This month I want to focus on my health and mental health. With the holidays approaching, I also want to focus on love and joy, and do the little things that make me happy. I want to live slowly and enjoy each of life’s precious moments- I want to be fully present.
Things I can practice to help me:
-Meditation
-Journaling
-Social media break
-Continue going to the chiropractor
-Go to the gym more frequently
-Reading
This month’s Mantra for me: I release and let go of what I cannot control, and I focus on the beauty around me.
Good morning to this beautiful, dark Tuesday morning; I don’t tend to see this side of morning, but I decided over the weekend that I wanted to finally try waking up at 5am. This is something I have been thinking about doing for a while after listening to a few podcasts, and I finally decided to pull the trigger. The main argument that stood out to me was the fact that our morning routine sets us up for the day, and that if we take time to do something for ourselves in the morning, we are more likely to carry that good mood throughout the day. With my current job, my schedule is consistent, but I start at a different time every morning which has made it hard for me to set up a good morning routine. I feel that waking up at 5am is helpful, because I know that regardless of my work schedule for the day, I will have a solid hour of time by myself and that gives me the power to start the day off well.
I keep saying how I want to focus on my health and make good habits, and I am finally taking more steps to do this. Ironically I am listening to Mel Robbins’ most recent podcast episode and she is talking about manifesting, and she said instead of visualizing the end goals, we need to focus on the steps to get there… and that is what I am doing. I find it important to continue to check in with myself and what my goals are, and although I have a few different ones, my mental and physical health are at the foundation of all of them. If you think about it, how will I be able to be a good mom one day if I am physically unwell or mentally unavailable for my child(ren)? How will I ever be an author if I never make time to add writing/reading into my routine? How will I be able to pour out motivation or inspiration if I have not taken the time to fill up my cup? I am the only one who can set myself up for success, and I deserve to have happiness and success in life.
I do want to say that I already feel very happy and successful in life; I get to live with the love of my life, I have a job that I actually like, and I am working hard to unlearn my anxious tendencies in order to continue to move forward and progress in life. I feel very grateful every day for the life that I have, but that doesn’t mean we should stop making goals and thinking about our future. I will say it feels like I finally know the difference between manifesting/planning for the future versus obsessing/stressing over the future. I am finding it easier to let go of the things I cannot control, and I am working hard to stay focused on the things that bring me joy in life. I am the one who is in control of my life, and I get to choose to do what makes me happy. Sometimes it may not be easy, I mean getting up at 5am today was a little rough, but just reminding myself that this is what I want to do makes it a little bit easier. We all deserve to be happy, so make sure you take some time to check in with yourself and start doing the things that will bring you joy!
I wanted to make a post today, because I love the date and I also was able to reconnect with a good friend of mine today! She and I grew up together in the apartment complex that she is currently living in with her husband and sister! It was honestly kind of crazy to go walk through the courtyard where we once rode our bikes, and then over to a huge patch of grass that was once a the pool where I learned how to swim.
In a way it was kind of like a part of our childhood was completely gone, yet there we stood, reminiscing about it all. Honestly it was so nice being able to catch up and talk as if we never stopped, which I already knew would happen. We laughed so much and we just talked about our lives; it’s just amazing how much we’ve grown from those elementary school days. Now we’re adults who work and pay bills and live with our other halves…little me would be so proud of us.
I am honestly excited for tomorrow as I feel it’ll be a productive, yet relaxing day for myself and my boyfriend. I am excited to enjoy breakfast together and then afterwards I’m gonna get my nails redone since I still have my (now super outgrown) spooky nails. I have to get groceries afterwards, but I’m just doing a pickup, because I don’t need that stress in my life tomorrow LOL. I also am hoping to declutter a bit and put up our Christmas decorations! As some meme on the internet said: “you can still enjoy your turkey while looking at a Christmas tree.”
I also don’t care about turkey and Thanksgiving really isn’t my favorite holiday. I have said that before and I thought about doing a “Friends-giving,” but also kind of don’t feel like planning that. I do however want to have a Christmas party this year, I should probably let people know about that soon… another thing to do tomorrow!
