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!
One year from now I hope to find that special guy to share my life with. I hope to find happiness in the work I do day to day. I hope to launch my freelance design career. I want to do design work for small companies/people and hope that this really takes off so I can work on starting my own small design business from home.
In one year, I will be living abroad and working to further my career while maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
Congrats on 1 year!!
In a year I see myself healthier-mind, body and spirt! I also hope I go after my dream job!
A year from now I will be a successful parade artist, working in a community setting using art to reach out to people. I’ll be fit, healthy and happy! Also, not sleep deprived!
I hope to be a new mom, continue to be a happy and healthy wife and have my side business launched. Congrats on 1 year and I hope for many more years of success for you.
Happy birthday!
A year from now I see myself running regularly and at least preparing to expand our family. :)
Aww, Happy Birthday, OSG!
In one year, I hope to be settled and happy in New York (its a big move for us!). I hope I figure out my “dream job” and how to get it. I’m nervous because all the jobs I’m interested in I am overqualified for, due to my food engineering degree. I feel like I should work in engineering for a few years to save up money and use my degree, but I can’t seem to find a food science/engineering job in Ithaca that I like and/or believe in.
So hopefully, in one year I will have found my “niche” in Ithaca… food writing? working for a Pilates/yoga studio? working for a small, local foods company? Eek!
Living a healthy lifestyle mentally, physically, and emotionally; which takes time and educating myself.
I see myself glowing. I want to be pregnant with my first child and I want to have spent my summer preparing my baby’s room. I want to be physically active, not just thin. I want to be eating natural foods and using natural household cleaning products to make a save environment for everyone (including my puppy dog). I want to have completed a successful year of teaching where all of my students pass and there is no “achievement gap.” And, lastly, I want to take two trips with my husband, to anywhere. Thats me. :-)
Congratulations and Happy 1st Birthday! I found your blog through one of the “young girls” in my office and you have inspired me to clean up my act! So, a year from now I hope to be back to running regularly and maybe even enter my first race – I’ve always wanted to, but have been too scared. Seeing you do it, Angela, has changed my thinking to “maybe I can do that too!” I want to be eating a more healthy, natural diet and to be “glowing” from the inside out! Mostly, I want to be accepting of me, with all my flaws, and be the best wife, mother, sister and friend that I can be. I want to feel more centered and hopefully accepting of this stage of my life; I’ve been missing my sons terribly since they left for college & the last 2 years I’ve been feeling a little lost and not taking care of myself. While I do work, my life and purpose was taking care of my family and, though I knew this day would come, it still kind of hit me hard; this blog has actually helped me to evaluate my feelings and get back in touch with me, so instead of feeling sorry for myself, I’m going to use the time that I now have to find “me” again, sans children and find out what I truly want. So a year from now I hope to be a better, more fulfilled, healthier and happier me!
In one year I see myself happy and in NYC! I want to move there so badly and I am working on a way to make it happen.
I see myself having a job that allows me to support myself and knowing how to knit fair-isle.
In one year from now I hope to be well on my way to achieving my dreams! To be more specific, hopefully by this time next year, I will be in medical school and have completed a full marathon!
In one year i hope to have complete confidence in myself and my abilities. I want to be a beautiful, HEALTHY girl who can enjoy every moment she spends with her friends and family. I want this “obsessive” past behind me, and instead a new appreciation for everything in life that I have, and to take advantage of that! There will obviously be good and bad days, but i’d love to be at peace with myself, and really take advantage of everything i’ve learned over the past year. I hope that this next year for me, is what this past year was for you :)
In one year from now, I want to feel good in my own skin. :-)
One year from now, I hope to be interviewing for medical schools and be a fantastic example of health for my future patients :)
In one year, I hope to have decided my life path and living my life to its fullest!!!
Happy Birthday OSG! On October 31, 2010, I will be at a new college well into the next chapter of my life. I’m a sophomore in college currently, and I just received my acceptance to transfer this past weekend for this coming Spring 2010 semester. I cannot wait to dive right in to these changes I have needed/wanted ever since I started school! :)
mostly, i just want to continue to be healthy and happy all year long. and if i could manage to get some of my writing in print by next year – that would make me smile.
happy, happy blogiversary angela! you’ve become such an important, inspiring voice in this community, and you should be so proud of everything you’ve accomplished!
congrats angela!
In a year I hope to see more balance in my life and better time management. As a law student, all of my time goes to studying and preparing for class. I want to find a better balance between health, social, religion, and school!
In one year, I hope to be married to my wonderful boyfriend and working with horses again in some form!