healing
How to heal fully and properly.
The Book of Possibilities
I found the book that would change my life on a cold winter day. My life was looking pretty dismal following a series of unfortunately timed events which knocked my perfectly planned young-adult life out of whack. I had just been let go from a career path I had set my sights on for the better part of my 28 years on Earth. Granted, the reasons for it where completely out of my personal control, having been unable to attend said job due to a worldwide pandemic that the likes of, had not been seen in over 100 years. So at least I knew I hadn’t done anything “wrong” to make the gig go sideways. However, it hurt and I was confused.
By Jennifer Cain5 years ago in Motivation
Honoring Joy
I think one of the best things all of us can do for "self-care" and to bring about a fresh start is to make a commitment to honor and create joy in our own lives, and how this ability has a "ripple effect" where we can inspire those around us too, to do the same. I've often experienced the ability to find the silver lining in most any situation, and how even going through difficult times can provide opportunities for good to come about, simply by making a "heart based" decision to seek the good. We do have the ability to create joy in our own lives. I have had a lot of experience with that. This past year with more time on my hands than what has been typical, I found myself reflecting ...a lot! Reflecting on many happy times, or times that most wouldn't even perceive as happy or joyful at the onset, yet through overcoming and recognizing the good, this has a way of bringing more happiness one's way. Sometimes this brings unexpected joyful moments. Being true to oneself and creating joyful moments I think is crucial to "self care." When we seek the good, more good has a way of presenting itself.
By Lisa Pellegrene5 years ago in Motivation
No, thank you.
Say yes. Say yes to catching up with a friends, to new opportunities and endless possibilities. Say yes to meeting people, strange people - circus level people - that stretch your mind and make you see in new colours. A yes to one event, leads you to the another, and suddenly it's 5am and you're watching one man stack hats on-top of another man's head while the latter tells you to wait for the microwave to beep before opening the door. Say yes to uncomfortable and you'll see yourself thrive, and don't forget to say hello as people start to walk over you.
By Nadine Thiedeke5 years ago in Motivation
25? Now What?
2018 was the worst year of my life. I started the year off with knee surgery. I then started my practicum student teaching working with a wonderful band director, but my advisor/professor had no faith in my abilities. She ultimately set me up for failure and watched me fail rather than help me. I had just been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, ADHD, and PTSD and put on new medications. My diabetic dog then had a seizure and died in my arms while I was home alone (the rest of my family had been out of town). On my last day of my practicum, I was rear ended at a stoplight and the driver left the scene. I was being taken advantage of at work, because I never say "no".The icing on the cake was my boyfriend of five years "breaking up" with me at my Christmas Party that happened on 12/29. I say "breaking up" with me because it seemed pretty clear to me, but he supposedly was not on the same page and asked to spend New Years Eve with me.
By Michelle Latouf5 years ago in Motivation
Fast Forward
I have always tried to adhere to a healthy way of life by exercising and eating right—or almost right and consuming in moderation. I am a lover of pasta, bread, cheese and decadent desserts and the first to celebrate with a good wine and an uplifting cocktail. When I’m stressed I tend to meditate, pray, read, write, eat and hit the gym. This past year, with a global pandemic that has taken the world hostage, I have had to adjust my life in ways I am still trying to unpack and sort through. I live a well-oiled, well-organized and methodical life. I am in property management, write in my spare time and work as a management consultant whenever opportunities present themselves. When COVID-19 was first introduced into our normal way of life, I was at a VIP movie premier in Silver Spring, Maryland. Masks had not become an artifact in our existence, but the theatre had more empty seats than I had ever experienced. As time went on, more and more panic and protocols had been added to our lives, but we continued to hold on to the last vestiges of our before pandemic lives albeit we had no idea the grip we would lose. On March 5 a dear friend was celebrating a milestone birthday, which consisted of a brunch that afternoon and a quaint dinner at Yellowfin Steak & Fish House in Edgewater, Maryland that night. The evening affair was a scaled-down version of the celebration she had originally planned. The original host venue wasn’t ready, so Yellowfin became the substitute. The cocktail attire she requested was meaningful now in hindsight because it was the last time I’ve worn a dinner jacket, dress slacks and Mezlan crocodile slip-ons in 10 months. We ate, laughed, drank and chatted until late in the night—not knowing that that evening would be some of the last moments of normalcy we would witness in a very long time. As the world’s news cycles became a home for the Coronavirus and terms such as masks, social distancing, and washing hands began to fill our lives, many things we took for granted—I took for granted, began to change. I no longer could go to the gym to workout. My weekend rituals of Friday night dinners on the town, Saturday matinee movies with dinner afterward and Sunday brunch at the Four Seasons or Marcel’s were brought to a screeching halt. My daily trips to the office were cut back to twice a month for a couple hours and the ability to shake hands, hug and hang out with friends and family became a nostalgic throwback to once upon a time. I tried to workout at home to replace my gym routine, but it simply wasn’t the same. The isolation from people that I loved began to be filled with space and silence and crafting a new way to maneuver through life a struggle. I knew that maintaining my health was going to be a challenge with no gym access so I began to walk and take stairs whenever I could. I tried to walk each morning and when that didn’t happen, to find an exercise video to follow, to keep from being sedentary, became a chore. My diet began to be more of comfort than that of nutrition and I no longer felt nourished, but actually empty—very empty. I knew I needed to come up with something to get