Loving Yourself

Good morning/afternoon/evening or whenever else you might be reading this,

I’m happy you have joined me to talk about Loving Yourself. 

Loving yourself can be a hard thing to do, especially if you aren’t happy about something; looks, weight, skin, attitude, outlook on life, etc. there are a couple steps you should take to reach the point of full self love. So let’s get started!

Approach the problem

No matter what it is that’s keepin you from loving yourself fully, it can be dealt with. I’ll use myself as an example, I’ve never been happy with my weight. I use to be extremely overweight and now I’m at a healthy weight, but still, I find myself nit-picking at the smallest of details. So what do I do? I look at what I’ve accomplished. I look at myself in the mirror and say “you’ve lost 80lbs, 80lbs! That’s incredible. You’re incredible. You have such beauty, drive, and ambition. You can achieve anything you set your mind to.” Once I do this, I find myself happier, and prouder than when I first approached the mirror. Once you can achieve this, you’re ready for the next step…

Create a solution

Every problem needs a solution, even though you are able to figure out the problem and fix it temporarily, you’ll still have times of doubt. So let’s find an answer. Again, I’ll be an example; I’ve decided to lose an extra 30lbs before my wedding, next year. I’m not just losing the weight for the wedding, but for myself, my health. The healthier your body is, the healthier your mind will be, and everything else will follow. So find your solution, make it a goal, like mine, a year to lose 30lbs. 

How are you going to tackle it?

Okay, you have your answer, now how are you going to get the the finish line? It’s like, you can’t just sign up for a marathon and run to the end, you have to train, prepare, practice… for me, I’m working out more, eating healthier, and practicing healthier life decisions both in relationships and mentally for myself. Every step you take to achieve your goal gets you one step closer to self love and contentment. 

You’re here. 

You’ve made it, you’ve created your plan, and maybe already executed it if it was a short term goal path. Either way, you’re headed in the right direction. You are being the best version of yourself and making the world a better place. The happier you are with yourself, the happier you will be with others, and then others will be happier with even more people. We can be a world of happy. But it starts with fully loving yourself. Being able to stand firm in who you are, and not be shaken down by stereotypes or fads. You have all the power in the world, so will you take it? Will you allow yourself to be in charge of your world? Why not….

Honor Yourself & Your Choices

Living in today’s societies, being true to yourself can be harder than you think. Even though you think you’re doing what is best for you, the more you focus on who you truly are, you’ll start to see they may be different. 

Honor Yourself

You are one in a 7.442 billion, literally. Your opinion and values matter. Decide what they are, and stand by them. Nothing it’s worse than someone who changes what they think with the seasons. Do your research, gain experience, gain wisdom. The more you experience, the more you know, the more you’ll grow. 

I’ll be an example, I recently deleted all my social media apps except my blog, obviously, and Facebook. The more I thought about it, the more free time I had. I was finding myself doing things for me. I started cooking more, working out more, going out more. I became this whole other person, I started to find myself. 

I discovered a lot of things, I knew most of them like my stubbornness, my drive, my independence. I was able to see who I really was, an adventurer, a realist, an over achiever.  But I also learned more about other people. I was able to look at how they were on social media, and them in their real lives. People can lead a whole different life on social media. I think seeing that, being open to seeing that, allowed me to put myself in check. I didn’t want to be anything other than who I truly was, all the time, anywhere. 

My point is, find yourself, and then honor yourself. I choose each day to honor my truest thoughts. I believe in healthy relationships, genuineness, health, and above all; honesty. Honesty can be between you an yourself, or you and others; either way, it’s important to be truthful with everyone. 

Honor Your Choices

Your choices make you who you are. Each day you are given circumstances, decisions, those reflect upon you. People will remember what you said, what you did, what you have done. Live by those choices with pride, not regret. 

Honor Yourself, you’ll live a happier, healthier, and more honest life. 

What it’s Like Living With GAD

Hello everyone, if you don’t know what GAD is, I’m here to tell you all about it. GAD is General Anxiety Disorder. GAD is a lot more common than you think, affecting 6.8 million adults (3.1% of the U.S. Poputlation) 

GAD is defined by “excessive, exaggerated anxiety and worry about everyday life events with no obvious reason to worry.” That’s like, my life definition, it’s sad. 

