What are you doing with your life?
Seriously. Stop and ask yourself that question. Are you playing small? Are you shrinking back into the woodwork so nobody notices you? Are you just barely making it through each day? Or are you living with intention? With huge goals and dreams that you are fervently chasing after? Are you living boldly? Sometimes these are hard questions for us to ask ourselves. It’s easy to see it in everyone else. It’s easy to give that advice and tell people to take risks and make changes. But to do it ourselves is a whole other ball game! I’ve touched on it before but it’s so vitally important to keep talking about it. We have ingrained in us these beliefs of how things should work. Graduate high school. Go to college. Graduate college. Get a job with your degree. Find a suitable partner and get married. Then start having babies. All while living in a little house with a white picket fence. Now. I don’t know about you, but my life certainly didn’t go as scripted. I did the first four of the above but that’s about it. And I don’t even have a job with my degree anymore. So there’s that. But that’s neither here nor there. The point is...that is NOT the only way to do things. You don’t have to do things in any certain order to be successful. Or to be happy. You don’t have to go to college to be successful. You don’t have to get married and have kids to be happy. And you certainly don’t have to live in a house with a white picket fence. We live in a world where we can now choose to make our own paths. We don’t have to follow a set script. We don’t have to do things the “normal” way. We get to choose!! And how amazing is that?! But...back to the first question. What are you doing with your life? You get to choose what to do...how to be successful...what to do to make you happy. So... Are you? What choices are you making? Are you getting up and going to that ho hum 9-5 job you hate, just because that’s what you’re supposed to do? Are you watching other people’s lives in envy because you wish you could change yours? Guess what?! You CAN! You have that power and that control. Let me back up...now I’m not telling you to quit your job just because you hate it or you only go because it’s what you’re supposed to do. What I am telling you is that there are so many other options out there. Find one that drives you...that motivates you to get up and go to work happy every day. Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do. Make the choices. Make some changes if you need to. But live boldly. Live with purpose and intention. Don’t let life pass you by, hoping and wishing for something different. Go out and make it happen now, before it’s too late. I hope you all have an awesome week. And live boldly, starting today! With love and wellness, Whitney
0 Comments
I have a secret for y'all.
It took me a long while to be happy with who I am and with my body. I wished I was taller. I wished I had bigger boobs. I wished my thighs didn't rub together. I wished my arms didn't jiggle when I waved. I could've given you a million things about myself that I didn't like. I didn't grow up thinking those things. I didn't always feel that way. Somehow, along the way, I started thinking I should look different. I should act different. That who I was...wasn't good enough. The thing about it is...we are cruel to one another. We being girls. We think that being different is a bad thing. That it's wrong to look different or to act different or to just be different. So we make fun of one another. We talk poorly about one another. We make snide comments behind each other's backs. And we compare ourselves to these beautiful, perfect models in magazines, on social media, on TV. I mean...life would be so much better if we looked like Jennifer Aniston (I mean, she's gorgeous...DUH!!). And let's not talk about the guys. Because they certainly aren't the kindest to us. And we take what they say to heart. That cute boy in home room? Oh man...if he doesn't like me, then something surely must be wrong with me. And these thoughts don't stop in middle or high school. I don't know about y'all, but those thoughts followed me well into my 20s. Dare I even say into my 30s. So we grow up and want to change who we are. Liposuction. Breast implants. Tummy tucks. Nose jobs. Butt implants, for pete's sake. Seriously...how do they even do those?! Instead of embracing who we are, we want to change into who we think others want us to be. And yep...I was guilty of this. For entirely too long. It's sadly only been a few short years since I've fully accepted and embraced who I am, what I look like, and what my body can do for me. Going on my own health journey helped. Having knee surgery helped push me in that direction. Starting Crossfit helped. Oh...and not giving a flying crap what others think about me helped too. I started loving myself more. I surrounded myself with people who loved me. Who built me up and supported me. And I started loving and building up other women in my life. Because we need more of that. All women need to know they are enough...they are beautiful...and they are strong! So here's my love for all of you beautiful women. You are enough. You are more than enough. You are beautiful. You are strong. You are capable. And if someone doesn't like you, then let them go. They aren't your cup of tea and you WILL be okay without them. Wait for the people who lift you up. Who build you up. Who fight for your success as hard as they fight for their own. Who will do anything for you. Those are your people. My advice for this week? Love yourself more. And spread that love to others in your life. Be happy with who you are, because who you are is perfectly imperfect! And embrace your differences. Because different is beautiful! I love y'all. And thank you for your continued love and support! Have an amazing week! With love and wellness, Whitney It’s inevitable. People are going to disappoint you. People are going to make you upset. Piss you off. Make you cry.
