Authentically You, with Dora

Check out this clip from Headspace Studio's podcast series "Dear Headspace." Are you ready, Dora? I am. Hi, I'm Steph Colburn. My question is about being queer, but also about feeling good in my body and clothing. So less so from like an inside perspective, more from a looking the part perspective. Now I live in New York City and there's sort of a freedom that comes with being invisible here. So I've experimented a lot with dressing up in different ways, and it really makes me feel like good and seen and wholly myself. But the issue I have is still feeling like very judged by others, even those within the LGBTQ community. I feel like there's still a binary that most people and most queer people are living in, and I don't think I really fit on one side or the other of that. And so my question in a very long-winded way is how do I feel good in my appearance without hiding parts of myself? (gentle music) You know what I love about that question is outwardly it's a question about clothing, and you would think it would be a really simple question, but it's very complex. Yeah. And Steph, she says that she's worried about judgment of others. But I have to say, I also, it feels like a lot of it in that question is self-judgment. That's what I heard. That's what like pinged me right away. Yeah. I feel like there's a piece in there that's like, well, who is Steph? Like, 'cause she mentioned, you know, I'm trying to dress queer and what's queer enough and the worry about judgment of others, and then I'm trying to maybe sometimes not fit in or fit in with where I'm going. But like in all of the different scenarios she described, none of them were her saying, "I know in my core "this is how I like to dress." I'm wondering if there's not some exploration that Steph could do to see who she is and what would make her really happy, like- Yeah, we all have those moments where it's like I feel alive. My heart is open. That's my barometer of like how open is my heart right now? Because that's when I know that I'm being my most authentic self. So following those little stepping stones, that thread in your life, and staying close to that. And I also wanna go back to that piece on self-judgment because I find that oftentimes when we give other people our power or we're perceiving ourselves through the eyes of other people, we'll never be enough. We're doing a disservice to ourselves. So explore what does it feel like to be in the middle knowing that sometimes life is uncomfortable, sometimes we may not fit in, sometimes we really wanna belong, but I think that we have to belong to ourselves before we can belong to other people. Oh my god, that's so beautiful,...