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There was a time in my life when I lived in a religious cult.
To be honest, I was a little embarrassed to tell anyone about it. That’s why I kept it a secret for nearly 33 years. Most people want to know, “What was it like? Were there some crazy rituals?” As you can imagine, there were rules for everything.
Rules about what I could say.
Rules about who I could talk to.
Rules about where I could go.
Mostly, though, there were rules about what I could wear. It was kind of like living with a narcissistic partner. (Who hasn’t done that in their lifetime??)
Because of this, I ended up having a very complicated relationship with fashion. For example, I constantly worried that I was a bad person if I showed too much skin. (As if what you wore could make you a lesser person!) So many of us attach our confidence to how we look or how we show up…
Then in 2013, a diagnosis of incurable cancer shook me to my core. It was in that moment that I flipped the switch and took back my power around what I wore and how I showed up in the world. With my life hanging in the balance, I really had nothing left to lose. I had wasted too many years worrying about what everyone else had to say.
Not only was I going to beat this, but it was time to let my Fashion Badass come out and shine – and in doing that, something extraordinary happened….
I began to show up more vibrantly in every other area of my life, too! I realized that I had some very big dreams to fulfill.
Dreams of travelling the world…
Publishing a book …
And speaking on stages…
And to become that woman, I need to start showing up as THAT woman -which meant looking the part and feeling confident. So I found a pair of sparkly pants and wore them like my super hero cape during recovery.
People would stop me just to tell me how amazing I looked. They couldn’t tell that I was wearing a wig and I had lost all my eyelashes. When I told them I just had chemo, they would exclaim in amazement.
“Whatever you’re doing, it’s totally working for you! Keep going!!”
That was over 6 years ago. And against all odds, I not only beat the diagnosis, but I’m happy to say that I am 100% cancer free to this day. I kicked that cancer diagnosis to the curb in less than 6 months. And it all came from visualizing my future and dressing the part to step into that future.
Since then, I’ve traveled to bucket list places, published my book, and now share my story with audiences around the world.
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