Ask, Believe, Receive! Oh, And Say Thank You!

One of my main goals this year is to work on SELF, my mind needed a major overhaul so I have been consistently day in and day out working on myself. I've been feeling great and I have seen vast improvements when it comes to my state of mind. I'm more open and happy, a little less shy and a lot less selfish. For the most part things have been great. I've been asking, believing and receiving the things in life I've been wanting. Last week I was in a major funk and I still am to be quite honest, but I realized in all my funkiness that I haven't thanked God in a long time. I do my usual memorized prayer every night that gives thanks to God for my family, friends and life, but I haven't taken the time out to really thank Him for the little things in my life.

Last week I was mad at the world, everything and everybody was pissing me off for no reason. I had to take a major step back to breathe and count my blessings. Was what I'm upset about really that serious? Does it take away from everything else that is beautiful in my life? The answer is no.

When things are going really well in our lives we tend to forget what it was like when life wasn't so good. I've been so happy and I never stopped to say thanks for all the new-found happiness I've been receiving. I stopped praying and I stopped thanking. Maybe, my nasty mood was the devil trying to bring me down or maybe it was God trying to pull me up. He's pulled me up so far when I asked him to and now that I'm closer to the top, I tend to forget what the bottom feels like. I forgot the anger and hurt I was holding onto for years, I forgot what it felt like to feel lonely, I forgot what it was like to be broke, I forgot what it was like to be rejected. And all of those feelings came down on me at one time and I couldn't handle it. 

Instead of figuring out those feeling I lashed out then crawled back inside of my shell where it's safe. That's not where I want to be at all so I had to decide if it was bad enough that I had to derail my progress because of it. Instead of starting over from 21 and being depressed, my 26 year old self decided to be grateful. I spent the day thinking of things that I'm grateful for; the trees, my dog, my family, my friends, my car, my job, my skin, my hair, my life! Even though I'm not where I want to be and things don't always go my way, I have to keep my eyes open to the good around me otherwise I'm going to miss out. 

Take the time to be grateful and thank God (or whatever higher power you believe in) every single day for everything about your life. If you woke up today, you are better off than a lot of people. Everyday is a gift and we must rejoice and be glad about it. Your problems will fade away once you focus your energy on all things positive. Instead of spending your days complaining about your problems, invest your energy in saying thank you for the good that you do have in your life and you will get more of it...PROMISE. 

-Namaste

A Woman's Journey (my perspective)

I believe the most important part of a woman's life is the moment when she begins to fall in love with herself. No matter how many people told you that you were attractive or even if you were the most popular girl in school just off looks alone; when you're a young girl you're terribly insecure. You're deathly afraid of you're own image. The pressure to be beautiful kicks in because you're growing up knowing that one day you will have to compete for a husband. In order to make it through life as a halfway decent woman you'll need to someone to love you and to want to take care of you. That right there will turn to a innocent child into a terrified confused teenager. Then by the time we are all wanting to die because we can't figure out how to look like the next girl, we go through a phase. Some will chase men and sleep around, some will shy away from boys completely, some will involve themselves with the wrong men, while others find comfort in a long term boyfriends and will be terrified to be alone. We will all place ourselves somewhere we don't really want to be, and we think the next girl has it good when in reality all of us are messed up.

After the terrible teen years pass we become little women between the ages 20-25 and the pressure is on to find a mate to make our happy home with. You know, the one with the white picket fence. Our deepest prayers are that the next guy is the last guy, that we could end the game of "he's not the one". We've all heard the rumor that our stock begins to plummet at 25 and no one wants to have kids with a woman over 30....so this is it. We must find him in the next few years or we will fail the life's work of a woman. Every man we meet becomes a target, we look him in the eyes and our minds wonder what our life would be like together before we even find out his name. Some of us find him and will be scratched from single woman existence and disappear into a different world. Then there are some of us who would do anything for a husband and will pick the first bidder. Trying to turn every man we meet into the one and subscribe to Bride magazine while we're still single.There are some girls who replace love with partying and/or careers, occupying the time until Mr. Right arrives; praying that we can find fulfillment without a ring. These years are the worst for all the girls because we want the life on the other side, we think the grass greener no matter whose yard we're standing in. We try new looks, personalities and friends; we can't seem to hold onto anything. These years are dark and scary, nothing makes sense.

Soon after that you began to look back and study yourself from the outside, reminiscing of the girl you used to be. You stop being mad at her for doing certain things because you realize she was just a kid. In those moments she only got to see one side of every problem she faced; which didn't give her a fair advantage of how to win each battle. You see now that she reacted that way because that's all she knew how to do in that moment. You feel sorry for all the bad things she went through so you nurture her wounds and begin to love her. You forgive her for not appreciating her beauty back then, she didn't realize she was one of a kind. She will love her body as a woman because you love her so much you decided to take care of it for her. You let her heal and you let her grow. You tell her to stop being afraid because you've already gotten so far and it's just going to get better. The mistakes she made back then are no longer mistakes, they are lessons. You no longer look for love in the wrong places and you no longer have to run from it either, because you found the love within yourself. You realize that you are enough. This is the best part of becoming a woman, the moment you realize when it's happening.