How often do you compliment yourself? How often do you compliment the ones around you? Who do you compliment the most?
My answers? Myself, not nearly enough. The ones around me... all the time. Why do I do that? I can compliment the ones around me on everything, their outfit, hair, make up and then the things that actually matter, their performances, accomplishments, etc.. Why don't I compliment myself as much as I do them? Is it because I don't really believe that those things count for me? No that's not it because I am proud of myself but why can't I ever put it into words when it comes to myself? It doesn't even really matter why, what matters is if i'm going to try and change it in the future. So... this being the future and all... I'm going to start complimenting myself. I'm going to give myself a compliment when I look good, I'm going to give myself a compliment when I do good. Because that's where it all starts. Do you know that feeling, (of course you do) when someone compliments you on something. It makes you feel good about yourself. It makes you feel confident and the next time you (say they complimented you on your appearance) stand in front of the mirror you will make sure you look as good, if not better. The best and most meaningful compliment I got was about my writing. Somebody read my blog and told me I inspired them. That touched me so deeply that the next time (and every time since) I wanted to inspire more than ever. But why wait for someone to compliment you if you can do it yourself? Yes! You can do it yourself. I know, hearing it from someone else feels so much better but you are the one who knows the most about everything that you do, every battle you had to win to achieve while everyone else just sees the tip of the iceberg. You have the most to be proud of. You have the most to compliment on. Tell yourself how proud you are of yourself and WHY. The reason why you have to say it (out loud) is because saying it makes you think more than if you were to just think 'I'm proud'. Why is that? Personally, I'm easily distracted when I think about something. If I say it out loud it's not as simple to change topics. I don't know if that goes for you too, of course but it's something that works for me. Here it goes: I'm proud of myself because I have managed to overcome all these battles and obstacles and all of it made me a stronger and better person. I'm beautiful and I'm kind and I have a big heart. I love and accept myself for everything that I was, am and ever will be. These three things mean the most to me. Probably because I never believed I'd ever get over the mountains in front of me. I didn't believe I was even strong enough to get over the speed bump on my path. I never looked at myself as a good person and I never thought I was beautiful. Once I started to accept myself I started to see the real me. That's the person I'm proud of. I'm proud to be me! Compliment yourself. Do it often. You're amazing! You're beautiful and you're a good person! These things are things that you should know about yourself. If finding something to compliment yourself on seems hard, don't quit, just keep trying. Don't give up on yourself. I know you won't. Remember that you (and everyone else) are a work in progress... The beginning of a masterpiece!
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You might read one of my entries and wonder why I share so much of my life. You might think to yourself 'I'd never put my story out there like that for the world to see'. Well, I never thought I'd be the one to do it either.
But there's a good reason for it. I started writing this blog because writing was the only way I knew I could express my feelings. It was selfish and I just wanted to get rid of my bottled up emotions. But as I started writing I noticed how deep my pain went. Somewhere while writing my first entry I deleted everything and decided to stop being so shallow. I wanted to open up. But why? Growing up I felt so alone. I was alone in my situation. I was convinced that I was the only one on the planet with my kind of problems and my kind of pain. Well, I came to realize that I'm not that special. Everything I'm going through has been felt before and will be felt by someone else someday. I wasn't alone but I had nobody to compare myself or my situation to. I was a lonely and confused teen. I want people to know that what they're going through or went through isn't strange. They're not the only ones who feel like this. I have my story and I found a way to deal with it. I just want to help one other person. If I can help one person realize that they're not alone in this, I have succeeded. I didn't know that I would write down my whole journey of growing into who I want to be but I'm so glad I did. I sometimes read back and it makes me happy to see that I am no longer the same person who wrote the things I wrote last year and the year before. StraightThinking is now entering its third year which is a huge accomplishment for me and I'm so intensely happy that I became who I am now because of it. I want to keep sharing my story, for that one person who needs it but mostly for myself because I need it too! @uGottaLoveAimee #StraightThinking on Twitter and Instagram. Click the link in the sidebar to go to my Facebook page. Every day we grow a little older and (hopefully) a little wiser. It is up to us to take advantage of the time we have each day to take as much as we can and learn from that.