I am happy to be feeling more present and self-aware lately, and I am feeling relief from going to the chiropractor as well. I no longer am having that feeling of tightness in my chest, and the neck/shoulder pain is getting better as well. I know I have a lot of work to do, but I am happy with my progress thus far and I am excited to keep moving forward with my healing journey, both mentally and physically.
I woke up early this morning, hours before my alarm and felt the urge to look at my phone and it was 4:56am. Remembering that just yesterday I was telling my parents that there would be a lunal eclipse visible from about 4-6am CST, I decided to get up and go take a look outside.
In my tank top and shorts I walked out to the dining room area and took a gander off the balcony into the dark sky; I saw Orion’s belt immediately and all of the other stars were shining bright. Looking to the right I could see the sky almost looked a reddish-orange, so I decided to take a quick hop outside into the breezy 36 degrees and there to my right I could see the moon!
She was full, and appeared a bit smaller to me than I had seen her prior to sleeping, but still very powerful. I could see how she was like a dark-orange to light orange gradient as the eclipse was happening, and honestly I was so happy that my body decided to wake up and allowed me to witness it.
I didn’t take my phone and even if I did I know the picture wouldn’t have been very good, but I wanted to take a moment of gratitude for how amazing our planet is and how beautiful the world truly is. I am happy I was able to witness that eclipse this morning, and now after getting a couple more hours of sleep, I am off to my chiropractor appointment and then to work.
I hope everyone has a great day ahead! Per some astrological instagram posts, this is an “angry moon,” so just be mindful with your words and try not to take anything personal today.
Today marks a new moon which is a perfect time to get re-aligned and re-focused on intentions. I will be writing mine for the month here in this post. Feel free to comment your own or even make your own post about it! I find it important to check in with myself and make sure I am focusing on what I really want in life and making progress towards my goals; with that being said, here are my intentions:
-I want to be intentional with my words. Less over-sharing, and more coming from an authentic, honest place. I will no longer silence myself when something is bothering me, rather I will pause to reflect, and then do my best to communicate my feelings and set boundaries.
-I want make healthier choices when it comes to food. I know I don’t do well with strict diets, nor is that something I want to do, but in general I want to pause before I make decisions about food and make sure I am checking in with myself on if that is something I truly want to eat. Granted, I know my taste buds have strong arguments, but I also know gut health is linked to mental health, and I am trying to feel healthy overall.
-I want to write more on The Unsealed and continue building my writing Instagram. I know I have been writing more, but I want to get more consistent and stay focused on the goal: future author. I know this will be a rough project, going through pulling out old memories and old traumas, but I believe the whole writing process will be not only healing for me, but I hope it helps the reader feel less alone and more empowered.
As I sit at my kitchen table with my chamomile tea, and I listen to Taylor Swift’s new album “Midnights” for the first time, I am feeling both nostalgic, yet very present in this moment. I can think back listening to her album “Speak Now” and how I felt when listening to certain songs. The crush when listening to “Enchanted,” the new crush fantasizing about acting out her song “Speak now,” but now looking at my life in this present moment and it being better than I could have dreamt.
I live with the love of my life in the beautiful townhome that we bought together, we both have jobs that allow us to pay our bills, save, and still enjoy our lives. I have been able to get the help I needed for my mental health, and I am enjoying the healing journey every day. Although I still have rough days (I did just recently), I am much more confident, and I see myself so differently than I did before. It honestly breaks my heart to look back and think about how much I hated myself and my brain. I would constantly fight back against the anxiety and take out my frustrations on the one I loved the most. I had so much anxiety around money and my control issues were overtaking me, and instead of letting that be my life, I recognized that I didn’t have to feel like that for the rest of my life.
I feel so blessed that I have the ability to afford going to therapy, and I am also glad I was able to try different medications that helped to calm down my brain enough to allow me to do the work. Now don’t get me wrong, I am still doing the work every single day. We are human beings with emotions and outside events that can impact our personal worlds, and it is completely normal to have bad days; what I find important is that we try to remember how we strong we truly are in those moments. We have gotten to this very moment, which means all of those times where we thought our world was ending, or we were never going to get through that rough time, we were wrong- we can truly make it through everything.
