There is a voice of longing inside every woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good mothers, daughters, partners, employees, citizens, and friends. We believe all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed and underwhelmed. We look at our lives, relationships, and world and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this?  We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful. We hide our simmering discontent — even from ourselves. Until we reach our boiling point.

Four years ago, I reached my boiling point. I was speaking at a conference when a woman entered the room. I looked at her and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded my mind: There She Is. At first, I assumed these words came to me from on high. Soon I realized that they came to me from within.

I was finally hearing my own voice—the voice that had been silenced by decades of cultural conditioning, numbing addictions, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl I had been before the world told me who to be. I vowed to never again abandon myself. I decided to build a life of my own – one based on my individual desire, intuition and imagination. I would reclaim my true, untamed self.

When we quit abandoning ourselves and instead abandon the world’s expectations of us, we become women who can finally look at our lives and recognize: There She Is. My book, UNTAMED, is about how to be brave. Here is what I’ve learned: The braver we are, the luckier we get.

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Glennon Doyle is the author of #1 New York Times bestsellers UNTAMED (a Reese’s Book Club selection) and LOVE WARRIOR (an Oprah’s Book Club selection), as well as the New York Times bestseller CARRY ON, WARRIOR. An activist and thought leader, Glennon is the founder and president of Together Rising, an all-women led nonprofit organization that has revolutionized grassroots philanthropy – raising over $25 Million for women, families, and children in crisis. She lives in Florida with her wife and three children.