DON'T CALL ME STRONG

He said it like a compliment.

“You’re a strong woman.”

But I knew, instantly, it was a projection.

We’d just met. He’d been kind, respectful, intelligent. No manipulative red flags. I was open — not searching, just open and I allowed the conversation. But when those words left his mouth, something crystallised in my body. I’ve been called “strong” my whole life. First daughter. First child. Leader. Maker. Holder of many things. And I am strong but not in the way that’s usually meant.

When people say it like that; “you’re strong”, what they often mean is: “You can handle more. I won’t have to hold much" and that’s not a compliment- that’s a test, a setup, a quiet invitation to perform.

The Myth of the Strong Woman Is a Trap

It sounds empowering. It feels validating. But it’s not truth. It’s expectation dressed in praise.

When someone calls you strong at the outset, it’s not about witnessing your wholeness.

It’s about outsourcing care. About pre-authorising your self-abandonment.

Because the world assumes strong women don’t need softness.

"Strong women don’t break."

"Strong women keep going" — no matter the cost.

But I don’t wear that badge anymore

I don’t need to perform competence to be loved. I don’t need to prove my capacity to be chosen. I don’t carry other people’s projections and call them personality.

So I returned the projection — gently.

I told him, “You’re seeing yourself. You recognise strength in me because it lives in you.”

And I made a mental note, because these moments matter.

They teach you how someone will hold you or not.

Here’s what I know now

We’re all strong when we need to be.

That’s not the question. The real question is — who are you when you’re allowed to be soft?

Who are you when no one is asking you to prove your strength?

To the women tired of being “the strong one” — I see you

You are not here to carry it all. You are not here to manage someone else’s fear of their own fragility. You are not here to keep performing just to feel safe.

You are here to remember. To return. To root into the quiet power beneath performance.

If this speaks to you, you’ll love Call Back Your Power — the Masterclass

This is where we unhook from projections.

Where we stop leaking energy to who the world thinks we should be — and remember who we actually are.

This is about energetic sovereignty.

About returning to the truth that never needed a label.

→ Join the Masterclass: Call Back Your Power

Let’s stop wearing strength like armour.

Let’s live as the whole, radiant beings we are.