![]() Are you a people pleaser like me? My whole life, I have always put others first before me. Yes, that can be a positive quality...but when it becomes so important for you to please others before you please yourself, it can in fact have a negative impact in your life. Being someone who is a people pleaser, it can sometimes be difficult or scary being in social situations. With the need to please others, I am always worried of saying something that will upset someone or to say no to them. Don't get me wrong...trying to make people happy is a good thing! That is, until it becomes so important to you that you are pushing away your own needs. So...how can you be a people pleaser and please yourself first? Well, it's easy. This is my new strategy: I tell myself, that everytime I try to please someone else first, I need to please myself first three times. So, in other words...it's a 3:1 ratio. Every three times you please yourself, you can please someone else first one time. That way, you can still please others while pleasing yourself as well! (which is most important!). I am interested in learning about your strategies! What do you do to make sure you please yourself first? What makes you please other first? And how can you go about changing that?
0 Comments
![]() I recently posted a blog post about practicing gratitude. I am here today to expand a little bit more on that. When you are in any situation, you have to think to yourself:"I am grateful because...". Fill in the blank with anything that brings you peace and or with something that makes you feel lucky. I for one am grateful for everyday things. I'm grateful for fresh air, I am grateful for my family and my best friends. I feel lucky to have people who love and care for me. As I have been trying to incorporate practicing gratitude everyday in my life, I have been able to feel more at peace with things that I would usually view as negative. However, this practice should not dismiss your feelings. Meaning, it is important to allow yourself to feel. Once you've had your time to feel (whether that'd be feeling something positive or negative), there is one more step that closes the gap between allowing yourself to feel and practicing gratitude, and that step is acceptance. For everyday problems, whether that'd be not passing a test or arguing with a friend, it's important to accept what happened and to accept the way you are feeling. Now comes the gratitude part... Picture yourself in that situation where got into an argument with a friend. Now, I know a lot of negative thoughts would probably come to mind (or at least that's what would happen for me!), but with gratitude, you think to yourself: "How could this be worse?" or "What can I learn from this situation?". Sometimes it takes a really long time to find a positive side of a negative situation and it almost seems impossible, but I promise you that there is a reason for everything (as cliché as it sounds). So, what I'm here to tell you is to not give up. Through difficult times, practicing gratitude and remembering what you are grateful for may help you feel the slightest bit better (who doesn't want to feel a little better!). Since I've been so interested in gratitude, I saw this shirt at the store the other day and I just HAD to buy it! ![]() I wanted to share with everyone what I think is the BEST night time routine! This night time routine is especially my favorite for when I want some alone time! I'm the kind of girl who absolutely loves to wear comfy and cute pajamas just because it makes me feel good :) Relaxation is a MUST for me, and for everyone else as well! No matter how busy you are. It is so important to set aside at least 20 minutes a day for some relaxation time. I love spending my alone time taking good care of my skin because it is something I love to do and am passionate about! Personally, at night time I like to relax by taking a little bit of time to watch my favorite tv show, which as you all now know is Gilmore girls! And lastly, I know a lot of people are like me and need some white noise to fall asleep. I usually put on my favorite sleep meditation. I've noticed that I fall asleep much easier when I listen to my sleep meditation than when I don't listen to it. For anyone who had a difficult time falling asleep, I would definitely recommend trying out meditation. If you try it out, give it a few different tries. It usually takes a little bit of time to get into it and to get used to the practice. If you're interested in trying it out and don't know where to start, reach out to me! I've been practicing meditation for years and although I'm not an expert, I have a lot of experience with it. 2021 is the year of confidence for me. Over the past few years, my confidence levels have been on a roller coaster. I've had my struggles and have made improvements, but it's difficult for a lot of girls my age to feel confident in their own bodies. Society and the media tells us that we're too skinny, too big, too short, or too tall. But I'm here to tell you that none of that is true. As a young adult who has had her fair share in self-esteem issues, I want create a safe space for those struggling to accept their bodies. However, recently