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! What a fantastic giveaway to celebrate a huge milestone in the life of this blog and blogger!
One goal that I’d really love to accomplish by next Halloween is to have completed a half marathon. I see myself training hard over the next year so I’ll have one done before I’m 30! This blog has really inspired me to go for it. :)
Reading your story has made me realize that I don’t have to settle for anything less than what makes me happy. I’ve been struggling with my second year in college because I feel pressure to know what I want to do with my life, when in reality I have no clue whatsoever.
I hope that this time next year I find myself happy with what I’ve chosen to study in college, and to be dancing again after recovering from my shoulder injury.
Happy anniversary!
Angela! Your post about MAKING THINGS HAPPEN is perfectly timed, at least for me… I have been stuck in a funk of negativity for a few weeks and it’s killing me. I can identify with every single word you said – that one can be unhappy and guarded and be miserable … or one can make it beautiful and make it happen. And nothing will change unless we make a choice. And if we all look inside, we all have the power to do ANYTHING we want.
I’m truly inspired.
Happy Birthday to OSG! It’s funny, I was just speaking with my advisor yesterday about thinking past the immediate future. So based on that conversation, I want to think about the long term for my career and have some sort of flexible plan in place. I will also have completed my PhD and hope to either be a new mom or to have my first on the way!
A year from now I hope to be living happily with my boyfriend, maintaining my healthy lifestyle, training for my 2nd Turkey Trot, and getting close to getting that elusive bachelor’s degree.
Happy Blogiversary!
Angela-I can’t believe you have had your blog only a year. I’ve only been a reader for the past few months, but it seems so huge for only a year. Congrats! This giveaway looks incredible. In October of 2010 I see myself as a stronger person who loves the person she is. I am growing towards this each and every day. I will have also completed a marathon by this time, which will be a huge accomplishment for me, and something I can take off my bucket list. I also see me achieving great things with whatever job I have at the time. I hope to have gotten a promotion and become a stronger individual and employee.
Congrats again for such a great blog. It’s a great read for sure!
~Lauren
Happy anniversary!
October 31st 1010, I will be 23 years old and just in my first few months of teacher’s college. I hope to be enjoying my teaching placements. I hope those experiences will shape me into becoming the best teacher, motivator and a positive influence on those young peoples lives.
On a less career oriented note, I hope that my family is all well and healthy (pigging out on Halloween goods no doubt). And I hope that my circle of friends expands and that I can share my life and laughter with great people all around me.
Hey Angela!
Happy Blogiversary!! In one year from now I hope to be happy with a job as a mechanical engineer. I am graduating from college in May 2010 and I am little scared yet excited for my future. I am going to be an engineer and I hope that one year from now I am not only happy at my job but happy with my new life too :)
By this time next year I will have completed my second (or third!) marathon, and I will be relaxed…enjoying school…at a job I love…content with my body. Happy Halloween!
One year from now I will have a few things under my belt. I’ll be a college junior with an improved GPA. My minor will already be taken care of, and I will be happy. I may be studying abroad in Japan if I decide that I want to go for the fall semester. I will have once more taken care of my body issues and eating problems. Going home won’t be a reason for me to overeat anymore. I will be healthy on the inside and out. I hope to continue running then as well even though I let my training go so far downhill for this upcoming half-marathon.
Congrats!
In one year, I hope to be happy. I am happy now and I hope that I will be as content as I am in this moment in one year.
Great post!
In one year, I want to have an idea for my dissertation. I want to be more mature and responsible, and never late for anything (well at least not because it’s my fault). I want to have a great group of friends, and either be engaged or not dating the current bf anymore.
Amazing post!
One year from today… I will still be focusing of a healthy lifestyle for myself and my family! Praying together, running together, and eating whole natural foods together!!
Happy Birthday!!!
I really love love love your blog…
One year from today: I will be living in the city I want to be in, in a safe environment, working at a job I love.
Today I am living in an sketchy area of town in a city I dont want to be in. I do work at a job I love and that is really the only thing that gets me thru the days!…urgh….
Thanks again for your blog-really inspiring to me.
:)
Congrats to you!
One year from now? I will have all my clinical psych residency apps in, have just finished my first half marathon, be getting closer to defending my dissertation, have just completed month two of working as a behavior health specialist for low-income community members, be completely free of my current health concerns, and be living a very healthy, happy, and hopeful life.
One year from now I would like to be at a college I’m happy with, or enjoying the one im at now more. I would like to be involved and have some great new friends. I would like to move on from my high school friends. It will be difficult but by being myself I hope I can accomplish this.
Happy birthday, OSG! and Happy Halloween, Ange!
A year from now, I see myself much healthier than I am now. I see myself running 5ks and half-marathons and incoporating a healthy lifestyle to my everyday life. I also see myself in the Nursing program at my university(I’m a second year Pre-Nursing student right now). I see myself much happier too. I see myself no longer second guessing my abilities and loving myself, flaws and all.
In one year I want to be starting on my masters in nutrition, hopefully making my life happier since I will be pursuing what I really want to do with my life. You inspire me, since you are enjoying your job and what you do!
In one year I will still be in college, hopefully studying hard and enjoying my school year. I will have figured out my major and settled in at my university. :)
happy birthday!!
in a year I would love my small start up side project to be a real business.