Hello,
It's me,
Lorraine K.
Rudolph,
Also known as L Star R,
Founder of the Self Sovereign Studio.
Today,
I come to you guided by my intuition and by the wisdom blessed upon me by my teachers,
Matt and Ashley Schaefer and Louisa Dorian,
Founder and team leaders of Mastery of Magnetism,
Frank Macari,
Founder of the Thriving Coach Academy,
And my Reiki master,
Kelly Strolls.
I humbly welcome you to today's meditation.
As we begin,
I want you to check in with your body and get as comfortable as possible wherever you are.
Whether you are sitting,
Standing,
Lying down,
Or even driving in a car,
There is a place for you here.
Let's take a moment to move through the body together.
Starting with your face,
Notice what's there.
Any tension in your jaw,
Your forehead,
Around your eyes,
Just allow whatever needs to adjust to adjust.
Move your awareness down to your neck,
Your shoulders,
Let them drop,
Your arms,
Your hands,
Your chest,
Your back,
Your stomach,
Your hips,
Your legs,
Your feet,
All the way down to your toes.
As you settle in,
Feel the groundness of gravity beneath you,
Not as pressure as support,
The earth holding you exactly where you are.
Now we are going to start by breathing together.
We will take three intentional breaths,
In for four counts,
Hold for seven,
And out for eight.
If you are operating any machinery,
Simply allow your breath to breathe naturally and let the words wash over you.
For everyone else,
Let's begin.
Breathe in two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Out two,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
One more time.
Breathe in two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Out two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Now allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.
One deep breath in,
And out.
And if you're not operating any machinery,
And you feel so inclined,
You are welcome to gently close your eyes.
If you are operating machinery,
Or simply prefer to keep your eyes open,
That is perfectly okay too.
You are still fully here.
One more breath in,
And out.
You are here,
You are held,
You are exactly where you are supposed to be right now.
Take one more slow breath in,
And as you exhale,
I want to ask you something.
Who told you who you were supposed to be?
Let's talk about Barbie for a moment.
Not just the doll,
The idea,
The construct,
That message that has been handed to us since before we were old enough to question it.
Here's a fact that stopped me cold when I first learned it.
If the original Barbie doll were scaled to human size,
She would be five foot nine inches tall,
With an 18 inch waist.
She would likely have to walk on all fours just to carry her own proportions.
Scientifically,
She could not exist.
And yet,
For generations,
That image was handed to children as the standard,
As the goal,
As the ideal.
And it wasn't just Barbie,
It was Ken too.
The perfectly sculpted jaw,
The effortless cool,
The abs,
The car,
The dream house.
It was the jock and the cheerleader,
The cool kid and the popular girl,
The successful businessman,
And the perfect homemaker.
Hollywood gave us the script,
Society handed us our role,
And from the time we were small,
Most of us started performing.
Fitting ourselves into the box we were given,
Shrinking,
Stretching,
Contorting ourselves into the shape the world said we should be.
And maybe for a while it worked,
Or at least it felt safer than stepping outside the box.
Because connection is real.
Belonging is real.
The need to fit in,
To be accepted,
To find your people,
That is one of the most deeply human things there is.
And I want to honor that.
That need was never wrong.
And the box was never the truth of you.
Because here is what I know.
The most unique,
Irreplaceable,
One-of-a-kind container in the entire universe is you.
Not the performed version,
Not the version you shaped to fit the role,
Not the version that shrinks so other people feel comfortable.
The real you,
The full you,
The you that exists underneath all the scripts and the boxes and the rules.
That version of you,
That,
The one that is completely unapologetically exactly yourself,
That is the Barbie.
That is the Ken.
That is the doll that breaks the mold entirely.
So I want you to sit with a question,
Gently,
With curiosity.
Where in your life have you been performing a role that you never really wanted or never really was yours?
What box were you handed by your family,
Your school,
Your culture,
Your social circle,
That you've been trying to fit yourself into ever since?
Don't judge it,
Just notice it.
And now I want you to imagine something.
Imagine setting that box down just for a moment,
Not forever,
Just right now in this meditation.
Imagine what it would feel like to just be yourself without the costume,
Without the performance,
Without needing to fit any mold at all.
What does that feel like in your body?
What opens up?
What relaxes?
Here's what I want you to know today.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
And every time you measure yourself against someone else's Barbie box,
Against their life,
Their body,
Their success,
Their timeline,
You are robbing yourself of the one thing that is completely irreplaceable.
Your own story,
Your own version,
Your own Barbie box,
Your own perfectly imperfect,
Completely original,
Never have been done before self.
You are not here to fit the mold.
You are here to break it.
And that best all version of yourself,
The one that is the one that the world actually needs is not the one in the box.
It's the one that's been inside you all along.
Begin to bring awareness back to your body.
Wiggle your fingers,
Wiggle your toes,
Take a slow,
Easy breath.
Before you open your eyes,
Take just a moment to be grateful.
Grateful that you showed up for yourself today.
Grateful for this time you carved out.
Grateful for who you are becoming.
That is no small thing.
When you are ready,
Gently open your eyes and carry this with you,
Not just into your day,
But into your being.
Let it live there.
Let it settle.
Let it become part of who you are.
You did the work today.
Now go be it.
