HEALTH AND WELLNESS FINALLY FREE

FINALLY FREE

by Breanna Phipps

Joanna Whyte Photography: Family Photo

Society as a whole has kept women hidden and silent for generations. Our voice, our passion, our bodies, our beauty, our human rights, our choice of thought, our careers and our lives were controlled by men, kept in secret, chosen for us until now. Until women, one by one, as a collective, began holding men accountable for their actions and taking back control of their lives, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Ending the cycle of control began.

For me, this personal cycle lasted for 26 years. My Story

I was born and raised inside a religious cult in Sherwood Park, Alberta and as you can imagine, the control over women’s lives was rampant. The control was over our bodily anatomy right down to what height of heel we were allowed on our shoes. I lived the way of generations before me, but women everywhere struggle. They suffer the challenges that come with finding their confidence and self-worth as measured by society’s standards that have been engrained for generations.

Three years ago, my husband and I were kicked out of this cult and we started to live, creating a life on the outside. As a woman who was hidden physically, mentally and spiritually, these last three years have been what I describe as a journey, a deconstruction, and a process of reclaiming me; the authentic me.

My Personal Pain

I have conceived, carried and birthed five incredible humans, I witnessed my body endure and survive the immense pain and pressures that childbirth brings. I stood in awe of myself as my body transformed in a short span of nine months, five times over to create and house new humans. Yet here on this journey, this deconstruction of myself, of these layers that have been poured upon me over 26 years, this is the hardest, most incredibly complex, excruciatingly painful thing I have ever done.

Twenty-six years of manipulation, control, abuse, brainwashing, self-hate, doubt, and shame does not disappear as soon as you walk away. Perhaps in many ways, it intensifies as you fight your own thoughts and ingrained mannerisms and you step into a freedom of self that you have never known, lived and experienced before.

Breanna and Peter (Husband)

Taking back control is not easy when confidence is hard to find, when a way of life and rules kept me hidden. My choices, decisions and my steps in life were driven by complete submission to the men in my life. It’s a dayby-day process sometimes inch-by-inch and other times it’s gigantic leaps.

It’s defeating the thoughts in my head when I pull on my pants or wear spaghetti straps, eyeshadow and lipstick. The voices that are screaming at me “you’re a whore and slut” and replace it with the power of “I am worthy, I am strong, I am change, I am love, I am bold but most importantly I AM finally free to be ME.” I’m in Control

I have control over my life, not one person has enough power over me to tell me who and what I can be anymore. This has and continues to change my life. It is showing my knees, thighs and midriff, my shoulders and cleavage, wearing pants and booty shorts, heels higher than three inch and having piercings, tattoos, and painting my nails and colouring my hair. It’s allowing myself to say no, to break the cycle of a “woman’s duty” it’s using my voice and allowing it to be heard and it’s making decisions for myself, by myself, because it’s what I want.

Even beyond the physical and materialistic aspects, reclaiming myself has been powerful. No more so than the deep emotional parts of my life that are evolving as I connect with the truth of who I was always meant to be. The connection to both parts is creating the magic of being, of really being. Be powerful with me, reclaim who and what your truth is and let your confidence shine through, daily. Shower yourself with the love that you deserve, we have one life, aJoannand I am exhausted of allowing others to decide and live it for me, I have taken back control and I want you to do the exact same because when we do, the power that we hold as a collective will change the world, it has already begun.

Breanna Phipps is a woman living free from a religious cult on a personal journey of reclamation. She has reignited her flame of passion for writing on her public blog, telling her life story with her mission to help others navigate their personal suffering of religious trauma to live authentically. A wife and mother of five, living life to the utmost.