Reflect on a belief you’ve held since childhood. Is it still relevant or has your perspective changed?
I was told a lot of things about myself that I believed until I turned 40 and turned a critical eye toward everything inside me. For instance, I had been told for my whole childhood that I was shy. That was the cause of my social ineptitude, according to my parents, not that I was a little weirdo who couldn’t fit in anywhere. I was never shy. Traumatized, maybe, but not shy.
I love public speaking, for goodness’ sake. That was a revelation I had in my 40s when I took a public speaking class in college. It occurred to me that giving presentations was always one of my strengths. And I will talk to anyone about anything at the drop of a hat.
I am introverted— I can only do so much socializing before I am exhausted and I am “turned inward” in the way I think about and relate to the world. Introverted and shy are different things.
I also believed I had no artistic talent, because the story in my family was that my brothers were the artists and I was the writer. It turns out you can be both.
There were a lot of other lies I believed about myself and my birth family. I usually describe the process of learning the truth about myself as being akin to falling down a flight of stairs and hitting my head on every single step.
In the end, it has been liberating to discover the truth about myself and to let those all those lies go.
The Mia Experiment 
Very good post Mia! You’re an inspiration for rising above the lies that would otherwise destroy one’s self esteem. I could never understand what would possess someone to negativity place characteristics on a child such as being shy when in fact you are not. It really does mess with our perceptions of ourselves. Good for you for taking a stand and letting your true self shine ✨.
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