Be Brilliant: Bold. Brilliant. Beautiful. You.

New month, new topic. This time: brilliancy.

Brilliancy can be defined a few ways. It can mean shining, a glowing appearance. It means dazzling, luminous, sparkling. For Bold. Brilliant. Beautiful. You., we’ve taken the interpretation of admitting and accepting the awesome and amazing things about yourself, allowing yourself to shine. This point is tricky because there is a fear that in acknowledging it, our amazingness, we will become conceited and arrogant. But it’s not true. It is a myth perpetuated by insecure, immature people in high school (or people with high school level emotional intelligence).

When I think of brilliance, I think of a passage in Marianne Williamson’s book, A Return to Love. I’ve loved the quote ever since hearing it. It goes:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

The truth is we all have gifts. Each and everyone of us is gifted. Some gifts are more obvious and visible than others and there are some people who seems to have an exceeding number of gifts. But we all have them and we should celebrate them. It’s not a crime to recognize our greatness. In fact, it’s necessary.

Accepting our brilliancy is crucial because in downplaying it, our gifts, our shine, our sparkle, we are masking who we truly are. We are beautifully made and we need to accept it. We, women especially, are fantastic at accepting and broadcasting all the things we aren’t – pretty enough, thin enough, smart enough, rich enough. We tell everyone what we fail at!! However, the scales have be balanced. The shortcomings have to be balanced by our strong points, the failures have to be balanced by the successes.

Additionally, in accepting the sparkle in ourselves, we are more comfortable (read: less jealous, less envious) when we see the shine in others. When we are okay, others are free to be okay around us. If you don’t have people in your life who accept you for who you are, amazingness and all, look further. They are out there.

So be brilliant!! Accept your amazingness. Be who you are and celebrate it. There is only one of you and the world needs it.

If you want to share a pic on Instagram, add the hashtag #boldbrilliantbeautiful so we can all see you! If you tag me (@thisheartofmineblog), I’ll leave you a message!

For 2014, I’ve joined forces with some blogging friends of mine to motivate and encourage ourselves and others to be bold, brilliant, beautiful and decidedly ourselves. And we totally want you to join us! The #boldbrilliantbeautiful project is a support group for all of us seeking to be real and vulnerable. No judging, no questions, just support and words of encouragement. Find us on Instagram with the #boldbrilliantbeautiful hashtag and on the Bold. Brilliant. Beautiful. You. Facebook page. All are invited and welcome. :)