It is up to us to want to learn. It is up to us to want to grow. We can't grow unless we try; unless we put out time and effort into it. It doesn’t just happen... well it does. You do grow without trying. But that doesn’t mean that you'll grow into the direction that you want to grow. If you're walking north and you know that you have to walk towards the west to get to where you want to be, you know you have to turn and start walking in that other direction. If you just keep walking without turning, time will pass and before you know it you'll end up in a different place than where you wanted to go. You are your most valuable project. If you don't take every day as a lesson you will stand still. But time will keep moving so in a way you're moving backwards. I know you have a dream, maybe it's locked up in a box somewhere but dig a little and you'll find out what it is that you want to do. I want you to get to know you. Because that's where it begins. If you don't know who you are, how will you ever find out what you want to do with your life? I thought being a hairdresser was what I wanted to be. I went to school for that for 5 years. After I got sick and had to quit in my final year I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t see and still don't see myself standing in a salon for 8 hours, 6 days a week. No! Early on, while I was still in school, I knew I wanted to open a salon and build from there. I didn't just want a '9 to 5' and I still don't. I want more. But knowing that I want more gives me two options. I could just do what I know and see where life takes me or I can pave my own road towards that something that I really want to do. I still don't know what that is exactly. I have an idea and I'm working on that. I'm trying to figure out what it is that I have to do to get there. Once I know that, I'll have to start taking steps to reach that goal. Even though every road is different, every destination is different from the other, the way to get there remains the same. Turn around. Find out what you have to do and how long it will take. Make a plan. Start walking. It doesn't matter how many times you fall, ALL that matters is how many times do you get up? Do you give up after falling three times? Do you give up after 10? Or do you learn from those experiences? Do you take the information you get and adjust your plan? Same thing goes for your growth. So you failed at something. Something didn’t go as planned. Do you give up? Or do learn from it so you can do better next time around? I love working on myself. It wasn't always like that. I was someone with so much on my shoulders that I couldn't stand up straight. While feeling the weight getting lifted off my shoulders along the way, I noticed how good it felt to walk with my back straight and my head high. I loved and still love that feeling. I love how I can fall and instantly take that lesson so I can use it the next time I stumble. I feel so strong right now and that is an addictive feeling especially because I didn’t know what this felt like until not that long ago. Every time I start feeling weak, I force myself to do something about it. I have to get back on my feet. There's not a second where I think about actually giving up. Why? Because I love myself and because I want the best for myself and my daughter. That is all that matters to me. Loving yourself and wanting the best for yourself doesn't match with giving up on yourself! Get to know the real you and please, I beg you! Never give up on yourself! You're worth every chance until you get it right! Even then the process doesn't end so there's no reason for you to ever give up. Love yourself, the rest will follow! It's been a while since I felt stressed. I mean really stressed. There's alway a little of that 'healthy' stress that everyone gets now and then but how I felt those days...
I got into an argument which went out of control. Neither of us was calm enough to stop arguing so someone else came to end the war. I thought I was just mad and a little later I felt so overwhelmed with anger which I couldn't express that I started crying. It was the only acceptable way to let some of that anger out of my system. The following days I started to develop a headache that only got worse when the day went by. I got a toothache because I kept forcing my jaws shut in my sleep and my whole stomach started acting up. I didn't sleep much and I kept waking up from every sound I heard. I even had the attention span of a gold fish!! It took me a while before I connected them all together. Once I found out what the problem was I started to realize how serious stress is and how it can affect you. The last few months have been pretty much peaceful. I haven't stressed and I've been focused on the only things that matter, myself and my growth and my daughter and her happiness. It shocked me to see the effect that stress had on me because I thought stress didn't affect me. Why? Because I didn't know any better. Stress has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It's something that I at some point even believed I couldn't live without... sad right?! But looking at my life now I see that I can. I can live without stress and I feel so incredibly happy. Maybe that's why I got so restless. Stress is a disease! It will eat at you. It will break you down if you don't do anything about it. Believe me, I realize that I got off easy this time. Because I'm such a control freak when it comes to my mental state that I don't accept anything to mess with it, I was able to figure out what was going on and put a stop to it. But it wasn't always that easy. Stress ate at me for years and I didn't know how to deal with it... sometimes I still don't. I'm just trying random things and I just happen to get lucky once in a while. No, let me take that back. I do try random things but it's not luck. I work hard to keep myself positive and happy. If I wake up feeling sad or something, I do everything in my power to change my mood. It doesn't work every time but believe me, I can count the bad days of the last three months on 1 hand. It used to be the other way around. I was counting the good days... and now? I lost track of how many good days I've had! Stress is a bacteria. You can let it grow and become an illness. You can let it become the thing that slowly takes away your energy and your positivity and your will to live... or you can check up on yourself to see how you're feeling and to try and make the best of each day. Focus on the good. Focus on everything that makes you happy and I know, when you're overwhelmed or drowning in stress you have no clue of what will make you happy. But start there ... Now ask yourself this: What makes you happy? Don't you dare to say that you don't know! Figure it out. Don't give up on that question until you found your answer. What makes YOU happy? And once you answered that question... go after what makes you happy! A few weeks ago somebody jumped in front of the train I was on. I can't let go of that thought. I avoid taking the train for longer than 30 minutes. If I think about going somewhere that makes me sit in a train for longer than that, I'm most likely canceling those plans. I don't really know why, but being in a train that long makes me feel uncomfortable.
