For Women Who Were Told To Keep Quiet [Blogs.PhsychCentral.com]

I grew up with a father who was a bully. It was okay to speak if I agreed with him, but I wasn’t allowed to freely speak my mind.

I kept quiet for longer than I should have, long after I left my parent’s home.

I encourage all people, especially women, to find your voices and let yourselves be heard.

The mistake I made was that for too many years I blamed my father for silencing me. And as a child he did, but once I became an adult, it wasn’t my father who silenced me, it was me.

I had created a story about why I was the way I was. (To read the longer article click here.) I used that story about my father to justify not speaking up. The actual details of the story were true, but I wasn’t recognizing that I—the adult who was telling herself that story—was no longer a child.

At some point I asked myself, “Do I want my past to predetermine how I live my life today?” At first, I could barely hear my own response because my voice was too small. But, I asked again and again until I heard myself loudly declaring, “No!”

[For more of this story Jake and Hannah Eagle, go to http://blogs.psychcentral.com/...-told-to-keep-quiet/]