About a year ago, the second book in the A Life With A View Series, Inspiring Creative Passion was released. It took almost a year to finish writing the book, editing, re-writes and my new book was finally released. Thinking back to this time I think about where I was emotionally, mentally, spiritually. I was ready to publish my second book in the A Life With A View Seriesand I had so much to say and so much more to do. I thought about the things I wanted to share, things I was afraid to share, and all the things I held back on sharing in my first book. How did I know I held back in my first book? Well, for one I knew in my heart I could not share everything I was feeling or going through for fear of being judged and two, one of my readers told me she could tell I was holding back. Wow! I thought if she could see that I was holding back then I am quite sure others could too.
So with the second book, back to the long nights of writing, re-writes and edits. I wanted this second book to be my sophomore success and a deeper dive into the values I hold close to dear: faith, love, happiness, friendship, honesty, trust. I also wanted to be an example to my kids and show them that they can do whatever they put their minds to and the things they go through are life lessons and can be used as building blocks to get to where you want to be.
So how did we get here? Well, about a two years ago I moved to a new website platform and it was a must for me branch out a little more and come from behind the keyboard. The old blog was nice, but I needed a fresh perspective and I wanted to take A Life With A View in the direction I have dreamed of for several years. Writing inspirational posts, books, products filled with inspiration and tell a story - this is where I wanted to go for myself and for my readers and people connected to me and even for those who I hadn't met yet.
I have faith that when you read Inspiring Creative Passion you want to grab your tea, coffee, wine, or other favorite beverage and sit down to read like we are having a conversation. You will laugh, you will cry, you will see yourself in the stories of fear, triumph, getting brand new, and moving forward with positive affirmations that you can take with you along the way.
Inspiring Creative Passion has already been on the road and this is so amazing to me and not what I planned. I do believe this is God's plan and after traveling to New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida, I realized I have some work to do to continue spreading a positive message and meeting, talking and connecting with people. To date, I have met some amazing people who are interested in me; a girl from New Jersey with a dream, a pen, one piece a paper and a name - A Life With A View.
My dream is to touch and help at least one person and they share the message and this keeps going. In order to do this, I had to put myself out there a little more and stop hiding. Although I am outgoing, I tend to be a little shy and reserved and second guess myself. The only way to get through this is to write more, write confidently, write strong. Maybe pushing the envelope in my writing is key? Maybe stop being afraid of what to say or not to say? I do believe we hinder ourselves and I was doing this too.
Well, I know I still have some growing to do and this is why A Life With A View is a series and I hope to get better and better at writing and storytelling to help others do the same whether in writing, expressing themselves through poetry, short stories, long stories, and even through speaking and spoken word. We can do this; and do this together. Do not hide your gifts even if you need time to share them. It is ok to share them little by little; even if in a series.
Change can come in many forms and I used to be afraid to embrace what change had to offer - whether good or bad. When I first set out on this blogging journey almost 5 years ago, I often wondered who would read this stuff? I had to first embrace the change I was going through and face those changes with confidence. I did of course what was comfortable for me; and that was writing. Digging up old writings, embracing new content and some of my writing content would pop into my head. Letting it flow was key for me and also not trying to be someone else or write like anyone and to just be me.
This is part of the reason why and how A Life With A View was born. We are now two books in and several blog posts into this journey. The first book, A Life With A View released in January 2015 focused on faith, love, happiness and friendship and it is a collection of my early writings and blog posts. The second book, Inspiring Creative Passion released in September 2017 is a deeper dive into faith, love, happiness and friendship and also focuses more on self-care and inspiration.
What else is A Life With A View? Well, we are a movement, a safe space for readers to connect with people who want and need to hear positive words and affirmations to get them through every day life. We also have a Shopwhich has the books as well as t-shirts, mugs, and pens to inspire your journey.
This all began with a blog over on another platform and we eventually outgrew the old platform and moved to something more dynamic. I am so excited to have you along and I hope you continue to take a look around and check out what A Life With A View has to offer. This is not only a blog, book, or a shop – but also a portal for joining some great discussions on inspirational topics as well as a little inspiration delivered right to your Inbox.
