worth

Slay Say

Good morning SLAYER! 80% of success is just showing up.

New blog goes up Sunday, until then…SLAY on!

State Of Slay Show Up

Just Show Up

There were so many times in my life, before stepping on this path, when I never started things. When I meant to make better choices, different choices, healthier choices, but didn’t feel like I had enough information to start, or it wasn’t the right time, or I thought I should wait for a bigger sign, when really all I had to do was just show up. There are always excuses or reasons not to start something, or show up for someone or yourself, but all that is required is to show up, to do the best you can and figure it out as you go. No one has all the answers. No one. There isn’t some magical guide out there with the right way to do everything. Well, I guess there is, but it’s not something you can hold in your hand, it’s inside of us. Each an every one of us has that magical guide, it burns inside of us and when we connect with it, and listen to it, it shows us, not only by the way we feel, but it will show us in ways we can see, hear and touch. We just have to be open to it.

When I was living in the dark I had turned off that inner guide. My mental illness told me I knew better. that I didn’t need to listen to it, or that it wasn’t actually there at all, but it was, I had just stuffed it down, piled a bunch of stuff on top of it and had numbed myself so much I couldn’t hear it anymore, or feel that it was there. That’s exactly where my disease wanted me, so it could tell me things that weren’t true. It told me that there was no use in starting something new because it wouldn’t work, or I wouldn’t be good at it, or no one would accept me. And since I had turned off my inner guide and wasn’t sharing these thoughts with anyone, I believed it. I watched opportunity after opportunity pass me by and each time I did, I sank deeper in the darkness. The only opportunities not taking those opportunities gave me was the ability to continue to knock myself down and tell myself I wasn’t good enough, that I was too much of a coward to start something new or try to live a better life, or that I wasn’t worth showing up for. It seems so simple, looking back, that each time an opportunity did come up all I had to do was show up to make a difference, to change the pattern I was in, but I stayed where it felt safe, where my disease wanted me, until I had to make a change to save my life.

I can’t say what exactly happened to make me finally show up for myself, I just knew that I had to or I would no longer have a choice. That little bit of light inside of me shined that night as bright as it could, but it was enough, it was enough to ask for help and to finally show up. When I did, I had no idea what to do next, or how things were going to go, but I was there, I was present for me, and I asked for direction from those who had stood where I was, and I kept just showing up, each day, and each day I got stronger, I got better, I started to shine brighter.

You don’t have to know all the answers, or the path you need to be on to change your life. Just show up. Be willing. Be open. Just be. One of my favorite quotes is by Zig Ziglar, it goes “You don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.” Just start, because that in itself is great, and if you show up each day ready to start and take on whatever may come, one day you may just realize how great you really are. SLAY on!

SLAY OF THE DAY: Do you stop yourself from starting something new or something you know is good for you? Why? What’s stops you? What do you tell yourself that stops you? How can you get around this? What should you be starting that you haven’t? What can you do to start? How will starting help you? Focus on the good SLAYER, focus on how showing up can help you grow, help you to move on, and help you to move forward to where you are meant to be. I know that can be scary, walking on a path you’ve never walked, but trust that you are there for a reason, and know that there are many of us walking that same path who will walk with you. You are not alone. Just show up. You’ll see us there.

S – self L – love A – appreciate Y – you

Worthy Of Love

I find myself in a place I’ve never been. A place I don’t think I thought I would ever be in. A place that is new, where I am vulnerable, and I’ve been, and am vulnerable, but this is a new kind of vulnerability, a good kind, a sweet kind, a kind I should be, and am blessed to be experiencing, and yet I find that I get scared in this place. That in itself surprises me. I have walked this road for almost 13 years now, and I’ve learned that my vulnerability is one of my strengths, but what I’ve learned, in this place that I am, is that there is still a part of me that doesn’t believe I am worthy of this kind of love. No one is more surprised by this than I am. My whole being is about self-love, receiving love, and sharing love with others, so now, in this place of ultimate love, how I can I be so scared? How can I still have this doubt deep inside that I’m not worthy of someone else’s love?

When I first realized that that is what my fear was based in, it made me sad. It saddened me to think that there was still a part of myself that didn’t believe, and that that part of me that had been laying dormant, silent, while the rest of me celebrated myself and the love I did have in my life, but this love is different. This love is true. Not that the other love in my life isn’t, or wasn’t, but this is a kind of love I’ve never known, one that I had seen, in other people, or in the movies, but never really believed was real or could happen to me. But here it is. And here I stand, scared of what that kind of love means. It seems silly to me when I think about it, that fear, but it’s there, and very real, and then that sadness rolls like low fog telling me I don’t get to have this kind of love. But I do, and I am, but that part of me that is sick, the disease, is trying to make one last stand to get in the way of me and my happiness, and all of the work I’ve done that had led me here.