me out of the drift and shift the virus had plagued my life with. At the start of 2021 I went on a 21-day fast of only water, oats, grains, fruits and vegetables. I needed something to offset the rigid quarantining I had placed around my world—the world I once knew. I replaced my classic bacon, eggs and cheese grits with oatmeal, nuts and pumpkin seeds. The Saturday shrimp and grits with yogurt and granola, pecans and almonds. There were days when I could make the better choices with no pushback, but there were other days when my cravings for bacon, bread and butter took hold of me like a vice. On the days I didn’t walk, I turned to my staple of exercise standbys and pushed myself to meet my daily goal of 10,000 steps. I admit I found myself hungry all the time and irritable, but after some time, about 9 days I began to feel my feet again. I began to feel like my old self again, or a better reinvigorated self. The pandemic had brought up a lot of stuff for me. Old hurts, ancient wounds, grief that I had pushed back in my psyche and betrayals too prickly to handle with bare hands. The isolations activated vivid dreams that woke me up bewildered and often panting, but soon I came to realize there was inner work I needed to do. The “bubble” of the pandemic simply provided a vehicle for me to zero-in on that work—and the 21-days of fasting fueled the journey. I began to sleep more soundly. I woke up refreshed. I was more alert and aware. I was more focused about the things I wanted and mattered than the things that I didn’t have or the doors I perceived as closed or opportunities that did not come my way. I began to say yes to those things that deserved a yes and noes became whole sentences. As bananas, avocados, walnuts and black bean veggie burgers replaced fettuccini Alfredo, pizza, cheeseburgers and BLTs so did my stalemate of ambivalence that the pandemic had launched on my way of life. I began to incorporate the home gym into my life. The kettle bell, pushups and lunges became my new regime that the treadmill, elliptical and gym strength training circuit had once been. The more I chose better options, walked and took the stairs as opposed to comfort choices, napping and taking the elevator, I began to write and explore areas of my life that needed to be healed. By the time the fast was over I was 17 pounds lighter in body, soul, mind and spirit! I was alert and began to take back the reigns of my life that the mysterious virus with the regal name had placed on our heads. The 21 days was the restart I needed to adjust my crown and reclaim rulership over my life—and yet, I am still subject to a cheeseburger with extra mayo!
By Marcus Graddy5 years ago in Motivation
10 Years a Slave...
" Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome" This is just one of many Arthur Ashe quote's that fueled my a weakened soul, when I was accepting the outside noise as inside facts. Since my birth I was conditioned by many things for being born into the black race. We was raised in the city of Providence in Rhode Island; but I lived in a house built by my grandfather's father. I always had presents under the tree, food in the kitchen cabinets, good clothes on my back, and both parents in successful jobs. YET, I outside of the comforts of my actual daily reality I was labeled by my physical features and attached to societies stereo-types of a colored boy. Today I am writing this story as a short /ˌôdəbīˈäɡrəfē/ (lol), autobiography. This journey to be the owner of my own company' that is still growing, and the blinded steps that got me here is why I chose to write about myself, when I think about who I most admire.
By Sun Moon Hazard5 years ago in Motivation
Freeing myself from my past
A few weeks before the end of 2020, I was working my day job when one of my coworkers asked what my New Years Resolution was. I told him, "I'm sick of resolutions. I'm sick of setting goals. There’s no point.” For years I'd hopped on the bandwagon and started each new year with a list of personal demands and the collective battle cry, "This is my year.” Each year, the inevitable failure of these unrealistic resolutions only made me feel worse. I’d never lost the 30 pounds, gone for a run every morning, or even kept my room clean. I'd officially accepted defeat.
By Gracie J Chute5 years ago in Motivation
The A Team
Let’s see how far you get this time. You’ll probably quit as soon as you start. Ha! Why bother even trying. Just sit on the couch. It’s all you are good at. Rewatch that season for the 3rd time instead of being productive, it’ll get done later. Ok this time you mean business - march on! Or not. Why are you so fat? Maybe stop eating so much. Life would be easier if you were skinnier. You worked out today? Should have done more after eating that burger. You should play some guitar. You haven’t picked it up in awhile, but that’s probably a good thing since you’re so bad at it.
By downloadgirl5 years ago in Motivation
Becoming Me
This is a story of how I got where I am now, and where I want to be. Where else to start but the beginning? My life could have been worse. For being the one living in it I thought it was pretty shitty. But the start wasn't too bad. My grandmother and her husband came from a traditional, Christian home. My grandfather being one of two kids and my grandmother being one of eight, both had kids of their own when they got married, one of each of the same sex. Grandmother having my mother and my grandfather had my uncle. Both kids were into whatever the popular thing was, which was scary for parents in that era. Drugs, sex, alcohol, rock and roll of the '70s, in their teens. My mother was said to have a mental disability that left her unable to become a "true" adult, they said she was mentally challenged in some way. I never saw that. I was also told that she would run away when she was a teen, being a wild child, and all the stories of how rebellious she was. She had her first kid at 17, she had me at 19. My brother and I were taken away from my mother when I was 2, my grandmother took us in.
By JM 5 years ago in Motivation
The Queen is Going to Bed. Top Story - January 2021.
I am the queen of resolutions. Something about new beginnings and blank slates and doing the impossible just reels me in like no other. It’s not particularly out of character. I’ve had my head stuck far up in the clouds for as long as I can remember. I have to assume that all dreamers are suckers for New Year’s resolutions. I’m guessing that all of the rest of them are just dying for an excuse to dream a little bigger or commit to something unrealistic. Either that, or it truly is just me.
By Megan Gathany5 years ago in Motivation
