Do you ever shy away from sharing anything about yourself with larger audiences?

When starting my journey creating my online platform and sharing my “random thoughts” with a global audience, looking for inspiration I reached out to a well-known educator, author, and entrepreneur to be part of the The Self-Discovery Retreat interview series; she appeared to be really confident as a speaker. However, she wrote back declining, saying: “This probably sounds crazy, but I typically shy away from sharing anything about myself to larger audiences. I purposefully write from a third-person perspective to reflect the voice of humanity.”

Her response resonated with me because when I first started my platform, it was called “Everybody Beautiful” – I wanted it to be the voice of many, so I didn’t include my story at all. However, over time, bits and pieces of my story and experience started to be revealed; hence the name-change to Arianna’s Random Thoughts. I found the balance of including others’ voices and stories too, as well as my own. Now, I empower others along the way to rise to their platforms and shine by sharing my story as well as others.

Letting myself and my story be vulnerable and be seen truly for who I am, random thoughts and all, has really impacted my personal and professional journey! I truly believe that when you share your story with others, you give them permission to do the same. Recently, Lydia Criss Mays and her husband learned the same lesson when Lydia decided to share their story.

“I can’t find any Ted(x) talks about infertility (and that’s not specifically what this talk is about), but it was our hope that by sharing our part of our story, it might find its way into the right people’s hands and hearts. We decided, through being vulnerable, honest, and ultimately hope-filled, this talk might help someone who was struggling to realize the incredible strength to be found in seeing beautiful too.” (source)

Since my site is about helping people to start turning their ideas into action by believing in themselves and having a supportive community around them, I thought I would share Lydia’s story, with permission of course, to inspire you on your journey.

Lydia Criss Mays encourages everyone to See Beautiful – in fact, she created a company around that mission. See Beautiful is an organization which works to empower others to see the beauty in themselves while creating and celebrating more of it in the world. As she mentioned before, on the site Lydia “purposefully writes from a third-person perspective to reflect the voice of humanity.”

Lydia is always celebrating others’ beauty, so I have to update you on a beautiful thing that she recently did. The author and educator who once shied away from speaking her story and who initially declined to take part in the interview series for Arianna’s Random Thoughts, came back to connect and took part in the series. Now, she shared her personal struggle on a global stage!

Watch her TED Talk below.

As she says in the talk,

“I believe that at some point (or many points) in our lives we arrive at an impasse. Something has happened; we have lost touch with how to see beautiful in, or about, ourselves, others, or the world in general. It is in these pivotal moments that the opportunity to see beautiful is vital in helping us grow our confidence, hope, happiness and contentment in life.”

Lydia hopes to inspire others to change the world by seeking beautiful. Through this, she is being the change she wishes to see in the world by speaking from the heart and connecting us all.

We can all learn from her – the process of rising to your platform & shining has obstacles! If you are at a point in your life where you have arrived at an impasse where you have lost touch with how to see beautiful in, or about, yourself, others, or the world in general, take a page from Lydia’s book and share your story with others. The self-discovery process can help oneself see beautiful in ourselves and others. You never know what you will learn when you look within!

Thank you for reading and for your presence at this beach retreat. You Rock!I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the Comments section below.

See you at the beach!