But....That isn’t the important part of this message. What is important is how you respond to it. Do you let it fester? Do you let it stew? Let it eat away at you? Or do you forgive? Do you talk about it and let it go? Allow peace and forgiveness to be present in how you respond? Sometimes people are going to do things that upset you, and they’ll never even know about it. Whether that’s because you say nothing to them or because they simply don’t care (even if you do say something). Whatever the case may be, staying upset or angry only hurts you...not them. Especially if you say nothing to them. Or worse, if you say something and they just don’t care. If you allow the anger, the disappointment, the sadness to fester, you’ll be holding on to these negative feelings, thus bringing you down...and making YOU feel bad about the whole thing. One of the hardest things we have to do as humans is to forgive others for an apology we never receive. To let go of past hurts and anger that do nothing but hurt us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like letting someone else have so much control over my feelings and the resulting actions. Stuff happens. People are just that...people. We are selfish. We don’t always think of others in our actions. And we are going to hurt other people...whether it’s intentional or not. Forgive them anyways. Love them anyways. And don’t allow them to control your feelings, your emotions, your actions. What is one tried and true way you use to forgive someone? Especially if an apology is never received. I’d love to see how others handle this often difficult thing. I’d like to say I’m really good at doing this, but I struggle with it. I have to verbally acknowledge, often out loud and to a friend, that feeling this way doesn’t serve me. That it doesn’t do me any good to be angry or upset, because I can guarantee it doesn’t affect the other person. I also pray. A lot. I mean... We all want justice. We want the apology. We want to feel justified in how we feel. We want the acknowledgment that the other person did us wrong. But that isn’t how this world operates...not on our schedule or how we want it to. Sucks, right? Instead, we have to learn how to adjust to the world and the things that happen to us. But isn’t that the beauty of it? We get to decide how we act and react to things. And really, how amazing is that?! I hope you all have a beautiful week. And please let me know how you move through something like this and offer forgiveness to others. With love and wellness, Whitney Sometimes, in the midst of life when you're busy as can be, your body gives you a reminder that you need to slow down. That you need a break. That you just can't go another moment without rest.
That happened to me on Saturday. I tend to push, push, push until I am physically and mentally exhausted. And yes, I know. This is silly. And I shouldn't do that. But it's not in my nature to NOT do that. So Saturday. I had every intention of waking up and going to the gym to workout. Had even gotten up, gotten dressed, fed Gizmo. And then my body said a big, fat NOPE. I started feeling a little overheated and lightheaded and I couldn't get my bearings. Started feeling a little nauseous and all I wanted to do was lie down. So after trying to get myself together so I could go to the gym (ha), I ended up throwing up (super fun times) and laid in bed all day long. I don't think I got up and started moving around until 4p.m. Needless to say, I guess my body decided I needed a rest day. It got me thinking though. How often do you take a rest day? A 100%, do nothing rest day? And before you start yelling at me about not having time to take a full day of rest, just stop a second and really think about it. I'm not saying to do this once a month or even every other month. But take a moment...when was the last time you actually took a full rest day? I can tell you that I honestly don't remember the last time, before Saturday, that I took a day to completely rest. No work, no running around trying to get things done, just resting, relaxing, renewing. And I know that's a bad thing...and probably why my body just shut down. I have a bad habit of not taking time off, because I feel as if you aren't working or doing something that it means you won't reach your goals. Which is the complete opposite, by the way. Because when I have big plans for a day and my body decides to shut down, well...that doesn't make for a very productive or fun day. And I get to spend the next day playing catch up like whoa. What this tells me is that I need to start planning in rest days...or at least a couple hours a week to rest. Where I don't work. I'm not rushing around from one thing to the next. Where I allow myself time to relax, to rest, to shut down. Because at least then, it won't completely knock me off my feet for a day (or longer). How could taking a couple hours a week to "shut down," to rest, to let everything go, help you better manage your week? I know this would help me de-stress, let loose, and most likely let my creative juices flow. Not only did I have a full day on Saturday where I did absolutely nothing...I mean, solely because my body shut down on me, but I also took a few hours on Sunday to go to the Adventure Park with a bunch of people from my crossfit gym. And....I left my phone in my car!!! WHAT?! It was so nice to be fully present with everyone, to enjoy my time away from everything, and to just have a darn good time. Oh, and of course, to not feel sick anymore. So my new goal is to take a few hours a week, at the least, to rest, relax, and renew. To be away from my phone for awhile. To shut everything out and just BE. How about you? I hope you all have a beautiful week! Happy Monday! With love and wellness, Whitney |
Archives
August 2020
Categories
All
|