For the first three years in this space, I would blog a little here and a little there and then I dabbled in some other things. When A Life With A View the book was born, I began to take change more seriously and I wanted to share more - even beyond what I was sharing with my audience in weekly social media posts. I have had this itch and the urge to do more; being more personal with my readers and connect with people who are doing similar things and making a great impact.
This all spells Change. I was so afraid at first. Afraid of putting myself out there. Afraid of not being heard or liked. Afraid of not being accepted. I was fearful of what people would think and did I say “putting myself out there” already? Oh yes, I certainly did. Over the last two years I have joined several writing groups and connected with people who are making an impact in their writing and in their every day lives. Initially I had a ways to go to become consistent and get familiar with the tools and resources in people, social media and most importantly, reading. The last two Summers, I signed up and attended online Webinars, participated in Writing Challenges and in-person events and I completed a writing challenge for my readers where I encouraged the participants to tap into their creative energy and find their creative spark.
I hope you stay around a while and check things out! Let’s get connected and don’t forget to subscribe and join the discussions right here on the blog. Have an idea? Is there anything you want to see from A Life With A View? Connect with me via email and through my social media outlets. I would love to hear from you!
Last, but not least - love yourself always and continue to love strong and with confidence. I say last but not least since I feel I have saved the best for last since love is the foundation for all things. A lot of times we blame love for the best and worst of things which happen in life. Sometimes it is warranted and other times, not so much.
With love being the foundation, I thought it very appropriate to have love round out our Inspiring Creative Passion writing challenge! Yes, a week late but we are still here or should I say I am still here. You may be ahead of me since I had a slight setback falling ill leading up to the last week in December 2017. Imagine that - all the excitement and me getting sick. I think it was time for me to slow down and show myself a little love.
When I think about love, I think about it as the foundation to everything in life. Without love, we would not be here and I could not do what I love to do - helping others, writing, inspiring myself and others to be their very best. There was a point in my life where love escaped me, disappointed me - so I thought. I blamed love for everything that was going on in my life a few years ago. I loved too hard, too strong, too weak - I said all of those things to myself. The mistakes I made I blamed them on love and me not facing and seeing things as they were. I learned to stop discounting love; running from it and I realized that love was not always pretty. We have to sometimes do things out of love which may not be popular in everyone else's eyes. This is the strong part of love - sticking with your stance when it comes to deciding what is best for you.
Loving with confidence comes from within and takes time to build especially when you feel afraid to make decisions which benefit you the most. I know all too well about this. How did I overcome this? Well, it is still a work in progress - loving with confidence but it started with loving myself.
You can love strong and love with confidence but if you do not love yourself, you will not get very far. I know first hand and the first thing I had to do was to dig deep to see what made me happy first. Did I want to continue in a relationship where I was not being loved? What about a job or a career which felt overwhelming or unfulfilled? I had more questions than answers when it came to loving myself. One thing I knew for sure was that change was needed and it needed to come quickly.
Here are three things I did to make sure love remained as the foundation in my life:
Take care of myself and invest in my mental health
Letting go of past hurt and pain - although not easy, I prayed and asked for help when feeling down
Showing love and loving others how I wanted to be loved
Number 3 was very hard at first. The interesting thing is once I started showing love and putting the positive vibes out there with love as the forefront, I saw my life change in positive ways. I no longer felt sorry for myself and bad about situations which did not work out. Maybe it wasn't meant to be and that is ok. I have enjoyed loving strong and more confidently and most of all, loving myself.
I talk more about love as a foundation which keeps you whole in my book, Inspiring Creative Passion. Learn more about the Inspiring Creative Passion movement and click the button below to purchase.
This new year certainly snuck up on me while trying to organize my thoughts in writing. Here we are at 2018 and instead of thinking about all of the things I wanted to do or didn't get done in 2017, I decided to focus on the year head and reflect on my wins. This post is part of the Inspiring Creative Passion Writing Challenge that I started last year and was hoping to finish. But, guess what? I had to take a break for some self-care.
