Well, hello there. It's Morgan Harper-Nichols here. I'm recording this from my phone.

And if you've been listening this week, you may already know that I'm taking a short break from recording new episodes, but I will be back later this month.

I hope that today's episode meets you right where you are. Thank you so much for tuning in. It's hard to be yourself when you feel like

you have to be interesting to everyone. It's hard to be yourself when you always feel the pressure

to make sure people remember you. It's hard to be yourself when you live in a

world that only seems to reward those whose vulnerability goes viral. It's hard to feel like

you're enough just by yourself. It's hard to feel like you don't need to be something more.

Now there will be moments in life where the best thing to do is to be that shining star.

You will feel a strong stirring inside to burn bright with love and passion for all to see.

But not even the sun shines the brightest for everyone all day.

Here on earth we wait our turn to be under the warm light of day.

Being yourself is not about being everything to everyone all the time.

Being yourself is not about who you can be to the person you really want to like you.

Being yourself is not about being who you think society needs you to be.

Being yourself is about learning how to be right here where you are. Who are you when you're not

working? Who are you when you're not on? Who are you when you don't feel the pressure to keep up with the way you've branded yourself

or presented yourself to the world? Who are you in this very moment? Perhaps the reason that many

of us deal with burnout is because we feel so much pressure to burn bright all the time. We identify

where we feel like we want to belong in

society and then we start the never-ending upkeep process of making sure we can continue to fit in there.

Belonging is beautiful and necessary for survival. And at the same time, in an over-connected world,

we can start to feel like we're doing something wrong if we're not able to give our all everywhere all the time. The process of

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