I began my instagram page, @seekforselflove, to improve my self confidence. During this time, I have realized that my body is beautiful, no matter what anyone else says. If anyone knows me, you know I wear leggings almost everyday. I do this because I thought it was a good way to hide my curves (which it totally was!), but then I realized my body doesn't need to be covered up or hidden. So, as I am working on my confidence, I told myself that I needed to go out of my comfort zone to feel good in my body...I needed to show myself that I can be beautiful while wearing the same outfits as "skinny girls". As I started doing this more and more...I began to LOVE the way I look in jeans. So, here I am posting photos of my full body just the way I love it. I took these photos realizing that "Hey! I DO look good!". And I know anyone else struggling with confidence can feel the same way too. I have a beautiful piece of artwork hanging above my bed with words written by one of my favorite authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Every morning I wake up and read this quote and suddenly remember that my worth is not defined by my body or by my looks, it is defined by my mental beauty, my kindness, and my love for other people. She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She was beautiful, for the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn't beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul. She is beautiful.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald
![]() So, this is going to be a very interesting blog post and I'm not sure it will be interesting for everyone reading. If I'm being completely honest, I'm not exactly sure of what I'm going to be writing, but we're going to see where this takes us... I am doing a self-care challenge this month, and the challenge for today was to watch your favorite TV show that will make you laugh. Obviously, one show came to mind...Gilmore girls. I'm currently watching Gilmore girls for the third time (IN A ROW!!). I find it very interesting because I think there is a deeper meaning as to why I've watched this show so much. I've even tried watching other shows but just felt like I needed more from Lorelai and Rory!! So, why am I watching it over and over again? I know I can't be the only one who does this!! Well, I've done some research today, but before I get into that, I'll tell you why I think I'm watching this one show over and over again. When I first began watching this show, I was probably at one of the happiest times in my life so far. Everything in life was going well and I was where I wanted to be. I feel comfortable and satisfied watching this show. So back to my research, I have read a lot that watching shows over and over again is very familiar to people suffering from anxiety...which made sense to me because I have anxiety and I like being aware of the end results (yes, I'm that person who will read the last page of a book before I even start it). As I am doing my research, I found that '"Nostalgia can lend us much-needed context, perspective and direction, reminding and reassuring us that our life is not as banal as it may seem,' psychologist Neel Burton, author of Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions, said in an interview. 'It also tells us that there have been — and will once again be — meaningful moments and experiences'." (Vargas, 2019). It's also the thrill of catching something in a show that you didn't catch the last two times you went through the series!! People who rewatch their favorite shows have the ability to control their own emotions. People often do this when they feel they don't have control of events in their lives or if they aren't content with the events in their lives. Now, I wouldn't say that I wasn't content the second and third time around, but I definitely had some things going on and enjoyed the fact that I had something in my life that was stable and I knew would not change. If you're like me and are rewatching whatever show it is that holding you captive...keep watching until you feel like trying something new! There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with doing what you are comfortable with...maybe I'm the only one, but if it's not harming anyone else...keep doing what you love. ![]() Today's talk is going to be about skin care. What products should I be using? How can I get affordable products? How do I know these products are actually good? Well, this is where I come in to help out! Now, I know I am not a skin care specialist and I'm not qualified in any of this, but I can tell you that I have done my research. Some of these products that I listed are my favorites, and others are products I found that were decently priced and only contained healthy ingredients. I use the website: www.ewg.org/skindeep// to make sure I am giving you all products that are not harmful! I have also done research on the best order to use these products in. I personally like to use a lot of serums and oils for my skin, but I didn't include those products in this (let me know if you want more on that!). Products in photo: Cleansers: 1. Knours. - Your Only Facial Cleanser 2. Versed - Wash It Out Gel Cleanser