by Shereen Sun
Many of us that were raised in immigrant families grew up with very clear expectations. You study hard and choose a traditionally stable and lucrative path such as becoming a doctor, lawyer or engineer.
By choosing this conventional and socially accepted path you’re somehow paying back your parents for the long hours, nights and weekends they worked to get you to America and through school.
But let’s be real – not all of us have the aptitude or interest for these career paths.
I sure didn’t and as a result struggled deeply. I felt unworthy and out of place. Incapable. Less than.
But soon, something happened — I realized that being an artistic queer Muslim woman was not a curse.
It was a blessing that helped me choose a career path that relied on creativity and people skills.
It was when I embraced my father’s immigrant work ethic and merged it with my truest passions, and put these qualities to use in my own business that my company took off.
So I’m here to suggest to you, Witch-y reader, the next evolution in your healing might be to grow your business.
I never thought that starting my business would have such a profound effect on every aspect of my life.
I never realized that my business would ultimately be the greatest act of self-care and self-love that I would embark on.
When I first started my business, I didn’t really have models for what it could look like. I found myself forging a new path, a path that other nonconformists can follow in order to thrive creatively, financially and spiritually.
I want the nonconformists like me – immigrant kids, queer people and women of color – to see a world of opportunity and promise, over a world where they can’t seem to do anything right.
My desire is to empower those kids and adults to become social entrepreneurs and build businesses and projects around their own creative ideas … and change the world!
Especially those who weren’t taught to believe that business is for them. Who are outside of the mainstream ideas of what a “leader” looks like or who historically weren’t the ones leading the meetings.
When I look at my business from the lens of ancestral healing, it lights a fire within me that motivates me to keep moving forward, even when I’m facing shadows and jumping into the unknown.
Viewing my business from this lens connects me to something so much greater than myself. It opens up a whole new realm that I never knew existed.
One where my biggest priority is to become the most authentic version of myself that I can be.
I used to feel like I needed to change who I was in order to reach success or discover my life purpose.
I was constantly seeking to fit into a certain box or mold that never was quite right. Whether it was at school, at home, or competing for low-paying jobs amongst a swarm of overly-qualified applicants.
I constantly felt like I was “not enough.”
Now, I know that mustering the courage to be all of myself is the key ingredient to breaking down barriers and walls that ever had me feeling like I wasn’t good enough in the first place.
So, if you’re afraid to be seen, if it scares you to speak your truth, what I want you to know is that these fears are not just yours, but also the pain and wounding of your ancestors that you’re carrying.
And, at the same time, you also carry their strength, wisdom and resilience.
By stepping up, sharing your gifts, and speaking your truth, you are healing generations backwards and forwards. We have all heard the saying, “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” and it’s true.
You stepping into your power shifts culture and the systems that have historically kept us in chains.
For each one of us that steps more fully into our true purpose, we light up the path for the younger generation to see what else is possible.
We become the role-models that we needed when we were younger. And from there, we heal.
But, look, me writing an article saying “break the ancestral chains” is not going to change everything.
You have to cultivate compassion for yourself in the process of letting yourself be seen for all you are and all your ancestors are because there is collective trauma there that you are healing simply by speaking your truth.
You are changing the world by being courageous enough to be all of yourself fully.
And “being yourself” is much easier said than done. When you view your business or creative endeavors as a tool to remember who you truly are, as a practice of self-love and compassion, your business becomes a vehicle through which you can fall deeply in love and in reverence with yourself, with your very own soul.
For as long as I can remember, I have found myself trying to fit in to what I thought was the norm.
Whether it was at home or at school, I didn’t seem to be able to fit in and be the person that people wanted me to be.
I was bullied at home and at school. I was told I was a problem child. Years of being exposed to this message and programming led to me become suicidal at the age of eight.
At that time, I had no idea that any of this would be possible for my life because no one ever modeled this for me.
Now, I’m motivated by the fact that as I share who I am and take up space, young girls who relate to my story get to see another narrative of what’s possible for their future.
It’s been a massive healing process for me to find my creative self expression, but the truth is that I am feeling the chains break.
I am feeling the depth of my power and the wisdom of my ancestors as I continue to carve my own path.
And this wasn’t a path that was presented to me as an option growing up, I needed to make it up for myself.
I rewrote the rules of business so that they included me.
When I really started thriving in my life’s work, when I began receiving the opportunity to support non-conformists in building a business with their self expression rooted at the center, I feel freedom in getting to share the truth of who I am.
No more boxes, no more pretending, and no more separation. Liberation is possible in this lifetime, and it starts with you saying YES to who you really are.
IN CONCLUSION
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About the Author:
Shereen Sun is a magical business coach that supports upcoming leaders in knowing and expressing their power and personality through ethical entrepreneurship. She is a queer woman of color, a sensitive soul, and an artist at heart. Her passion is in helping women and femmes successfully build their movements, unleash their creativity, and get more visible online. She does this through fusing marketing strategy, creativity, and abundance consciousness to help you bring your vision to life and get it into the hands of those who need it most. She believes that the more we align our gifts and message while simultaneously releasing fear and scarcity, the more our businesses can be a catalyst for social change and collective transformation. She has a Masters in Education, a plethora of credentials and certifications, and more than all else, is a lifelong student of joy, compassion, and liberation. Learn more at www.radiantwildheart.com
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