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!
Hopefully I will have my OWN successful blog and be living somewhere amazing–Europe?!
A year from now, I hope to be in the midst of my masters program (after having had a fab grad party in May 2010)… I hope to have my own classroom at the National Cathedral School. I hope to be engaged and planning my wedding with my love. I hope my little brother decides to go to school closer to me so we can see each other more often. I hope that I continue to thrive as an after school program director (the position I was just offered!) and it becomes the go-to place for children on Capital Hill.
I KNOW that no matter what, I will be content… my life is so full, and I love that, even when it gets to be overwhelming… At the end of the day though, I always strive to find contentment in my life and my situation. Without it, having all of my dreams met and accomplishing all of my goals will mean very little!
P.S. I also hope that I’m rocking a Nikon D-90 next year ;)
I aspire to finish my first tri this weekend and let go of yo-yo eating through a renewed confidence in who I am and who I am becoming.
In one year I hope to own my own house and be enrolled in graduate school.
One year from today…I hope to be at peace living in the moment.
I’m where you were a year ago, so a year from now I hope to be where you are today–happy, healthy and positive. Such an inspiration!
Ah I’m so glad I read this before the cut off – that prize looks AWESOME!!!
This post is truly inspring. Your journey over the year has been absolutely amazing, Angela. I’m so happy for you:)
Next year today, I’d like to be helping people live healthier lives through personal training, and going to school to become an RD, so I can help them more wholistically.
Thank you – so much – for writing this post:)
One year from today…
…I hope to have found a sport I’m passionate about and embraced that activity (IronMan? Except I’m not a runner so that part still scares me)
…I hope to be living for today instead of worrying about tomorrow.
…I hope to be embracing what I love, making the time for my passions, instead of putting them second to other peoples needs/wants.
…I hope to have completed the transition to a more raw food diet.
And I hope to continue to be inspired by wonderful bloggers such as yourself :-) Thank you for such a great post that made me think about what I really want, and to make the goals seem so obtainable.
Your story is so beautiful and inspiring!
On October 31, 2010, I hope to be doing my articling (internship) and to either have completed or very soon complete my first half-marathon!
One year from today I will be in my final year of my bachelor degree program, well on my way to becoming a dental hygienist, and that much closer to starting my career to become a registered dietitian! Only One Year!
One year from now my husband will be getting to change jobs That will include moving. I hope to be ten pounds lighter from healthy eating and regular walk/runs. It will be an exciting time!