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.
~~~~
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!
~~~~
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!
i see myself married, teaching, and loving life.
Congratulations on your 1 year anniversary!! I have been your blog for a few months now and you have an amazing attitude in all that you do.
Halloween 2010 I will be lighter, both physically and emotionally; I will be just finishing my second month of MBA school; I will be very successful in my choosen career.
Most importantly, I will be continuously challenging myself to do the things that scare me and to truly believe in myself and all that I am capable of doing.
All the best in your second year!
One year from now… I was actually thinking along these lines this morning. Right now, I feel like I am doing things just because I always have done them. In the next year I want to scale back and do things because I truly enjoy them. Make my hobbies less of a “have to” and more of something I do for myself. I want more time to read books and bake and just chillax!
I see myself studying for exams and successfully passing them. I also see myself working on funding applications, and getting lots of money to go do research! Although I see myself as really busy during this time, I will be happy because I am doing what I love.
In one year…
My book that is almost written will be in the hands of a publisher.
I will be presenting at more and more professional conferences all over the place,
I will be more flexible because I will be stretching/yoga
My boys will be happy and so will I.
One year from now, I picture myself in graduate school and following a 100% vegan diet. I also hope to have run a 1/2 marathon by then.
I also plan on being more in touch with my body, both physically and emotionally.
Happy 1 year!
One year from today, I hope I am still as happy as I am right now. I can picture myself taking my two children out dressed in their cute costumes. Then snuggling on the couch with my husband talking about how great our kids are and whether we should sneak a little of their candy! :P
Happy Blogaversary!! I am so happy that you started this blog and have changed your life and so many others…mine included!! In 1 year from now, I hope to be living in our new house, handing out candy for the first time ever in a home we own. And shortly after…maybe a baby????
I just want to say congratulation on a wonderful year of blogging and living life. In one year I want to be … I think this is weird, but I like where I am now. So, where I am not, but even happier. :D
Congratulations on your first blogaversary! In one year, I want to have my Master’s degree, a solid “real” job (no more temp or intern jobs!), and finally be living with my boyfriend who will have been 9000 miles away from me for 1.5 years come this July. Oh, I do hope that happens!
Your blog inspires me SO much. And I would love to try a Glo bar, so hear goes…
I am a teacher. A middle school teacher. I love my job. What I don’t love is the No child left behind, suck all the fun out of teaching and practice taking standardized tests till we are all blue in the face. I want to, by next year on this very day, rekindle the love I once had for teaching. Not just feeling like a machine to “the Man”. So, I vow to bring back the joy in my job- play more classroom games, go outside and write poetry with my kids, take field trips even though it’s a “waste of academic time.” One year from today I want to say “I love teaching” again, not just “I tolerate it.” I think by embracing this change, and even going up against some resistance, I can find a happy medium for me and my students. Here’s to a new year filled with hope and promise!
Amy from Hawaii
I see myself healthy, fit, a 70.3 under my belt, married and happy!!! And maybe a puppy owner!
A year from now, i see myself as a confident, beautiful, marathoner, and nutrition student! I will be living in my own apartment with my doggy. I will be soo happy, healthy, and glowing!
Gosh i hope i can reach this! I am sick of living in the darkness of my own shadow!
A year from now I want to have a new support system of friends in my new town. I want to have exciting halloween plans. And I want to have healthy routines to preserve my happiness while beginning my Ph.D. program.
I will be happily married to my best friend.
In one year I would like to be binge free. I would like to be able to listen to my body better and give it what it needs. I would like to be free of all negative self talk (I am getting a lot better at this). I would also like to be finished my schooling, and hopefully planning a wedding or already married. I also hope that my fiance has his business up and running in the next year.
I want to be involved in a food justice coalition in the bay area and have a marathon under my belt.
Congrats on the anniversary!!
I one year, I hope to have run at least one half-marathon!!
I will be eagerly awaiting my lawschool decisions :) and still be the healthy & happy person I am!
I want to go back to school for nursing, figure out my relationship with my boyfriend (should we keep moving forward?) and continue blogging and staying active, while getting in better shape in the process.
Awesome giveaway!