Before I knew it, we were in mid-December 2017 and realized I had a lot of leave left to take from my full-time job. Even when I would take off from work I would still check emails, log in, follow up on tasks and this would eat back into the leave I needed to take. Although I took off for 5 days and headed to Miami in early December, I found out I still needed time and my body was telling me to take a break. Did I bite off more than I could chew? Sure I did and I was feeling it.
The "it" for me was the overwhelming feeling of doing too much and still feeling like I was not doing enough. Then I had to think about it - didn't I write a blog post or two or even an eBook about this? This is a lesson in practicing what you preach. In order for me to be whole, I had to practice my own advice and also look to many others who have written books, articles, and blog posts about self-care and the benefits.
When you set out to do everything under the sun whether it is working, writing, pleasing others, taking care of other people - you eventually burn out. I learned about taking care of myself (again) at the start of the new year when I was down for the count and did not have the energy to write. So here I am back, all self-cared up, and in the swing of things. In my self-care eBook which you can grab for Free by clicking the button below, I list 10 ways for you to help yourself to your own self-care. For now and for this post, I list 5 ways to get you started right now and you can grab the Free eBook for the rest:
Choose a word or phrase to start your self-care journey
Surround yourself with people who inspire and encourage you
Choose at least one day a week to dedicate to your self-care routine
Set aside time do something you love; we excel at what we love to do
Remove anything negative from your thoughts to free your mind to continue on your self-care journey
How do you practice self-care? I would love to hear your tips also to share with our community. Don't forget to click the button below to download your free self-care eBook!
Here we are...in the middle of the holiday season, the rush, and the change of seasons in many areas around the world. While writing this post and thinking of the season, of course for me the first thing which comes to mind is Christmas, followed by the New Year which is exactly two weeks away. When I put it like this, I instantly feel the rush to get things done, make improvements in my life, and begin to plan what I would like to accomplish for the coming year.
Well, that was certainly a mouthful, huh? Now if it could only be that easy, right? It certainly sounds good. :) I write and speak a lot about life's challenges and how to get through them. There was a point in my life when I only wanted to embrace the good things not face the bad or challenging things. More energy was put into making things look and feel good around me so there were times when I did not face or embrace my season of change and when it hit, it hit hard and fast.
Sure, I would love to have everything all planned out, in order, labeled, fixed, duct-taped and everything else. But, I now know as I approach my 46th birthday in two weeks that there is a reason for the season; a reason for change, and more reason to embrace it. I was sitting at the cusp of change six years ago around this same time wondering what I would do over the next few weeks, months, and years to come. It was at this point six years ago when my husband and I decided to separate and he moved out of our home just after the new year in 2012. At this time, I was approaching my 40th birthday and thinking to myself: "What would I do with two young children, on my own from day-to-day?" Facing this time in my life was certainly the toughest season from what I can remember besides the passing of my father in 2010.
Embracing this season of change was certainly not easy and I had to face many things which I did not want to come to grips with. One of the things I had to face was telling everyone my story; even my closest friends who had no idea what was going on until January 2012. So here we are, almost in January of 2018 and because you asked, yes - my birthday is January 2. As I approach my 46th birthday, I am so excited and filled with purpose and passion. I do not think I would be where I am today if I did not embrace and face the challenges met over the years. As the title of the post states rest, relaxation, and renewal - I must tell you where I am now six years later:
Rest: After the dust settled in 2012, I carved out one evening each week to rest and be still. This is hard for me since I love to be on the go and my kids love being on the go also with their activities.
Relaxation: Yes, this is a bit different from rest as I consider this time to be an extended period where you take vacation whether from work or other activities. Usually for me this is around the holidays where I take about two weeks off from work and continue to spend time doing everything I love.
