Facebook threw up the photo on the left the other day and I had to take several moments to breathe in the journey I have been on. The photos are almost exactly 7 years apart and what a journey it has been.

7 years ago, at age 22, as ‘confident’ and ‘headed places’ as I was (I had a big group of friends around me and was already in politics working full time + in my final year at uni) I wasn’t sincerely happy.

I had a body that was getting abused with bad food, binge drinking and recreational drugs (ecstasy every other weekend), and a mind that was completely devoid of self worth and emotional strength.

And one day I woke up, and decided to change, just like that. It was a night I was on pills and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror – and LITERALLY didn’t recognise the woman staring back at me. Body, mind & spirit. So I changed. Morgan and I transformed our lives S.L.O.W.L.E.Y – changed our whole diet, I stopped saying yes to music festivals & parties I knew I’d be tempted to take drugs, and swapped out tv for books. In 2010 I had my major jaw reconstruction surgery (life changing surgery to fix my severe underbite). I dropped 17kgs – 6kg from the surgery, 11kg on my own, (Morgan dropped 23kg) and started to change literally from the inside (mind) out (body). 2 years in to that journey, I found nutritional cleansing yes – and have maintained my weight and results with those life changing products ever since, but that isn’t where this initial transformation ever came from.

This came from knowing who I was with conviction- and making drastic changes towards becoming that woman. It was knowing NO ONE defined my worth but me. It was being sick of thinking my power was external to me – when I had the keys all along.

There isn’t an excuse in the WORLD I will hear from someone, especially a woman (one day I will share my ENTIRE story) as to why you are so stuck in fear to change. Not one.

You are not what you weigh, how you have or haven’t looked, who you have slept with, you aren’t your dark past, or a fucked up childhood, you are not your mother or fathers or families expectations. You are not your scars or your feelings of unworthiness. YOU ARE NOT YOUR MISTAKES.

YOU are the one who gets to decide how your story will go.

YOU are the one who gets to feel, determine & KNOW your worth.

YOU are the one who gets to find your voice. No matter how long it’s been lost.

YOU are the one who gets to find the fire & the fight from within and share THAT journey.

No one, not your past, not your old stories, not men (or women) who have taken sexual rights from you, not any abuse, not a dark history, not A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G or ANYONE gets to tell you who you are. Only you get to do that.

YOU are a walking piece of art crafted for THIS lifetime not here to waste one second letting others define you.

You are the author of your life. And you need to understand that you get to claim all of your power & potency back in any given moment and write how the rest of your story will go.

Because I assure you – if I can do it, then you CERTAINLY can. Your time is now, the year has never been more perfect and the calling is officially on your life.

G.O and be the woman you were always born to be, and I will always be here – cheering you on the loudest <3

p.s I have to shout out to the main man in my life Morgan too who was there for every tiny step OF this journey and has supported me in ways that I can’t even explain