Your Story Is Valid: What You Need to Know About Rediscovering Your Purposeful Voice

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By Erica Carulli

May 10, 2022

Here are some reminders about your voice, how we can cultivate and use it, and some tips for the journey.

As a mom of three children and a business owner, I know it can be hard to find time to do just about anything. Taking the time we need to truly cultivate a sense of purpose, especially when it comes to our voice, our inner selves, cannot be overlooked though. Digging deeper to be able to align ourselves with our purpose and use our voice is a part of emotional wellness.

When we use the phrase “finding your voice,” we are often describing the concept of leaning into your authentic self. I actually prefer using the term “rediscovering” instead of “finding” because we didn’t lose it; we talk and communicate every day. It isn’t something we have to locate.

Rediscovering your voice is a process, and includes peeling the layers away to reorient ourselves to the parts of us that have been hidden. Too often, who you actually are—your zest, your why—is masked due to cultural normativity or maybe simply the business of life.

Authenticity, unpacking societal norms embedded into our lives, and deciding what truly aligns with your values, morals, and integrity: this is what it means to rediscover your purposeful voice.

So how do we do that?

I typically begin helping my clients through this process by asking the question, “How are you showing up?” I mean that both physically and emotionally.

Subsequent questions form such as, how are you showing up and supporting the community you are a part of? How are you showing up and advocating for the people in your social circles, or on the periphery of those circles? How are you present in your own home, with your loved ones? What is your presence like, meaning—how do people experience you? What is your essence? What does it feel like for people to be around you?

These, along with a lot of other clinical work, can help guide someone toward a deeper understanding of what their purpose is, and subsequently, how they are using their own voice to advocate for that purpose.

Here are some reminders about your voice, how we can cultivate and use it, and some tips for the journey.

Remember: What you have to say matters! It is of value and important. Someone, somewhere will benefit from what you have to say. Use your purposeful voice.
Speak your truth and your lived experience. Your story is valid and deserves to be heard. Use your purposeful voice.
Be the voice of others who have been silenced or who have yet to find their voice. Here, you are using your purposeful voice for yourself and many others.
Trust yourself and follow your instincts. Align yourself with your purposeful voice.
Remember, it takes courage to speak up, and you are courageous for using your purposeful voice.

Because we are all human beings and not robots, what you say doesn’t always come in the perfect package. And that’s okay. That’s not the point of our voice. Not everything we say will land, be articulated perfectly, all day, every day. We can still try. We can understand that it’s our responsibility to try. To speak, to use our purposeful voice to advocate for ourselves, for others and for greater change.