So what now? Well, I know I have to walk through this fear. I know it’s not real and I know it’s based on the stories I used to tell myself. I do deserve to be happy. I do deserve to be loved. I do deserve to have this kind of love in my life, and I know I can have it, I do have it. I have to conquer my fears, and tell those voices that they’re wrong, they’re lying to me, they’re not going to win. For some reason it feels like it used to when I had to fight, it’s brought up those feelings of doubt, but I know I have it in me, I know the truth, and I deserve to walk away beating my fears to something really wonderful, and I will. I guess, in my my commitment to always be honest with all of you, I had to say all of that out loud, to share it with you all so that it would lose some power over me, and to know that all of you SLAYERS are standing by my side with your torches ablaze as I walk through my fears.

If you find yourself in fear, or feeling not worthy of love, walk with me, because you do, and are, let us stand together and move forward through our fears to the love that is waiting for us, that is ours. Stop listening to those voices or old stories that tell us we don’t get to have it, we do, and are meant to. Focus on the love in your life and see the love all around you, the love you receive and the love you give, know that you are worthy of all of it, and that there is much more love out there waiting for you. Tear down the darkness of your fears and let the light of love in, even if you’re afraid to let it, it is in the light of love that our true spirit shines, and we fully become who we are meant to be. SLAY on!

SLAY OF THE DAY: Do you feel worthy of love? If not, why not? Why do you think you don’t feel worthy? Is it because of things that have happened in your past, or things you were told? Are these things valid today? Are they true? Or are they just stories or experiences from our past from before you became the person you are today? Let go of the past SLAYER, focus on who you are and what you need. Let love in, and don’t listen to those negative voices that tell you you don’t deserve love, they don’t speak the truth, and only you can silence them by showing them just how much love you are capable of having. Let your light shine.

S – self L – love A – appreciate Y – you

Slay Say

Good morning SLAYER! Showing up for yourself is not a luxury, it allows you to show up as the best version of yourself.

SLAY on!

State Of Slay To-Do List

Slay Say

Good morning SLAYER! When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in, but that’s the point of the storm.

New blog goes up Tuesday, until then…SLAY on!

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Slay Say

Good morning SLAYER! You can’t hang around negative people and expect to have a positive life.

New blog goes up Tuesday, until then…SLAY on!

State Of Slay Worth

Hang Around People Who Like You

Now this one seems like a no brainer, but how many of us hang out, or choose to spend time, with people who don’t really like us? When we are not feeling good about ourselves, when we are not proud of ourselves or we are feeling less than, we look for people who we can spend time with who may be lower companions, people we feel are far worse off than we are, or at least, just as bad, because we think they won’t, or can’t, judge us. We may also look for people who will continue to tell the narrative we’ve been telling ourselves, one that we may have been telling since our childhood, so we look for those people who will help us to continue to tell that story, one that may keep us sick and dull, dimming our light. It seems crazy that we would do that, purposely look for people who will keep us in a place that is not our authentic selves, but we do it, and many times we do it without even realizing that’s what we’re doing.

We have to believe we deserve good people in our lives, and we have to believe we are also one of those good people. For me that took some work. I hated myself, and thought if you could see the real me, you’d hate me too. So I looked for people who wouldn’t ask a lot of questions, or would believe the person who I pretended to be so they would like me, or at least like me around. I also looked for people who were confrontational, or who I could rise out of, so when I wanted to fan the flames of the story I would tell myself, that I was a bad person, that person would oblige, reinforcing that story. When I made the commitment to get well I had to really look at the relationships in my life. I had to ask myself why I had chosen each person, and if, within this new lifestyle, they could stay. Most did stay, but some had to go. The people I did keep in my life did like me, even when I was living in my sickness, or struggling, they liked me even more, and even loved me during my toughest times. And where I used to not trust someone if they had liked me, I now was able to start liking myself by allowing myself to see what they saw. I was able to back into my own self-love, or like, through theirs.

When we have people around us who like us, support us and cheer us on, we can do anything, but we have to allow those people into our lives, we have to seek them out, and if we’ve chosen the wrong people as we move forward into a positive place, we have to let them go. Each person we choose to have in our lives is a reflection of us and who we are, and if we’re truly being honest with ourselves we have to look at the group of people we’ve surrounded ourselves with and ask ourselves what is being reflected back at us by those people. Find your group of people who like you, who love you, who support you and want the best for you. Surround yourself with them, keep them close and allow them to lift you up when you need to be reminded how amazing you are. Look for those people who like you, who understand you, who want the best for you, and like you just as you are and who you are working to be. Let those who you let into your life represent who you are and the journey you are choosing to take. Make sure they like you, and most importantly, make sure you like yourself. SLAY on!

