Be You and SHINE!

“You’re sooo quiet.”  “You’re the quietest person I’ve ever met.”  “Do you ever talk?”  I’ve spent a lot of my life with comments or questions like this directed towards me.  I realize now that people are simply stating the obvious.  I tend to be a quieter person and have realized that’s the way I express myself.  The ways I feel most comfortable and am most successful sharing myself are not necessarily verbally.  But as a child, a teenager, a young adult and if I’m to be totally honest, sometimes still to this day, these comments felt hurtful and mean.  I created the story that interpreted these comments as really meaning “there’s something wrong with you”, “you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do” and “you’re not good enough!!”  Needless to say, the issue of my verbal communication skills has been a huge trigger for me throughout my life.