Authentic YOU

Happy Saturday! Today’s post is a little different; we are going to get deep here ladies! So grab your morning cup of coffee, and let’s get into it. It has taken me 24 years to finally embrace and accept myself. I’m going to be perfectly honest, it has not been easy, but I am loving where I am right now. Nowadays social media constantly throws images in our face of who/how we are supposed to be, how we should act, how we should dress, even what we should eat! I was never the type to follow the sheep of life, I always did what I wanted, but not everyone is like that. Each one of us is unique, we each have our own wants and needs.

I ask myself that question every day. What do I want to wear today? What music do I want to listen to on my commute to work? What do I want from Starbucks? I always put my physical and mental health before anything because I know that by doing so, it will allow me to be in a great mood ready to take the day on head first, as well as think clearly, making the best decisions with a free heart and mind.

Everyone always says “Follow your heart, not your head” but I personally believe that your inner voice is more powerful than your heart and sadly most of us don’t listen to it. We are influenced by peers, social media, significant others and even strangers. We have to step back, reflect, ignore the voices around us and come up with the best decision/solution to our wants and desires and simply not care what anyone else thinks/says! Again, not an easy thing to do. Start off small! Wear that bold lipstick color to work, eat a donut if you want to instead of skipping breakfast!

The most important thing I’ve done for myself was filter out the people I surround myself with. I talked about this in my New Years Thoughts blog post (read more here). Growing up my parents always told me, “Alex, it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.” They were 100% right. You don’t need to have loads of friends. What’s important is to have good friends, even if you have just one. People come in and out of our lives for various reasons all the time. Some relationships don’t last forever and that’s OK! I personally believe that we meet each person for a reason, and that reason is to learn something about ourselves or just life in general. Pull away from anyone that makes you feel less of yourself. Life is too short. Know what you deserve. Be clear of the qualities you want in friends and significant others and you will see that you will begin to find exactly what you’re looking for..and most importantly, DESERVE!

Every one of us is unique and we all have something special to offer the world. When we learn to accept ourselves, do things that benefit ourselves, follow our heads and surround ourselves with good, loving people, everything starts to fall into place. Of course we will all have our ups and downs, there will always be highs and lows in life. However, if you build a solid foundation for yourself, you’ll be able to take on anything life throws at you on your own terms.