Shining My Life in a New Light

I feel that each day and each week I'm learning something new about myself, about my character, about others and about life. I've come to realize that life is about a balance of opposites. You need to listen to your feelings, but also keep pushing forward and think positively. You have to strongly and stably ground yourself in your ideals and values, but also have an open mind. Love and respect others they way you would want to be love and respect, regardless of how they treat you, but remember that you are the most important person in your life. The list goes on! I've discovered, however, that you won't succeed in life if you take things too seriously. I've learned to criticize myself constructively and move forward without self-sabotaging about my mistakes. This takes positive and mature thinking. This also requires one to love, accept, and trust one-self. One has to feel like a complete entity when alone, but also be able to develop loving, trusting and valued relationships with others. I'll compare it to an earthquake and a threshole. You've always heard that the threshold is the safest place to be under during an earthquake because it's strong and stable. That's where you want to be in life. Under the threshold. Not all the way inside, or all the way outside; similarly, not all the way selfish, and not all the way selfless. There has to be a balance of both because the bottom line is YOU MATTER. People matter. Think positively. Keep moving forward. Love yourself unconditionally. And with that, I'll leave you with these two last presents. "Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward of this faith is to see what you believe." - Saint Augustine. Xoxo, SG

Lead with Attitude; Behavior Will Follow

Right now, I'm enjoying the freedom and liberation of summer. School ended not too long ago, and after this summer, I will be going into my last academic year of college - scary! As I look back onto my college career, I see a pattern of events: ups, downs, transitions... And regardless of what or who they entail, they are beautiful moments that result in the maturation of myself. What has helped me come out of all situations that have been presented to me is my friends and family; knowing there are people who love and care for me. The other thing that gets me through the un-get-through-able: music. Music can make me feel the feelings that I just can't seem to feel on my own; hopefulness, optomism, faith. I read in a book once to "lead with attitude, and behavior will follow." That being said, I'll leave you with the song of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K91Wx63qGg Be well, SG <3

Life

I'm going through a huge transition in my life, and you know, for what it is, I'm taking it pretty well. Of course, my head feels like it's going to explode sometimes, but for the most part I'm able to wake up every morning and smile about something - many things - in my life. My secret is simply keeping my goals and dreams in front of me, appreciating every little thing I have, and remembering that I am in control of myself. A mentor of mine said, "I always ask myself why people want to give others so much power over their feelings by saying, 'you made me mad.' No, those are your feelings, own them. You generate the feelings you feel and the thoughts you think. Other people influence them, but you ultimately control them." And it's so true. I live for that right there. I'm reading "Slaughterhouse Five" right now, and I finally watched "Scarface" for the first time yesterday. NUTS! These two works of literature were driving me insane! I mean, Slaughterhouse - that poor Billy Pilgrim! And, Scarface. Tony Montana... Yikes. Manolo on the other hand... Anyway, those are my thoughts for the day. I'm dedicating this blog to my newest favorite song, and a very accurate, instrumental metaphor of life ironically named... Life by John Dahlback. Enjoy. SG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBVjXIseNOE

P.S. I Love Me

"A worrier lives in the future." True ain't it? One of the biggest mentors in my life fed me that one, and I love it. It's a little disheartening when you let yourself self-sabatoge, and that's a very loose term. I mean, self-sabotage is different for everyone. Its subjective, absolutely. Regardless of what shape or form it's in though, it's damaging. I think the only remedy to self-sabatoge is recognizing it's irrationality and replacing it with a more realistic thought process. I tend to compare myself with other people, which ultimately means I base my worth on who is around me. Talk about irrationality. I mean, my components are there 24/7, regardless of who is around me, and I'm damn proud of them even if I don't necessarily show it all the time. It's about learning to love and accept yourself at all costs, regardless of where you are, what you're doing and who you're with. You will always be you. Recognize yourself and your characteristics. All of us are such valuable people, we barely notice it. We're walking feelings, each unique from each other, what's more precious than that? All these stressors and all these insecurities... They take away from what you could be doing too. I mean, it's not what you should be doing. It's what you could be doing. What could you be doing instead of being your worse enemy? You could be being your best friend and support system, making your life goals and progress more readily at grasp. Here's a song for you that advises it's listers to "Follow my dream like a dream ought to be followed": Daydream - Midi Matilda. Anyway, what I'm working on realizing is that you can only compare yourself to yourself. Are you a better person than you were yesterday? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzdyhuhE694 -SG

A Break Up without the Make Up

It's been more than a year since I've made this blog, and I'm just now writing my first post. If you ask me, I'm actually quite happy about that. A post by me one year ago would have sounded novice, and not that I don't right now, but this past year has proved itself quite the challenging one; and I'm not who I was a year ago. Twenty-one to twenty-two was more of a jump than I was prepared for. Or even 20 to 21, for that matter. On this day last year I was losing my friends, committed to a relationship and a man that had me dig my own grave, and I bought into all of it. Today, I'm single. I'm alone, something that doesn't necessarily happen very often in my life, but I can say I'm proud of it. I haven't felt this way since my first break up with my first boyfriend ever, my "first love," if you will. I was 15-years-old. I was devastated. I cried for about three days straight, and then I simply had no more tears left. So, I think I figured if I have nothing left in me to cry, then I might as well be happy starting today. It's nice to look back on that break up; to remember my heartache, though young and naive; because I know today I can get through it. This is a new beginning of a life that I now have 100 percent control over. Seven years ago, I was 15. In seven years, I'll be 29. I'm sure I'll look back to when I was a young 22-year-old girl dealing with my break up with... we'll call him Pat... and laugh, at the significantly insignificant break up I'm going through. Significantly insignificant because this is a big moment in my life; I've learned a lot; but it's only a stepping stone. Once I've stepped onto (or over) the stone, this phase of my life will be over. Time and patience are crucial right about now; and music. That being said, I'd like to dedicate my blog to this song, the one song that helped me through my first break up: Mr. Rainmaker - Warrant. I'm a free girl right now. I have the world on my shoulders. The world is my oyster. I can do what I want. Embrace yourself and only yourself for right now. I think I'm learning to love lonliness. SG