GAD can be caused by a variety of thing, in my case, genetics. It goes back to my grandmother, then mother, and now…me. I can say my GAD symptoms didn’t start until I was 17. I started getting really stressed about college, making my own life, etc. and from there, it just sky rocketed. 

Each day I find myself anxious at least 5-8 times, easy. It can be over anything, a job, an assignment, a meal choice. I’m not kidding, I can get the worst anxiety over the littlest things. I recently just applied to a job in which I had to write a blog post within an hour. I about passed out. I was shaking the w.h.o.l.e time. And after I submitted it, not even being able to review it (it was timed) I about threw up. This happens with EVERYTHING. 

I mainly get feelings of nausea, tingling, and discomfort. I’ve almost passed out before, it was scary. My body can feel so drained from just worrying. It can be a hard thing to live with, and living with it everyday, that’s a workout. 

I’ve even hurt relationships before with my anxiety. My fiancé has had to sit me down and talk things out to let me know it’s going to be okay, over a silly little fight… anxiety can make the world seem like it’s falling apart over nothing. 

I don’t take any medication for anxiety, although I do give credit to exercise. It helps to calm me down and get the blood flowing evenly through my body, gets my mind off things. But if I can exercise, well… I’m screwed. I’ve tried mental techniques but I’m such an organized person that I can just ignore thoughts. I HAVE to indulge them. I can’t help it. 

As a reader, understand that this is only part of MY struggle with anxiety. Each person handles things differently, and can experience things at different spectrums. Always be informed as an individual in society; we are all different. 

Why the Scale Doesn’t Matter

Hey guys, today I wanted to get real with you on a subject all of us, well most all, stuggle with. 

The scale. 

The dreaded scale. I really don’t know what can be worse than that thing. It can give you nightmares. I’ve found myself SHOCKED at the number I saw pop up. I could be doing everything right, even losing inches, and my weight goes up! What a jerk you, scale. 

But here is the thing, get rid of it. I mean it, stash it away for a rainy day when you really want to know your ‘weight.’

If you’re in the process of losing weight, maintaining, or gaining weight, the easiest way to see the truth is through measurements. I’m serious! Here is what I do….

Every Monday, each week, as soon as I get up, I measure myself.

• Chest
• Arms
• Legs 
• Waist (above the hips)
• Tummy (right at your belly button) 

Each Monday I record these measurements on a sheet of paper, and each week I can see what has changed and what hasn’t. The thing is, naturally, your body fluctuates in weight. Water weight, whether you’ve used the bathroom, etc. But when it comes to taking measurements, especially right when you wake up, you’ll have some of the best results (that are in line with your true body size)

So here is the thing, try it. I know that scale is tempting to get on, even the slightest loseness in your pants makes you want to see what number you’re at. But try it, for a month, don’t take your weight. Do measurements! You’ll be even more shocked to see the inches change. It’s a tangible sheet that can show your progress over any period of time. It’s something you can be proud of! Just because you go down in inches/fat, your weight can stay the same or even increase. 

Anxiety Disorders

Hey everyone! I wanted to get a little more technical today and talk about the many different kinds of anxiety disorders. Now I’m not a doctor, but I have done some research! There are roughly 6 types of anxiety disorders: GAD, OCD, Panic Disorders, Phobias, PTSD and Social Anxiety Disorder. 

Here are some general facts about Anxiety Disorders: Anxiety Disorders are one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States, about 42.5 million adults suffer from a type of Anxiety Disorder. 

Story Time: I haven’t ever been diagnosed, but from family history, a lot of my family (my grandparents, and closest relative, mother) suffer from GAD. GAD is ‘general anxiety disorder.’ Basically you worry about anything and everything in your day to day life. Mine gets so bad that I even worry about my daily activities 5 years from now when I have no idea what they will be. I live in a different town than my fiancé, so I get daily visions of him getting into car accidents and almost set off in a panic attack even though nothing happens. 