I kept thinking about that unidentified person. Was it a man or a woman? How old were they? What made them decide to jump and end everything? No one knows what it was that went through that persons head. No one knows how far he or she was pushed up to the edge of that cliff. We don't know. We don't have the slightest clue of their fight. It made me think. We might think that that one grumpy kid in the back of the class is just grumpy. But maybe he's dealing with a lot of things that he's been hiding. Maybe we look at that loud person at work and wish we could be that confident. We don't know how they come home and which mask they put on in the morning. We don't know! maybe that person that jumped wasn't planning on jumping but ran into someone on his or her way and got into an argument or maybe it was just a dirty look on another person's face... I guess we'll never find out. But I want to be nicer to others. If you are struggling with yourself... please talk to someone. You belong in this world. You deserve to be here and even if we might not know each other... I know that you're too important to be missed. You're too important to just be a picture on the wall or a memory. You are so much more. I need you to see that! I need you to realize how beautiful you are and what a good person you are. We all make mistakes, we all run into messed up situations and we all deal with people who try to break us. But you are stronger than them. Stronger than you believe. Trust me. Please don't give up! I know it's cloudy right now and maybe even pouring but I promise, the sun will come back! You will know happiness again, I promise ! Just promise me that you won't give up! Please ? The time for 'new year, new me' is back! I've never been one to make New Years resolutions... partially because I didn't see the point of waiting for a certain day to change whatever it was that needed changing.
Iam also the type of person that will lose interest if I wait too long. So instead of waiting for the new year, if I see something in my life that needs changing, I'll rather start changing it today! (Well... today is only January 2nd so... waiting for the new year would be a complete waste of my year and time but you get what I mean... 😂) But it's not about when, it's about if you do it. What are the things you want to change this year? I think one of the most important things to do when thinking about that question is setting goals that you know you can reach. If you've never walked up a hill you can't expect to climb the Mount Everest. Set goals that take some effort but don't expect the impossible. You are still human. You can't just snap your fingers and paint the Mona Lisa if you don't even know how to hold a brush. One of the things I am working on is losing weight... yes, still. I made a goal that I would go on a very strict diet. That was in May. I gained weight since May while I was supposed to lose it. Why did that happen? Because my goal was too much to do in the time I had set for it. And because I didn't think it through. So this time I am still working on my weight but I decided to do it differently. Instead of telling myself that I'm going vegan (for example) from one day to the next, I'm just slowly cutting certain things out of my life. I love my meat, sometimes. So instead of eating meat every night, I eat it when I really want it. Other nights we just eat a lot of veggies and we're doing fine. Not eating meat that often is cheaper too 😜. Instead of buying chocolate in advance, I have to go to the store to get it when I crave it. Which I don't do 9/10 times. It's in the little things. Also, I have a few extra days in the week that I can go to the gym now. So instead of waiting till that morning, I can plan to go to the gym in advance. I work best with a schedule. So that's exactly what I'll do. It's all in the little things. Losing weight doesn't start just anywhere. Neither does anything else. It takes time and preparation. So set your New Year's resolutions but stay reasonable! Also... let's make this year the year where we appreciate each other more. I am so sick of seeing people treating others with so much disrespect! I want to see love and respect. And as Ellen always says #BeKindToOneAnother 😄 But I really mean that. I really hope we can start to show more love and respect to the people around us! No matter if we know the person or not. Support each other. We need to be better people and that starts with how we treat our 'neighbors'. To each and everyone of you, I hope this will be a good year for you and everyone around you! Stay strong because no matter how hard life might be or seem, there are better days ahead. I promise! |
AuthorMy passion is writing. I started writing stories when I was only 6 years old and I still do it today. Blogging is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, so here we are. Archives
July 2017
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