SLAY OF THE DAY: Do you choose the right people to spend time with and be in your life? What types of people do you look for? How do the people in your life inspire you? How do you hurt you or tear you down? Why do you let them? Are you wanting them to tear you down? Why? What if you choose people who lift you up? What if you only allowed people in your life who liked you, encouraged you, loved you? What do you think would happen? Do it SLAYER, focus on those people, or find them, they’re out there, look for the people who are walking the same path as you are, look for the people who you can relate to, who you feel comfortable listening to, and who will cheer you on as you work to be your best you. Stay in the middle of these people, and when things get tough, find some strength within their strength, and let them propel you to the next level. Stay in the middle of the good.

S – self L – love A – appreciate Y – you

 

 

 

Slay Say

Good morning SLAYER! Let love in.

New blog goes up Friday, until then…SLAY on!

state-of-slay- Self-Destruction

It’s Very Difficult To Push Love Away

Now don’t get me wrong, it can be done, I’ve done it, back when I didn’t love myself, I did push love away because I didn’t accept it, or didn’t believe it, or felt I was unlovable. So, it is possible to push love away, but it takes an effort.

When I started on this path I hated myself. I hated myself so much I would look down to brush my teeth because I couldn’t stand the site of myself in my bathroom mirror. I knew a journey of self-love was going to be a long road, and I wasn’t sure it was a road I would ever find an end to, but I started the journey anyways because I could see others on that road who had found what I was looking for. I surrounded myself with the people on that road, all on different parts of their journeys, but on the same road I was now walking, and those I found on my path showed me love. It was hard to accept at first. I didn’t trust it. And, I still didn’t believe I deserved it. But they loved me anyway, they loved me far before I loved myself. And even when I resisted, or told myself it wasn’t real, they kept loving me, and showed me I was worthy of love, as they all were. I learned to love them for their support, their encouragement, and through their love I slowly learned to love myself. I was shown that no matter what I had done in the past, no matter how ashamed I may have been by my own actions, no matter how disappointed I may have been in myself, I was worthy of love, I was lovable, and, I was love. I was no longer able to push it away, even on those days those negative voices in my head wanted to tell me differently, their love was far greater than my fear of it.

There is love all around us. Much more than we realize. And even more when we’re open to letting it in. We may push it away. Say we don’t have it. But the truth is, it’s there, we just have to let it i, believe we deserve it, and stop pushing it away. Making the decision to allow love in our life is sometimes the first act of love we show ourselves, and sometimes is the biggest act love we can show ourselves. It takes much more effort to push love away than it does to let it in, but once we do that’s when the magic starts to happen, and those dark places within us start to see some light. It may be a little at first, but when we let it in, and we feel it come in, it may just be as smile, a tiny warm spot in the darkness were we lived, but if we focus on the light, that warmth, it will grow, it will get warmer, brighter, and it will start to feel like home.

Let go of what stands in your way of love and let it in, even if you think you don’t deserve it, let it in anyways and learn to trust that you are worthy of it. If we just stop pushing it away, we may just realize that it’s there and through the love of others, we may also find a way to love ourselves, and there is no greater gift than that of self-love. SLAY on!

SLAY OF THE DAY: Do you see all the love in your life? Do you let it in? Do you believe you are worthy of love? If not, why not? Do you push love away? Why do you do this? What in your past has caused you to do this? Are those reasons valid today, or part of the old you, the story of your past that is no longer valid, or, you can choose to no longer make valid. Does love scare you? Why? Do you have love for yourself? If not, why not? Write down 3 things, SLAYER, that you can find love in yourself. Find 3. Did you have love for yourself in the past? If yes, what happened, how did you lose that love for yourself? You can get it back SLAYER. And, if you’ve never had it, you can find it. Look for the love in your life. Find people, like yourself who are also seeking love, look for those who have found it, who will support you on your journey to find love, let their love fill you up until you can find your own. Allow love in your life and tell yourself you are worthy of love. I know you can SLAYER, if I can, you can, and, I already love you, so use my love to start your journey. I will see you there. I love you.

S – self L – love A – appreciate Y – you

Slay Say

Good morning SLAYER! When you stop doing nothing and just start to do something, it starts to change everything.

New blog goes up Tuesday, until then…SLAY on!

State Of Slay Steps