Moving on, the point of this blog post is to inform people of something that many people suffer from, to give them a better understanding of how to handle different situations if put into. One of the best ways to help treat anxiety disorders is anxiety medicine. But if you’re like me, I try to stay away from anything until it gets to serious for me to handle on my own. So what I do to help with anxiety attacks is to count to 10, and imagine something better. Imagine something I’ve always wanted to experience, something that can completely take my subconscious mind on a detailed journey so it can ONLY focus on what I want it to, not what I’m anxious over. If that doesn’t work, I got for a walk/run, listen to music, or go find someone to talk to. Or, the best thing, go love on my pup Remy 

Look at that face, how can that not make someone feel better. 

So enjoy your day folks, become aware of what other people may experience in their life and have empathy. 

If you would like to know more about the 6 types of Mental Disorders I listed above, feel free to check out Mental Health America/ Anxiety Disorders! 
Madison 
Data and facts from: Mental Health America

Cover Photo Credit: Anxiety Attack

Body Positivity?

There is this awesome campaign that came out a couple years ago to promote body positivity, to help women/men alike feel confident in who they are. But I find now a days it’s a way for overweight people to excuse their unhealthy habits. I think what the campaign stands for it greats; everyone should feel comfortable with who they are, but while living and following a healthy diet/lifestyle. 

We should NEVER compromise our health, especially through excuses. If you’re overweight and you feel confident in who you are… great! But that doesn’t set aside the fact your overweight. Be good to your body, not just your mental state. You should never want to promote unhealthy confidence over a healthy lifestyle. 

And you can do both! You can be overweight, on a fitness/health journey towards becoming the healthiest version of yourself and have body confidence! The key factor is you are keeping your focus on health/fitness. 

I know many people who use this campaign to set aside struggles they face each day, and that doesn’t make it right. At some point you have to face what you feel, and that’s the fact something needs to change. 

You’re body doesn’t define you, what’s inside does. Your goals, aspirations, drive, and personality are all factors of who you are and what you hope to become. Don’t set aside what you really want to try to feel comfortable with what you are now. It takes more time trying to be comfortable with something your uncomfortable with than making the change in the beginning. So just do it.

Body positivity is all about being comfortable on your own skin, while living out a healthy lifestyle. Don’t get caught up in how other people make the movement seem to be, know what’s right for you and your body. 

The Power of the Mental Mind

I think a lot of times people can underestimate just how powerful the human mind is. Whether you are battling a mental disorder, maybe pushing your body to its limits and there for need a tough mental state along with that, or you are realizing something for yourself, the human mind is powerful. 

There was once instance in particular that to this day, I still have to battle mentally with my mind because it wants to believe something is true. 

One night, I was playing a game with some people, it was my turn to read off the trivial question and I couldn’t pronounce the name on the card. Now let me tell you, it was some Egyptian Goddess whose name was 18-19 letters long, it’s nothing I’ve ever heard (hints why it was a TRIVIA question.) So I tried pronouncing it, three or four different ways, and then something happened. Something that I didn’t expect, something I hope wasn’t meant to be hurtful, but shattered my self confidence. One player yelled at the top of their lungs “ARE YOU DYSLEXIC OR SOMETHING OMG COME ON!” I was blown away…. I come from an environment where you don’t EVER say anything like that, even if your kidding. I’m not kidding you, it was like I felt my heart drop, I was so embarrassed. So, from there, no matter what I would say or read, the thoughts ‘are you dyslexic?’ Kept running around in my head. Well, that screwed me up, because now, to this day, over a year later, I have problems getting my words out, reading aloud, and struggling with self confidence issues. I’m not dyslexic, I’m 20 years old, I’ve never EVER had problems communicating my ideas and thoughts, until that night. My brain is now so nervous to mess up again, to pronounce something wrong, to say something out of order that it just does it by accident now. Because it’s all I think about subconsciously, it just happenes. I now have problems gettting some sentences put, even though before I could spit out a whole book in a second without making a single mistake! 

My brain was so effected by that comment, so hurt, that it literally thinks I’m dyslexic. That because that person said that, it must be true. Even though I know, for myself that I’m not, I just can’t shake that thought. 

The moral is, watch what you say, even if it’s a joke, if it isn’t necessary to say, then don’t say it. Don’t ever knowingly do something that could hurt someone, even if you don’t think saying/doing it is that bad. Everyone takes things differently. Breaking by down that mental barrier can be easy, but building it back up…. that’s the hard part.