How to trust your dopeness. . . 

*Know Yourself.  When you understand the environments and people that empower you, you elevate your worth. Understand your own boundaries or limitations and then challenge them.  Define your comfort zone, and know that when you push past those boundaries, you might be surprised by your own dopeness!   

As a first year attending physician studying for my pediatric boards, I remember thinking, “once I pass this exam, everything will be okay.”  A good friend of mine challenged that thought reminding me that I had already “arrived.”  Once I changed my perspective, trusting my own dopeness, that test was no longer my entire life, but passing that test was only a detail in my life.  

Don’t worry about others underestimating you—just make sure YOU don’t underestimate you. 

*Start before you’re ready.  Visualizing and planning your life’s story is important, but if you wait until you are completely prepared to start, you may never start.  Just do it.  Put that energy into taking action. 

I was inspired to develop this website community more than a year before our launch.  It was a stretch into my creative side combined with encouragement from friends to take the leap.  With any growth, you will not be ready for it because it is an upward change by definition.  Shed those outer layers that no longer serve you and bloom.  

*Self-care: Replenish yourself before you burn out.  I used to view self-care as an extra, unnessesary luxury.  Then I started to mediatate.  I slowed down and started paying more attention to my emotions and how I reacted to experiences at work, experiences with my children and experiences with my peers.  When I did not take the time for self-care, I was less productive in all of these arenas.  I was cutting my dopeness short, and I was not tapping into my full potential or power.  It is so important to take balanced care of your physical, mental and spiritual health. 

Choose to show up for yourself.  It is difficult to care for others when your own cup is not full.  Fill it up unapologetically. You are as important as your job, significant other, children and that to-do list.  It is not selfish to take time for yourself everyday.  

*Be Bold. Stay Bright. Share your power.  I think this idea of dopeness and sharing it with others is best embodied by my favorite quote by Marianne Williamson . . . “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”