By Sarah Pepple
Find a quiet spot. Get comfortable. Close your eyes. Inhale, exhale. Think of all the amazing dreams buried deep within your heart and imagine them coming true in three months, twelve months. What would your life look like? Would your bills be paid? Would you have a new house? Would your book idea become a bestseller or your business a booming enterprise? We are all designed with the ability to achieve our desires, to be the queen of our universe. Stop merely existing. You have very important things to do.
In her book, The Audacity to Be Queen, Divine Living founder Gina DeVee walks readers through a series of steps, exercises, meditations, prayers and journal prompts to help women of every age release self-sabotaging thoughts and actions that keep them from their dreams. DeVee challenges women with the words, “You have a stunning, inspiring, and meaningful role to play on this planet and in this lifetime.”
Explaining the core concept of queen style living, DeVee states that a queen symbolizes a woman who is determined to become the best version of herself. Too often society’s expectations, what the media and even our friends tell us limits us from becoming what we can be. A queen never denies her value, her birthright, her heritage. She is confident in who she is, her intelligence, her femininity, her power, her spirituality, and her prosperity. She is generous and has a great sense of humor. Having the audacity to express the qualities of a Queen is what makes an epic life out of an ordinary one.
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“Sadly, most women have become too familiar with putting themselves last, resulting in a half-lived life versus fulfilling their glorious potential. They’re expected to play the part of the perfect employee, wife, mother, daughter, boss– and all while looking camera-ready. When is there time to do what they want when they’re constantly tending to the needs of everyone around them? Their true potential doesn’t have a chance to become manifested when unending amounts of work, dismal bank accounts, other people’s expectations, crushing stress, and their own limited beliefs of what they desire have trapped them in life’s straightjacket. Throw in a few wrecking-ball hits to their confidence along the way, and it’s tempting to believe they’re going to stay exactly where they are forever.” (DeVee, pg. xi)
Do you find yourself adhering to the “Good Girl” rules that keep women ordinary? These “rules” or rather, crippling myths, include classic deceptions like just be happy with what you have, that you have to work really, really hard to earn money, and that you should always be responsible and practical.
GOOD GIRL RULE 1: Just Be Happy With What You Have
We all know Rule 1. Don’t worry, be happy, in the immortal words of Bobby McFerrin. Don’t rock the boat. A woman should be happy with how things are in her life. So what if her life isn’t matching her truest desires or divine calling? This happens because women are told that wanting more and wanting better is being ungrateful or selfish. Women are born people pleasers, putting their own needs in the back closet of their minds while everyone else comes first.
Overall, life might actually be really good and you are grateful. But, what if? What if there’s something you feel weighing on your heart that’s just waiting for you to give it attention? What if that something could give you your own glamorous jet-setting career that also contributes to the well-being of others? DeVee encourages readers to live their Queen life, their epic life by taking big and little steps along the way. Claim that time to draw a bath with the latest issue of Vogue. Put the time in to develop the business you feel called to do.
GOOD GIRL RULE 2: You Have To Work Really, Really Hard For Money
Somewhere along the way, women who want to be perceived as towing the line, you know, the good girls, have come to believe they need to work really, really hard for every dollar. The onus falls on them to stretch every dollar and work long hours for the pennies they are paid. They listen to the lies whispered into their ears that they are “selfish” or “lazy” if they want more money. Women are left feeling insecure about their finances and their ability to earn. Women come to believe that making money or making a difference is an either/or proposition when it simply doesn’t have to be that way.
DeVee challenges readers with these powerful words, “The end of money shaming begins with getting honest with yourself. The more you give yourself permission to make, use, and enjoy what money will buy, the less you’ll burn yourself (and other women) at the stake.”
GOOD GIRL RULE 3: You Need To Be Responsible And Practical
Make a list of everything you think the society around you says you should be doing to be responsible and practical. Does it include a college degree? A 9-to-5 office job? Are you expected to get married, save up for a house and have exactly 2 kids, no more, no less? All of those things can be great and have wonderful benefits but what if you have a business you always wanted to start and it never seemed like the right time?
What if you have other dreams that deep down you know you are made for but someone somewhere in your life is telling you it’s not practical, not responsible? What if that person is simply, you? The forever good woman, good wife, hard worker. There’s an epic life waiting to happen, a life of on-purpose pleasure, not ”out there” but right here, right now.
Ask yourself, “What do YOU want?” Make another list of the hidden desires, the things you have been ignoring for way too long and decide which one you are going to pursue with a personal passion. When you follow your given design, energizing clarity will result accompanied with pleasure and satisfaction unlike any you have known before.
To all women, make it epic, make it real, have the audacity to be a Queen.
Gina DeVee, founder of Divine Living, is a published author, accomplished speaker, podcast host, business coach and self-made multimillionaire entrepreneur. She has dedicated her career to helping women connect spiritually, start profitable businesses, and become highly visible so they can make a global impact.
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