Mark Your Freedom
I just watched this movie recently. So much inspiration in 2 hours…check out this moment (link copied from YouTube clips):
What stood out to me most was the depiction of her having a freedom name. That’s right — a FREEDOM NAME. Something that every time she spoke or heard it, she would have a built-in reminder of the day she won her freedom.
There are so many moments of freedom in a DV (domestic violence) victim or survivor’s journey. The moment when you are free from the oppression of the darkness of what you were made to believe this intimate relationship was. The moment when he was forcibly removed from your residence and could not return. The moment when your divorce from him was final. The moment when you drove away and left him behind. Oh yes, Beautiful; ALL those moments represent a level of freedom.
If you don’t have a beautiful marker — sometimes it’s something only you know like a certain meal you fix yourself or a certain way you did your hair and took a selfie with it. Sometimes it’s something everybody knows like your name. The great thing is, YOU get to decide how that looks.
If you’ll notice in the video, Mr. Still patiently took the time to point out to this woman how remarkable that moment was. Now, she was tired, hungry, displaced…so she might not have FELT remarkable. But how we FEEL and what really IS can be different. So that’s the first thing: TAKE THE TIME TO APPLAUD YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT BY STATING ALOUD OR TO YOURSELF HOW REMARKABLE IT IS TO HAVE DONE WHAT YOU JUST DID.
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A second thing you’ll notice in the video, SHE chose her name. She chose what the moment represented to her and SHE gave that moment a name. In this case, it changed what everyone called her following that moment. It also changed WHAT SHE CALLED HERSELF.
Second thing, Beautiful. The name change is to help your MIND CHANGE. She is no longer the slave “Minty” she gives herself permission to become Harriet Tubman.
When you have a moment of freedom from ANYTHING, big or small:
1) Note that it is remarkable and how it is remarkable
2) Decide what is going to be used to mark that moment in your mind so you don’t forget or diminish it later
3) Wrap your mind around that new vision of who YOU HAVE BECOME
You fought for it, you won it. Now celebrate it.
Originally published at https://cfire2019.wixsite.com on April 13, 2020.