I still have times where I struggle with stressing over to-do lists, and I still get overwhelmed when I have more than one event/large task in a day. I still have to work on communicating my thoughts and accepting the fact that not everything I say will always be received well by everybody. I still have to constantly check-in with myself and see if I am in alignment with what I want to be, and if I am honest, I still do things that I know I don’t want to be doing! I still eat unhealthy food, and I don’t have a consistent writing or workout schedule, but I am still getting up every day and working toward a healthier future for myself, and I know that I will develop these habits with time. I am just proud that I have been able to learn how to give myself grace along the way, and I am slowly getting better at not beating myself up. I catch myself in negative self-talk, and I remind myself that I am human.
I am blessed to have a life partner who has been so patient and supportive along the way. I have a love I have always dreamed of, and I am so happy that our future children will grow up in a home where they can see true love and respect. Considering the home environment I grew up in, I feel even more lucky to have the relationship I have today. We have mutual respect for one another, we support one another’s goals and always try to see where the other person is coming from. I love how well we communicate, and how our love has only grown stronger over the last eleven years. We make sure that we are growing together and still focused on our future together, because we both want this forever.
I am grateful to have good friends in my life who are supportive and always cheering me on. I am very lucky to have a few close friends who I know will always listen to me and not judge me. I also am grateful for the fact that they all understand that I won’t always want to hang out, but that it is nothing personal, I just love my alone time and often feel like I need it. I feel like I have many good people in my life and I do my best to make sure they know I love them. Life is short, and it is important to tell the people you love that you love them.
Overall, I am thankful for the life that I have today at 27. I feel like I am finally living my life for myself, and not for those around me. I feel like I have broken away from my people-pleasing habit, although I know I still have to work on speaking my mind even if it may cause a disagreement, but I am accepting of the fact that my healing is life-long, and that I get to choose how I view my life. I can choose to see all of the negative and go back to self-destructive patterns, or I can continue to focus on my goals and give myself grace along the way to them. I am proud of the woman I am today, and I am happy to be here writing this tonight as I enjoy this new Taylor Swift album. I appreciate all who read this far, and I hope you too are giving yourself grace in your journey of life.
I’d like to take this time to just write about a few things that I am grateful for in my life. I think that it’s important that we take time out to focus on what is going well in our lives. If we are constantly waiting for the next thing or thinking we won’t be happy until certain goals are reached, then we are delaying our own happiness. I prefer to be happy, and practicing gratitude helps me with this. If you can, take some time to write down at least three things you’re grateful for right now!
I’ll start:
• I am so very grateful for the relationship that I have with my boyfriend. I am blessed to be with a man who is respectful, intelligent, hard-working, and who makes me feel safe and loved. I have seen many unhealthy relationships in my life, and I feel so lucky to have such a happy, healthy relationship with him. We always make sure to appreciate one another and we have learned how to communicate well with one another over the past 11 years, and for that I am grateful.
• I am thankful for books/podcasts. I recently got into podcasts this year, and also started reading more books about self-care and healing. I honestly have learned so much from these brilliant authors/podcasters and in a way I almost feel like they have helped me more than therapy has. I think just because I don’t get to see my therapy as often as I’d like, but during times when I feel like I need her, I can throw on Jay Shetty or Dr. Nicole LePara (aka The Holistic Psychologist) and feel like they’re talking right to me! Unfortunately, not many people have access to therapy, but most people have access to books and podcasts, and for that I am grateful.
• I am thankful for the act of writing/journaling. I always enjoyed writing as a kid, and after a recent zoom interview with some members of the writing community I am in, I think I realized why. The founder of the community said there are studies showing how writing/journaling can be as beneficial as therapy! I can honestly say when I take time to write, I always feel better afterwards. As a child, it was my way to release and escape from the chaos inside my house and myself, and now I am planning on writing a book. I love writing in my blog, as well as writing poetry, and I would love to write a self-love book one day. I am grateful for right to write and for the skills I have and will continue to develop.
finding light in the dark 