A Self Empowerment Exercise for You
Iliaiwi is my personal battle cry for self empowerment. It’s a word I use to empower and inspire myself, similar to the one used by Idgie Threadgood in “Fried Green Tomatoes”, “Towanda!”. I created my own so not to infringe on copywrite laws. If you’ve not seen the movie, I highly recommend it. Here’s a great review that explains it much better than I can.
Although I haven’t been able to find the underlying meaning of “Towanda”, my battle cry is an acronym. It stands for, I‘m Loveable, I‘m Adorable & I‘m Worth It.
In fact, Iliaiwi has inspired me to overcome my personal demons and create this blog. These demons are the voices from my past reminding me that I can’t write. You may be familiar with them as well. Yours may have a different message such as you’ll never be a successful musician or artist or __________. Fill in the blank with whatever your self limiting belief is.
Another message that rang true for me is “You can’t sing”. For years I believed that voice & only sang when I was in private or when rocking an infant to sleep. The songs ended once they were old enough to speak as I didn’t want to hear those words from them as well. I used Iliaiwi last year to put these messages to bed when I joined a chorus and performed in a Cabaret. It was my first time on stage and I had a ball! Although I don’t think I’ll ever be a Julie Andrews or Adele, I overcame that self limiting belief (with the help of Iliaiwi). I’m happy to be part of the chorus and am grateful for the opportunity.
Maybe I won’t be a world famous author (or maybe I will) but Iliaiwi has empowered me to overcome my fear of failure and give it a try. I’m challenging my demons and finding out if this really is my passion as I’ve alluded to over the years. If you want to be a writer, you have to write… I will most certainly face critics but Iliaiwi will give me the strength to use the criticism to my advantage.
You’ll see me use this word periodically throughout this blog so I wanted to explain it from the beginning. When it’s used, you’ll understand that this will be another voice I am silencing or fear that I’m overcoming.
Feel free to use this battle cry for yourself or make up your own. Whatever works for you… Once you’ve settled on a word I encourage you to chant it out loud every morning and any time (silently or out loud) throughout the day when you feel the need for strength and support. Feel free to share your progress with this exercise to inspire others. I look forward to hearing about all your successes.
Iliaiwi!