Hello and welcome.
My name is Payam.
If you're listening to this talk during Pride Month,
Happy Pride!
On this Pride Month,
Let's celebrate and explore the deeper purpose of being queer or being a member of the LGBTQ plus community.
In a short time as queer people,
As the LGBTQ plus community,
We managed to achieve a great deal of civil rights.
Such achievement indicates that we are a strong,
Fearless,
And loving community.
As we take pride in our activism and work hard to protect our rights,
We need to also embrace what is inherently meaningful about our identity,
Our queerness,
Our gayness,
Or however you wish to call your true essence.
There is another form of queer activism.
It is an inner journey of freeing ourselves from what can get in the way of living a soulful life.
It involves understanding what we unconsciously let get in the way of living a life with depth and purpose.
As queer or gay people,
We are here for a reason.
It is up to each one of us to discover the truth behind our existence.
It is up to us to find meaning for our lives.
Often what gets in the way of knowing our purpose and living a soulful life is not dealing with internalized homophobia or any kind of shame and humiliation that we were forced to internalize about our real identity.
The trauma of growing up queer in a homophobic,
Transphobic,
And heterosexist world that shamed our essence needs healing.
Not everyone experiences trauma around their identity,
But many of us do,
And we have a right to heal from it.
The overwhelming experience of coming to terms with one's real identity at a young age without adequate support and often with judgment from others is too overwhelming for most youngsters to go through.
By healing from feelings of inferiority or shame that many of us had to endure growing up,
We can make it easier to open a pathway toward knowing ourselves.
The opposite of shame is to proudly stand in our power and own our beautiful queer essence.
Our queer essence is like a light that once embraced it can add more light to the world.
However,
What can dim our light is not only the unhealed traumas that often stem from growing up in a world that did not respect our true essence,
But also numbing the pain of our unhealed traumas.
Many members of the LGBTQ plus community deal with their pain and negative emotional states by indulging in drug abuse,
Excessive drinking,
Intense romantic affairs,
Too much shopping,
Gambling,
Overeating,
And other unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Even though such activities might feel pleasurable and provide a momentary sense of euphoria,
They do not lead to a real experience of vitality and aliveness.
They don't add meaning to our lives.
There is a different kind of intoxication that involves the experience of the soul.
Such experience is beyond the ego's need for cheap thrills.
To live a soulful life,
Take time to explore and find the path that can support your growth.
Oftentimes,
To heal and grow,
We can work with a somatically trained therapist with the focus on regulating our nervous system.
The book of our life experiences is written in our nervous system and healing from trauma can start with working with it.
Our nervous system can help us to feel safe and for many of us not feeling safe growing up has conditioned our nervous system to default to fight,
Flight,
Or freeze as a response to stress.
It can be difficult to relax and explore a life purpose when we are in a constant state of dysregulation.
Healing our traumas and creating a feeling of safety on the inside can support our soul journey.
Liberating ourselves from personal issues that oppress the light of our queer essence can help us build a more satisfying life and add vitality to our struggle for freedom.
It can also help us love the world back to health.
The world needs our participation in dealing with climate crisis and the rise of hate groups and the type of governments they support.
We can't be an instrumental of peace if you're cut off from our powerful queer essence and a sleepwalk through life.
I hope this talk has inspired you to embrace a life with meaning and purpose.
Thank you for listening.
