and Happy Halloween to all!!!!!
It is hard to believe it has been 1 YEAR since I started Oh She Glows! A year really CAN change a lot.
Missed Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, or Part 7??
If anyone is looking for a last minute Halloween costume- you could go as an Operation Beautiful note! ;)
Here is the one I wrote today on my big ‘post-it’…
It’s going by the door!
One thing blogging has taught me over the past year is that being true to myself has dramatically changed my life for the better.
I realized that the ‘real me’ WAS good enough! In fact, the real me is what everyone wanted to see all along, but I didn’t know that.
I always thought I had to hide who I really was- a goofy, silly, shy, yet fun-loving and IMPERFECT woman.
Once I took my wall down and was true to myself I realized that good things started happening to me.
I was happier, less anxious, motivated, and peaceful. I fell asleep quickly at night. I woke up eager. I dreamed big.
People around me seemed to like me more, probably because I wasn’t walking around stressed out and counting every calorie in my head over and over again or thinking about how unhappy I was.
Oh She Glows got me through one of the most difficult times of my life. It is what made me realize that I could do something that I loved to do. I could touch people with my words. I could help other women overcome their disordered eating, obsession, and negative self-image. I could be silly, and weird, and goofy, and basically do whatever I wanted on this blog. I could take a picture of a beautiful flower and post it. I could vent about a problem or talk about ideas, goals, motivations, aspirations, and visions…
Oh She Glows made me finally feel in control of my happiness.
I started to think outside the box. I dreamed big. I knew that I deserved to be happy.
Things inside me started to click.
I had spent the better part of my graduate program miserable and now I was miserable in my career. What would have to change until I decided enough was enough? When would my life be a HAPPY life?
Well, something happened along my blogging journey. I realized that nothing was ever going to change unless I did something about it.
Opportunities don’t just happen to people, you have to MAKE them happen.
When I realized this, my whole perspective changed.
I knew that unless I took action, I would be miserable my whole life. I pictured myself in the same job until I was 50. Is that what I wanted, to be a passive recipient of what life gives me?
Absolutely not!
None of us know what cards will be dealt to us. I don’t know if I will be around next week, next year or for my 50th birthday. It would surely suck to piss away these amazing years being unhappy. Where is the fun in being miserable all the time? It was the same sort of realization I had when I decided to give up obsessing over my weight, exercise, and food. Was it working for me? Hardly- I was stressed out and unhappy day in and day out. I was hungry all the time. Eric broke up with me for a few months in 2003 because things got so bad. Being miserable did NOT work for me with my eating disorder or in my career.
Each positive step that I took, I felt like I jumped a mile. Positive things breed more positive things. As soon as I broke the cycle of negativity in my life, I was a changed women.
It just takes a series of small actions and then one BIG action (think- KABOOM!) to finally break away from the chains that you have in your life.
My KABOOM! moment was when I decided to tell my boss, in a heated moment, that I was done. I felt like a bomb went off inside me. Suddenly everything was changed.
I thank my lucky stars that I started Oh She Glows exactly 1 year ago. I was a very unhappy and guarded person. I felt like a drone. Some days I didn’t feel anything except nothingness and a void. This blog didn’t just turn a light bulb on in my head, it turned on an entire football stadium of lights. Everything started to click. I had these amazing women who read my blog and believed in me. After a while I started to believe in me too.
After a bad day I logged on and just wrote. Sometimes light topics like fashion or make-up and sometimes more serious ones. It was sort of like cheap therapy for me. I was on the couch indeed typing my heart out.
This isn’t just a healthy living blog to me.
It represents HOPE for change.
Hope that each and every one of us can find our own personal definition of happiness. To be true to ourselves, and to believe in our own authentic power.
I still feel like I have a lot to learn, but the only difference now is that I feel like I am slowly on my way, and better yet, I am excited about it. I am no longer stalled or going in reverse like I was for so long.
I truly think that all of us have the same basic goals…to feel loved and to feel like we have a purpose on the earth. To feel like our true self is in harmony with what we do day in and day out.
The power within all of us is so great. If we only touched on it briefly each day we could all do amazing things.
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And now it is time for Oh She Glows birthday giveaway!
HOW TO ENTER:
Close your eyes. Picture yourself on October 31, 2010. Now leave a comment and tell me how you picture your ideal life 1 year from today. Maybe you have goals or hopes. Tell me what you want to be doing, living, breathing…The first step is writing it down.
The giveaway is for one lucky US or Canadian reader to win everything below! (Click to enlarge).
All of this is from the Health food trade show I went to. Tons of teas, bars, beauty healthy products, etc! I’m not naming it all, but you get the idea. :)
I also added some of my favourite products to share: Glo bars, Mary’s Crackers, Organic raw Cacao nibs, and PC Sun-dried tomato no salt added seasoning (the LBD of seasonings!)
YUM!
Contest closes: Tuesday Nov. 3, 2009 at 8am.
Bonne chance!
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Thank you to each and everyone of you for your amazing support over the past year! If there are any of you out there who have followed my journey since the beginning- well, that is quite awesome.
ONWARD and UPWARD!!!!!!!
Now, BED TIME at 1:20am. Tomorrow AM: Finish making up the fake house, costume + party planning, and baking!
PS- There is also a giveaway for GLO BARs over here! Leave a comment to enter!
Happy Birthday OSG! :) I feel like i’m wishing my “big sister website” a great day. hehe
Where do I see myself in a year?