Renewal: Part of renewal for me is forgiveness. I was holding onto so much although smiling on the outside. I took some time to repair myself, forgive what was done to me, and take ownership of my mistakes also. I am in a much better, renewed place.
Where am I today? I must share with you I recently realized what I was going through has lifted a bit, or a lot I should say. Time definitely heals (and a little vacation too!...future post coming!) I have been more confident in doing the things I love and also not being so quick to judge others based on what I would do. Yes, this is a weakness of mine. I am learning to meet people where they are and not where I think they should be. As of now, I continue to practice what I preach and my ex-husband and I are in a better place where we co-parent well and communicate much better. There are days when things aren't perfect and just knowing that I am happy and the kids are happy and doing well is plenty for me.
How are you embracing your season of change? Share in the comments, write in your journal, and tell a friend. We can all use advice, tips, and best practices in this area. For more on my story, I have shared many posts here on the blog and also in my books which you can find by clicking here. I encourage you to share your story too since you never know who is waiting for you to lead the way.
Can you believe we are half way through this writing challenge? How are you coming along? Ironically, this week's topic focuses on writing the words you are inspired by. When I sat down to think about what to write, I didn't have to think too hard as I know I can be very wordy at times. (so they tell me!) This is one of those easy topics for me where other topics, the words do not come so easily.
In my writing, I strive to write with more confidence while being intentional with my words or phrases. This can be a tough balance and the more I write the more I continue to work towards this goal. What about you? What words inspire you to write; or better yet - to follow your dreams and goals?
I remember so vividly now 4.5 years ago how I struggled to write my very first blog post. I was thinking way too much and not focusing on being my natural self. Writing for me has not always been easy but I have always had it in me to share my words and my story on paper. Even when I was down and had to claw my way out of being depressed and sad because of what life dealt to me, words, positive words got me restarted and charged up to keep pushing.
Think about a situation in your life or something that significantly changed you forever or even for a period of time. We can all identify with something that changed us and for me I had to get my words together and out of my head. This is where A Life With A View was born. Ten words which mean the world to me and I have been able to build my writing and my books around these words: Faith, Love, Happiness, Friendship, Trust, Integrity, Honesty, Respect, Openness, Acceptance.
With over four years of blog posts and two books, I have remained inspired to keep writing and those words are now phrases which became my inspiration to keep going. For you, try with one or two words and then grow to three or four. Why ten words for me? I had been holding back for so long and I had lots to say well before 2013 when this blog was started. I would say don't wait a long time - get it out in the open whether you write your words, speak them into a microphone, or confide in someone close to you. Getting your words out there for the world and for you to see and hear keeps you inspired wherever you are on your journey.
Leave a comment below and share the words you are inspired by. It could be one, two, or more and even a phrase that gets you up and going. Also share how this writing challenge inspires you and what you'd like to see more of as we continue to write and grow together.
This second blog post in the Inspiring Creative Passion blog series really hits home for me. I wondered for many years what my passion was even though I knew it was writing of some sort but it took a while for the spark to come. Over the last year or so, I have been on a discovery of sorts and it is now all coming together as I have worked hard to write even when I did not feel like it. Joining writing challenges and now starting my own writing challenge holds me to my word and the commitment to write every day.
I have to admit that I was afraid to write sometimes and the words just would not come. Was I losing my passion for writing or was I just scared? I believe it was a combination of the two. Who would want to read this stuff if I wasn't passion about what I was writing? The fire in me started and stopped many times and the spark to keep writing did not come easy. So what did I do? Now I couldn't just sit back and do nothing so I looked for inspiration - other writers who inspired me by the way they tell their stories and what inspires them.
But still, I would start and then stop; then start and stop again. Upon connecting with other writers and people who I am inspired by, this held me accountable to make time to write and the spark of writing was not behind or ahead of me, it was with me and right in sync with what I was writing each day. And then, about 4 years ago I started the blog, FIRE - Faith In Renewing Each Other. At the time, I needed a strong word or phrase to get me started. I remember exactly where I was when I made the decision to come up with a title for my first blog post. I was having dinner and wine with a friend and we were both going through a very hard time. As I was sitting at her house, it hit me and I wrote my very first blog post: Change: A Not So Scary Thought. You can find the post by clicking here.
