The labels we give ourselves can be beneficial and empowering but can also be restricting and negative. When once a label gave us strength it may now hold us back and where you feel you have to love to that label it can feel stifling and restrictive.
You may say, what labels? We label ourselves and others all the time, daughter, wife, sister, brother, husband, mother, dad, yogi, Yogini, fitness enthusiast, teacher, vegan, vegetarian, spoonie, ill, tall, short, fat, thin, weak, strong, blonde, brunette....the list goes on. And what those labels mean varies from one person to the next. But when we apply a label to ourselves or someone else we effectively put them into a box, we expect them to act and behave how we think that label will, so if we label ourselves strong...this is in essence a positive label, we have inner strength, we can take on the world, we can do whatever we want, we are strong, but what happens when we need to cry, feel weak, have a bad day? If we think we’re meant to be strong, do we stifle the other emotions that others or ourselves may label as weakness? (Ps crying is not a weakness by the way) Does this suddenly positive label stop us from feeling what we’re feeling in that moment? What labels do you place on yourself and others and how do they define that person in your eyes, do they restrict your or the way you see others or do they open them up? What happens when you strip away the labels you’ve placed on yourself or others, what do you find that sits underneath that label? Is that a more realistic place to see them?
As humans?