There’s no clean or polite way to say this, so I won’t try... Let’s name what’s real.
- Stephanie Kittell
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
The world feels heavy right now, and pretending otherwise doesn’t serve anyone. This is an invitation to tell the truth, feel the weight, and still choose to rise.
Let’s name what’s real.
There are a lot of fucked up things happening in the world right now.
War. Injustice. Loss. Uncertainty. Systems breaking. Hearts breaking.
It can feel overwhelming, confusing, maddening. For many of us, there’s a quiet guilt that creeps in when we feel joy or pleasure. A subtle belief that ‘now is not the time’ for abundance, beauty, or expansion. That to feel good, to thrive, to enjoy life while others are suffering is somehow wrong.
So we shrink.
We dim.
We stay small and contracted.
Not because it feels good — but because it feels safer. Less visible. Less risky. Less likely to be judged as ‘too bright’ in a dark moment of humanity.
Staying small is not the solution.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: staying small is not helping anyone.
Your silence does not heal the world.
Your contraction does not reduce suffering.
Your self-denial does not make you more compassionate.
It only cuts you off from your aliveness.
Every one of us was born with certain gifts — ways of seeing, speaking, creating, holding, loving, leading. These gifts are not random. They are life moving through you, asking to be expressed.
To not share them is a quiet kind of violence.
A disservice to life itself.
This is the time to shine brighter, not dimmer.
This moment in history does not ask you to disappear.
It asks you to show up more fully than ever before.
To dare to shine when it would be easier to hide.
To choose joy not as denial, but as devotion.
To experience pleasure, abundance, and beauty not as escape — but as fuel.
Your joy matters.
Your voice matters.
Your thriving matters.
When you live turned on by life, you become a signal. A permission slip. A reminder of what’s still possible. When you embody truth, love, and aliveness, you create ripples far beyond what you can see.
This is how we serve.
This is how we contribute.
This is how we love.
If your voice feels ready — but blocked…
If something in you knows it’s time to stop playing small…
If your voice feels powerful but underexpressed…
If you feel called to share more of who you are and what you’re here for…
🙌🏼 I invite you to EMPOWER YOUR VOICE.
You can work with me through Empower Your Voice 1:1 Online Coaching, where we go deep, personal, and precise — clearing what’s holding you back and anchoring your voice in truth, confidence, and embodied presence.
Or, if you want to begin in your own rhythm, you can start with the Empower Your Voice TRAINING & MASTERMIND — an immersive, online, self‑paced experience designed to help you reclaim your voice, expand your self-expression, and step into leadership from the inside out.
This work is not about being louder.
It’s about being truer.
A final truth to carry with you…
The world does not need you smaller, quieter, or more palatable.
It needs you alive. Expressed. Lit up from the inside.
Your light does not take away from the darkness.
It gives others permission to find their own.
And that, in times like these, is not indulgent.
It’s revolutionary.
With love always,
Stephanie 🤍
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