And here we are today - approaching 2018 and going on 5 years of blogging for me. I have many lessons learned, triumphs, setbacks, and successes and definitely more to look forward to. After reading this post, what is on your mind? What do you do to boost yourself up and ignite your passion? Well, I have 5 quick tips for you to take with you to continue on the path to ignite your passion:
Look for the positive in what you set out to accomplish.
Surround yourself with positive people.
Invest in yourself - you are worth it!
Find an accountability partner and connect.
Smile at yourself and your accomplishments.
Do you have any tips to add? Leave a comment below and let's add to this list!
Welcome to the first post of the Inspiring Creative Passion 7-week blog post series. I am happy to have a series of blog posts to share with you based on my new book, Inspiring Creative Passion. When I first thought of doing this, I wondered what it would look like; would it make sense and all of the other things we say to ourselves when we let fear set in. I believe the title of this post says it all: "The Road Ahead May Be Uncertain...Face Challenges with Confidence."
Ironically, and even before thinking about this series and blog post, I added the title to the Inspiring Creative Passion book in the Positive Affirmations section. I had to tell myself this many times as I would start something, leave it alone, and then it felt like I was falling down on my face. I kept getting up and I knew it was mostly fear and feeling uncomfortable pursuing my dreams which was stopping me from operating at my full potential.
Have you ever had this happen? Let fear stop you from seeing the road ahead and following your path to your dreams? No matter what you aspire to do, take it one step at a time and celebrate and reward yourself after each step. For example, when I set out to write Inspiring Creative Passion, I had no idea it would take me 10 months to get the book published. I knew the road ahead was foggy so I had to keep pushing despite obstacles to get this book finished. One of the things I did was to join an accountability group and this month, November 2017 is our 1-year anniversary of online meet-ups and I even had the pleasure of meeting one of my online sisters in person last month. This support system has been wonderful and has brought me out of my comfort zone. Next, and as I mentioned earlier, I rewarded myself after each chapter was finished. Finding the balance in all of this was key to the success of getting the book finished.
I have some ideas for you also. Here are 5 steps you can take to push fear aside and face the uncertain road ahead when following your dreams:
Find or even start an accountability group. A close, knit group of like-minded people on a similar mission to achieve goals and follow their dreams.
Set aside at least 30 minutes each day to focus on your goals and dreams. If you have more time, this is a bonus. Maybe it is after the kids are in bed and family and work needs are met. Make the time, take the time!
Cut down the distractions like too much television (I'm guilty of this!) and social media. Use the time to research new tools, tips, and techniques to get you on the road to success.
Find a book or an online resource which details the direction you want to go in or a similar goal or dream. This helps so you do not feel like you are reinventing the wheel.
Lastly and certainly not least, write or journal your journey so you will have something to look back on and reflect on the path you are on. When looking back, check off the wins, pros, cons, and lessons learned.
Remember, the road ahead may not be easy but using the 5 steps above will boost your confidence and set you on the right path. Do you have some tips for facing challenges with confidence? I would love to hear what you have to share. Comment below, send me an email and connect with me on social media. I'd love to help you!
I am from a small family where my father was an only child and so were his mom and dad, my grandparents. On my mom's side of the family, my mom has one sister and her mom and dad had a couple of siblings each. I have one sister who is three years younger than me and we are pretty close. Only living about 30 minutes from each other, we mostly text and when we talk it is almost like we just talked a few hours ago. With busy schedules dictating our lives, family has always been important to me and I consider friends my family also.
When I was much younger and living in New Jersey at the time, I always wanted to write as I was very expressive as a child and talked a lot. {at least that's what my mom told me} I always had something to say and being expressive through smiling at others is always the first thing people say when they meet me. Most times I get asked: "Why do you smile so much?" Is it for me or to help others? Feeling naturally good is always something I've felt inside even when times were tough. I relied on my faith and feeling good internally to get me through even through the pain. Smiling during those times was all I had at one point so I latched on and never let go.
