Congratulations. You just won first row seats to view the daily functions of my brain. This site is a space where I get to jot down my “semi-refined” thoughts to work on being more consistent with my writing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told to write creatively throughout my life. And yet…life continues to get in the way. So I’m here to break my habit of having excuses and just…do it.

So, as you already know, I’m Brittany. You’ll hear me say that I’m “Just Brittany” often. There’s a reason for that. Prior to certain major life events, I often used the term as a cop-out to limit myself from fulfilling my potential. I had a twisted habit of belittling myself in a weird, egotistical way, to elevate others so they would like me more. Because I craved being liked and being likeable. Like it was an addiction. I would hide behind the phrase to allow others to have their way while I simultaneously avoided conflict, tough conversations, and ultimately losing a friendship or relationship.

Thing is…I was raised in a faith tradition that… like it or not… is abrasive to some and offensive to many. And the more I sought fulfilling my addiction to be “just” Brittany, the more I found it hard to be true to my faith. Ultimately, I reached a breaking point where I needed to choose between my truest convictions and my desires to uphold and maintain the relationships I held at that time.

I created this blog as a space to walk you through this daily struggle. For those who are empaths AND also part of a faith tradition with firm and sometimes opposing beliefs to cultural norms, like I am, I hope my daily meditations and creative writing pieces help provide some waypoints for the subject areas you wrestle with. While my goal is not to sway my audience toward aligning with my beliefs, I will be speaking from my realm and belief system. Having been raised Christian and then coming to a place in my adult life where I have reaffirmed my faith as a disciple of Christ, I will be sharing a lot of thoughts around this. I invite my readers to wrestle with my thoughts and engage in dialogue as we struggle together.

Another purpose of this blog is to also provide a space for me to continue perfecting my craft in writing both creative works and prose. As I previously shared, all thoughts here are “semi-refined”. Meaning, I thought about it and maybe thought about it once more before I wrote it down. These thoughts and phrases, have not been edited and may have misspellings, run-ons, sound wordy, have little to no order, and sometimes the thoughts may just… fall flat. Thank you in advance for your grace with me on this. By all means, if you are the grammar girl type or just like editing and asking questions, please do! My only request in return is that, to the best of your ability, your feedback always comes from a place of kindness and love so we can grow and strengthen our minds together.

So… with that said… here is the first meditation I submit to you to struggle with: Why do I insist on being addressed as “Just Brittany” when I previously shared that I used the phrase to belittle myself? And to take it one step further, why do I currently believe that it’s not only okay, but pretty incredible that you are “just” you?

This answer takes several blog posts. Please continue to read on as I reconcile these questions and many more!

Happy reading!

-Just Brittany