Follow the flawed. And we are alone at times. And we have to deal with what it means to be alone and struggle with that feeling of being enough in between is so hard.

And so these are things that, again, I. And I'll share more next week that I would reach for. And just to hear. Like I said, just to hear someone say something out loud in a song, in a poem. For me, audio is really fantastic. Like, truly, to hear another voice say something feels so significant. So I encourage you to check out these resources. Also, please share with me, share with this community what works for you. I'm one person with one perspective, and I want. I want to hear, like, speak, wonder, what do you do in between?

Joker. Joy, what do you do in between? And anyone else? Let's help each other fill those spaces. Fill those in betweens so. So that we can make it through. And we're all doing it. Okay, guys, thank you. It's such a great way to end the week by seeing you again. I'll put these resources in the community chats, and I can't wait to see you next week. I'm so glad you're here. I hope you can get through these in betweens. I know that you're a perfect person.