I talk about my journey in a lot of my blog posts since one post just won't do it. Most recently, I highlighted Join Me On The Blog Journey and you can access the post here. Bringing everything together over the past almost 4 years has been a journey in itself - one where I would not change one thing. The constant thing about this journey is me, the girl behind the dream, behind the brand, and now in front for the world to see.
Why Do I Blog? I wrote about ithereand my reason is simple: to share my stories of faith, love, happiness and hope. If I can touch one person by sharing what is most near and dear to me, I have succeeded. I first had to realize my gifts; the many different shapes, shades and sizes they come in.
This is all part of a bigger plan, you see. To share, to write and hone in on my storytelling for two upcoming book projects in the near future. Yes, that's right - two books over the next year; actually in less than one year! The only way I can get better at writing is to keep pushing myself and honing in on what feels right to me - sharing and telling my story from beginning to end and being truly open and ready to receive all the things to come.
The girl behind the brand you ask? She is ready for the world - ready for the world to see, to share, to continue this journey. Ready to step from behind the brand and continue to be transparent, inviting, and one with my story.
I haven't always had this smile. Yes, I have always smiled but this smile is different. Different how you may ask? Well, this new smile comes from a healed place; a place of comfort; a place full of vulnerability which I never thought I'd share with the world.
I have probably written over 100 blog posts on the topics of faith, healing, forgiveness, and now two books later, I still have so much to say. Is the healing process ever really over? What's next after you say the words: "I've healed!" There is a continuous healing process through life and significant milestones or ups and downs can dictate the healing process.
In the many years prior to me sharing my written thoughts, I would keep my writings on tiny pieces of paper, in journals, notepads, and anywhere else I could write. Everything to my thoughts, my feelings and even down to how I was feeling in a particular moment would go on paper only for me to see at the time. Sometimes I wouldn't even write down how I was feeling - I would just keep it to myself and bottled up in my thoughts. I have grown a lot in the last four years since sharing my writings and publishing two books. It took a lot to get here including the loss of my father and my divorce.
In thinking about what triggered my road to healing, I would have to say it started a little while prior to my father getting sick and passing away in 2010. I felt my mind and thoughts on the path to destruction since I worked so hard to keep my smile in tact. Once I saw my smile beginning to crack, I still tried to hide behind my smile hoping others would not see what was going on with me. This was a hard thing to keep up and it lasted for a while until the real deal finally hit with everything else around me crumbling at the time.
Even during the tough times from 2010-2012, I pulled out my pen and paper since I could be in control and began to write. Do you know it took about 18 months for me to be comfortable enough to share my first blog post? I had no idea back then what blogging was but I knew I could use it to heal my inner self by sharing my thoughts, feelings, and to help others.
Now here we are 7 years, almost 8 years later of me recognizing when writing to heal you soothe yourself and you speak to people who are either where you are or where you were. If I speak to one person I am happy and fulfilled. In my case, I was speaking to myself. With well over 100 blog posts now, I wondered what was next. Do I continue to share my story? Should I write a book or start a series? I think I answered my own questions with two books: A Life With A View and Inspiring Creative Passion.
My first book, A Life With A View focused on previously published blog posts where my healing journey began. It wasn't until much later where I decided A Life With A View would be a series and this is where Inspiring Creative Passion was born. Inspiring Creative Passion, the second book in the A Life With A View series takes a deeper dive into faith, love, happiness and healing. There are positive affirmations throughout the Inspiring Creative Passion book with the hopes of inspiring others to follow their dreams of doing what they love.
So what's next? Well, I can tell you my smile is back and in full force. On a scale of 1-10 my happiness is about an 8. (nothing is completely perfect) This is so much better than my happiness being at a 3 a few years ago. Building A Life With A View and connecting with people as a community has brought me a long way and I will continue this movement and write through anything that comes my way.