Steamers: 1. Nano Ionic - Facial Steamer 2. Wan Lab - Facial Steamer Exfoliators: 1. Hanskin - Hyaluron Exfoliating AHA Treatment 2. Bliss - Powerhouse Pumpkin Face Mask 3. Versed - Day Maker Microcrystal Exfoliator Masks: 1. Generation Clay - Brightening Purple Clay Mask 2. Save - Soothing Sheet Mask 3. Feel - Mindful Palo Santo Soothing Mask Toners: 1. Grove - Superbloom Gentle Purify Facial Toner 2. Whamisa - Organic Flowers Skin Toner ![]() Today, I created a worksheet called "Mindful brain dump". So...what even is a brain dump? Well, as some of you know, I am an elementary education major. Last semester, I learned a new strategy of how to bundle up all of the information you learned and get it all out on a piece of paper. So, anyways, I was asking myself earlier: "How can I do a brain dump but for something that I want to learn?". Well, as weird as it sounds, I like to learn about myself and how my mind works! So I incorporated this idea of a brain dump with mindfulness and it worked out well. I created this worksheet with five different topics. After I got the worksheet all settled out, I spent ten minutes to fill out the worksheet and I did in fact learn a lot about myself. I was able to get all of my ideas out that were scrambled up in my brain. Now that I have this worksheet all written out, I have a bunch of different things written out so I can adjust my days to be less stressed, more at peace, more happy, and less fearful. I really recommend using this type of strategy if you are interested in practicing mindfulness! It is great for beginners and for advanced people who are learning how to be mindful. If you are interested in this worksheet, look under the mental health worksheets tab or click the button below! Hi everyone!!
Today is a GREAT day, and I wanted to share some sunshine and happiness with you all. Today, I picked up some really cute “grow a plant” kits. I got a lavender plant and a sunflower dwarf plant! Seeing these plants in the store today made me really happy and I’ll tell you why. This past week, I have been following along with happiness meditation series. I have really enjoyed it, and last night was the last meditation in the series. Something really stuck out to me when I was listening. The focal point of the meditation was to find some things to incorporate into your life that makes you happy, and one of the things that I wanted to add more of in my life was plants, flowers, and gardening. When I saw these growing kits this morning, I got so excited that I was now able to start doing more activities that make me happy! So, I got home and started putting together the kit and while I was doing so, I was inspired to go out and spend some time in the beautiful weather on the cape. So, I walked outside and found two gorgeous flowers blooming. Seeing the first flower of the season makes me feel warm inside. You can finally see the sunlight at the end of the tunnel!! For me, this weather really is the light at the end of the tunnel. It brings me happiness and joy (as you probably already know from my last posts). I feel like this weather increases my mental health which I am sure a lot of you can relate to. So hopefully, this post will inspire you to get outside today! The outdoors on a day like today helps you recognize the beautiful nature in life. A few days ago, I started a meditation series on practicing gratitude, and I wanted to share with you what I’ve learned so far. Practicing gratitude pushes you to pull out the positives in any negative situations. This is to change your mindset. Looking for the positive in any situation, bad or good, will guide you to feel comfortable and fortunate with what you have. When thinking about things you are grateful for it can me something as simple as fresh air or maybe even a bed. When you think about it, these things we are grateful for aren’t as simple as they seem to us. What seems so small to us, could mean so much to others. Practicing gratitude has helped me this week by pushing me to see positives throughout the day. I have noticed things that make me feel grateful that I would have never noticed before. The feeling of experiencing things in this way is incredible. As we get ready for spring this year, many of us are very excited! For those of you who are healthy and happy right now, let’s be grateful for all that we have.A lot of people though are also struggling in health due to the pandemic or it may be from something else!
This spring, it is important to me to help out others in need and to share kindness and some positivity, especially for the people who are suffering right now. Over the past year, people have lost their jobs, are struggling financially, mentally, or health wise. Although we can’t fix all of that with a simple act of kindness, it costs nothing to bring happiness into those lives. For me, it is important to go out and do these simple acts of kindness for my great-grandmother so that I can make sure she stays healthy in these times.These simple acts of kindness are so much bigger than we think. It makes peoples day, it makes people happy!! Why not spend our time making others happy when we are 100% capable of doing so! |
CategoriesArchives
January 2022
|