…married over 1 year
…potentially working towards a new career (or sideline career!).
…potentially planning a move to Canada
…potentially a family of 3 instead of 2
…still writing for my blog and hoping to make it as great as yours!!
It’s fun to think of all the potentials!
This time next year, I’ll be turning 22 (I’m a Halloween baby!), I’ll be more than halfway through my last semester of college (graduating in Sociocultural Anthropology), hopefully with an internship lined up and a graduate school picked out–My future is slowly unfurling!
I want to be able to keep a boy for longer than a split second, I want to be able to eat and live more consciously vegetarian and I want to love myself a billion times more than I already do now. This was an amazing post.
love and xoxoxxox
Lo
happy 1st birthday! good giveaway and question!
hmm where i see myself in a year?
-hopefully being successful at my job
-continuing to be happy with my boyfriend
-strive to always be healthy
-working more towards getting a degree
Wow, you are TRULY inspiring!!
Where do I see myself in a year?
-living back in the states (finally!) :)
-finishing up my last semester of grad school
-on the verge of getting a wonderful government job serving the environment and our community
-still blogging, and hopefully making a difference in at least a few people’s lives :)
-still married and so happy!!
-still running and competing in triathlons!
Happy Birthday!! Love this blog!
In a year, I hope to be pregnant or maybe even have a baby ;)
Also,I hope to still be running long distances, growing in my relationship with my husband, growing in my relationship with the Lord, and being content with what I have and what I look like!
It’s posts like this that keep reminding me why I really need to change my job situation and stop waiting around to figure it out. What I’m realizing is that I might never figure it out but I have to try new things before I can know for sure.
In one year I hope to have a new job, be in the final stages of preparation for our move to Spain, hopefully be starting my sommelier diploma program, and enjoying life. I will have my eyes set on my ultimate fitness goal – Ironman 2011.
HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TO OH SHE GLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!
what an awesome giveaway, and what a great thought provoking question!! gosh, I would hope to be happier with myself in terms of learning how to cope with sress…I would hope to be in a joyful, healthy relationship still (whoa, weird!) because I can’t imagine this person not in my life right now, anddddddd I hope to be bumpin with my school and studies.
Ange, I’m so proud of you and all that you have accomplished this year INCLUDING leaving your job and following an entirely new path. You are such a beautiful, inspirational woman and your posts bring me a lot of joy.
October 31, 2010 – I aspire to happy and healthy. I hope to have performed solo in a belly dancing show. I hope to be leading more Weight Watchers meetings and helping many more people reach their healthy living goals. I hope to be in a job where I feel inspired and happy. I will be in school studying nutrition!
Happy Birthday OSG ! I remember reading your blog from the start, it is crazy how much it has evolved in one year !! Even though I dont comment often, I was reading all along throughout your major life changes lol. Thank you for being and inspiration and I am positive that you will have great success with Glo Bakery !
In one year I would like to have a better relationship with my body and food. I also want to try even more new fearless things that are out of my comfort zone.I would hope for my family to to be happier too because we went through a rough summer. And I want to do good with my studies and career.Most importantly, I dont want to take any thing for granted and I hope that I will be more appreciative in general and take advantage of every moment !
Congratulations Ange on a wonderful year of blogging. Your blog has been a lifeline to me – it’s like having a close friend that always has some words of comfort and some good advice to share.
I’m an OSG addict and I’m proud to admit it! :)
All the best and enjoy your Halloween!
I one year I picture myself attending the law school of my dreams.
Congrats on a year. You have made my life better in so many ways :)
For the past year and a half, my husband and I have been waiting for him to find a new job. In the coming year I need to take the initiative to find a job in the one of the cities we want to live in, instead of waiting for the economy in his field to look up.
By this time next year, I hope I can be happy with what I am/have instead of always comparing myself to others.
Congratulations on your first anniversary!
I have very simple hopes for the year ahead. I wish for the continued happiness and health of my family. I also want to find a new profession that will bring me the sense of fulfillment and peace that you seem to have found in your new career.
Happy anniversary to OSG and most of all to you Ange for finding your true self!!!
In one year, I see myself even more at peace with myself than I am now. I see myself still enjoying the fitter body and lifestyle I have been living the past 2 1/2 years. I see that inner glow showing through in MY eyes and smile like it does with YOU, AND I see a 5K in my future!
I want to be exactly where I am now, but perhaps a little wiser. Healthy, happy, fit, still in my grad school program (but further along in my research), and smiling!
VERY HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY AND HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!
My ideal life a year from now = healthier and stronger than ever.
Happy birthday, OSG!
This past year God has really brought me into a lot of freedom about who I am and my value and worth. So in one year… increased growth in this, loving who I am, even healthier than I am now, learning to listen to my body and respond to it. Done renting and in a house all our own! And writing poetry again, ones I can be proud of!
I love this post… and I’m so glad I stumbled onto OSG!
By October 31, 2010, I want to be living on the west coast with the hubby and the cats, and enjoying the start of a new phase of my career… either at work or at school. Phew. Said it! Guess now I gotta get working on it??? :)
One year from now, I want to be in Canada, working on whatever my Externship to be a chef has me doing on Halloween day. I want to come home at night to my boyfriend, and maybe go to a halloween party in fun costumes. Most of all, I want to be happy, healthy and glowing. =)
Congrats on 1 year!!
xo
K