Here we are...just over 4 years later and I am more inspired than ever. What brought on all of this inspiration? I believe something clicked one day when I set out to find my purpose after going through a very rough time about 5 years ago. I realized my life has always had a view but the view was blurry and I was even blinded from seeing it a few years ago.
I have always wanted to do more but you know, life gets in the way sometimes. You get stifled by fear and not knowing what to do next or even if there is anything to do. While working to find direction for my life, I had to stop and slow down a bit. Things were all over the place - my full-time job, kids activities, family stuff; I just could not handle it all at the time. Now of course I worked very hard to make it all look easy and this was surely not the case. I worked much harder at pretending all things were in place and it became too much. While I was out there working to inspire others, I had to become inspired.
Then it came to me...this was it! I had to inspire my own creative passion in order for me to help and inspire others. So I took my own advice and got busy writing and the words began to flow. The basis of Faith and Love continued to guide me and I pressed on with the vision for Inspiring Creative Passion to be part of the A Life With A View series.
Getting out of my own way and over insecurities and being comfortable in my own skin helped me so much this year. I began to branch out and network with other writers, bloggers, entrepreneurs, and people who I admire. I even invested in some memberships to keep my writing on task. {Hence, the many blog posts I now have queued} The more I write, the better I feel and I began taking better care of my mental space too. Self-care became number one and I wanted to show others they can practice self-care and I created my very first self-care eBook which you can grab right here.
So what's next? I had to put all I've learned into another book. The next book in the A Life With A View series, Inspiring Creative Passion due out this Fall 2017. I will also continue to blog and write about topics near and dear to me and also to you while continuing to grow the A Life With A View brand. The ideas keep coming for blog posts, writing topics and maybe another book in the series in the future.
To keep all of this straight, I recently created a new Instagram account @inspiringcreativepassion to follow the journey of the new book and continue to connect with you and provide updates on the book release and an upcoming event in 2018.
What passion project are you working on? If you have something coming up, please leave a comment below. I'd love to support you as you have supported me.
Becoming comfortable in my own skin took a long time. I even wrote about it you see, so I could help others get there. You can find the post here. This certainly did not happen over night since the root of becoming comfortable was working on my self-esteem from the inside out.
How long did it take for me to build my self-esteem? Ah - now that is certainly a loaded question. The most loaded question in my mind; almost like my favorite loaded baked potato at one of my favorite restaurants. *smile* No but seriously, it took years. The number of times being knocked down, feeling like I was not enough certainly took its toll on me and I must say now I am not afraid to be great.
I began telling myself I can do the things I love on my own terms and not someone else's. No matter what everyone else was doing in their life, I had to keep going with what felt good to me. In particular, when starting this blog four years ago I was afraid to step out there. One of my first blog posts was stepping out on faith and having the courage to write when people asked me why I was doing this. Of course this started to mess with my self-esteem again especially after being newly divorced and a single mom of two children. So what did I do? I kept writing to heal and pouring my heart out into my words. The more I wrote the better I felt and doing what I loved to do, I remained consistent. There is nothing like consistency in a positive way to break an old habit.
Next, I realized self-esteem is an inside job like being comfortable in your own skin. You have to let yourself feel things and emotions and not cover up what you are feeling. This is something I used to do a lot. Even if I was sad or not feeling well, I still put on the happy face. I had to take ownership of what I was feeling and really dig deep and have the confidence to walk in my own truth and purpose.
Even still, I knew I could do more in this area so I read a lot of books, blogs, and connected with others who were also struggling in this area. And, guess what? We all have grown together. The one thing I got over was fear and once this was out of the way I made the decision to continue getting better and stepping out of my own way to be myself and be proud of the things I've accomplished.
Are you working on yourself and is there anything you would like to share? I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you boost your self-esteem. Beginning with self-care really got me to where I am today. You can grab your free self-care eBook in this post and also on the blog. I look forward to reading your comments so we can keep the discussion going. Take care of you!
