If Your Emotional Bandwidth Allows For It, Have As Many Friends As You Possibly Can. It Is Paramount.

I’m here to remind you to hydrate and smile! I hope you have a sweet sweeeet day and I hope October is treating you well ☁️ oh also, I’m proud of you for doing your best it’s good enough

Been hydrating and this just made me cheese/smile so hard you have no idea. Didn't see this earlier but I got to it when I needed it the most. You're the sweetest ✨ and I hope your existence is as sweet and thoughtful as you are. Thank you lovely.

self improvement is insidious in that it could easily be "go, go, go" a vicious neverending cycle. much like perfection and the finish line that will always be moving as you approach it, always out of reach. you set goals, you achieve them, you raise the bar- when is it ever gonna be enough? you'll never be satisfied always striving, forever reaching. but happiness as we know is not a destination, it is available here and now. so is self acceptance. yes strive, yes work towards your goals but let it be from a place of self love. leave the self flagellation, the shoulds, the musts. you've gotta be enough for someone and who better than yourself! when are you gonna live and be present if you're an ongoing neverending project? self improve and still leave space for who you currently are. they deserve the kindness, the joy, the freedom you're denying them and saving for future you?

wear the clothes you wanna wear now even if you've not achieved your dream physique yet, just an example. in short do the thing you're waiting to do when you achieve whatever it is you've set your mind to.

they say not to borrow tomorrow's grief and imma say don't curtail today's joy waiting for tomorrow

One thing I refuse to do, is force anyone to see my worth. I don't do that. I do not even try to make them see it. You either see it or you don't. But I'll know, from how they treat and handle me. And will then act accordingly. I will remove myself from situations where I'm treated like I am less than.

'Teach people how to treat you' and all but some treatment is just inhumane. You don't have to teach someone to recognize your inherent worth as a human being, as a person. On top of which they can recognize your worth and treat you even better but no- people just be acting clueless or entitled or as complete a** wipes.

~SM.

Tough love.

What comes to mind when you think of tough love? Maybe you've been lucky enough to have been tough-loved the right way. I on the other hand can't deny that it works, but at what cost? At what cost? How high is the price paid? Why can't we lovingly teach, mentor or lead?

If tough love is what I've known it to be up to this point, I want no more. I want no parts in it. All it's ever done is break my heart, shatter my spirit. For me it's been outright cruelty disguised as 'tough love', so excuse me while I get the hell away from it. It's harmed me more than it has helped me.

I needed tender, warm, soft love to bloom and flourish but they were more focused on giving me a spine of steel. They used a staff whereas I just needed a hand to hold. I see all the ways I might've turned out different. And I know, I know this might just be a life lie but you can't deny I would've turned out different. I think for the better, they thought for the worse.

All of that shit they did, that they explained away as 'tough love': 'we're only trying to help you, you'll see', 'we only want what's best for you', 'you'll appreciate this', 'we care because we love you' or 'we wouldn't do this if we didn't love you'. Tell me why 'this', why 'care', why 'love', why 'best' was abusive? Verbal, physical, emotional abuse. Tell me it wasn't manipulative?

Now anytime someone says, "tough love" to me, my breath hitches I tense up, readying myself for hurtful shit. And if I am this way, am I gonna be receptive to what they're gonna be saying or trying to get across? Is what they're referring to as tough love a guise for abuse and cruelty? Do they sound accusatory? What measures do they resort to? Do they believe that tough love is the only way there is?

And maybe, just maybe, sometimes we do need tough love. Just remember it isn't whatever that is, that leaves you questioning your existence; whatever that is, that breaks your spirit, hurts you, leaves you crying. And no, you can't tell me that someone who cares about you or your wellbeing doesn't have the capacity to not be cruel to you. Doesn't have the capacity to be firm but gentle with you, which is what tough love should be.

When does life start to feel heavy?

When your hobbies start to feel like chores

I just want the lightness and freedom back

I LOVE love it when my friends keep and hold me accountable. It's seriously so 🥺🥺. Like you see me, you want me to flourish, you care that I'm doing this life thing right, you want the best for me?!! And they do it ooh so gently. How amazing is it? 'kay bye, imma cry 😭😭

subjecting yourself to suggested playlists and mixes because how else are you gonna discover new music? it's torture!! but the payoff? coming away from it with two new songs you're completely obsessed with? bliss!!

It's all going to hurt. Just find what's worth the suffering or what's worth the pain and discomfort.

~my gut to me

What's it trying to teach me?

Give yourself a fighting chance!

for so long I have fought myself, being an all or nothing girlie. I am a perfectionist and if I couldn't do it perfectly then guess what? it wasn't getting done and that was that.

fast-forward to now and I don't swing from one extreme to another. I have found things that help me. find ways to make whatever is holding you back work for you!

I don't let my perfectionism hold me back. if I see that I want to quit something because it's not going the way I want it to or it's not turning out exactly as I want it to- I have stopgaps in place instead of giving in to my tendencies.

if I have a goal, I will research and break it down to the nitty gritty. I will do all the due diligence. I will take it step by step. I would rather "waste my time" researching and planning, I would it takes me longer to achieve a goal thar could be achieved Ina lesser amount of time, I would rather feel like it's tedious at the beginning. but this is much better at ensuring I follow through. and taking a year to achieve a goal I could've achieved in 3 months is way better than quitting cold turkey and never finding out.

embracing my quirks gives me a fighting chance. embracing ≠ giving in to them

so instead of quitting or procrastinating because I want whatever to turn out perfect I 'perfect away'. I give myself a fighting chance.

I'm also trying to unlearn the conditioning and trying to change my beliefs around it. in the meantime I do the best I can.

"I don't really believe you, but I trust you. I'm choosing to trust you and if in any case you're lying you're breaking that trust."

I've found myself going back to this recently, whenever I feel like someone is lying to me. I could run myself into the ground trying to figure out the lies or I could just let it go. Sometimes people we care about, people we trust lie to us. Sometimes it's all in our heads. We don't always believe them or have to believe them. Since I'm still learning how to operate from a healed place and not a wounded one, I hold grace for how I choose to respond.

And I think that phrase just helps me take a moment. Take a step back and assess the situation or not get too in my head about something that could really just be that, 'in my head'.

This is coming from someone who has a hard time trusting or believing people. I have such a distrustful nature, that I'm trying to work on and until I figure it out, I will not be projecting that onto unsuspecting, undeserving folks. I figure it can't be easy to always hear, "you're lying" or a version of it when you're being nothing but honest. Baring your heart out or giving an account of events or just about anything.

So I repeat the phrase to myself till I calm down. Till I don't want to pick a fight or shut down because I feel like someone is lying to me, taking me for a ride. Till I don't feel as triggered. Because I want to be better. Because the people in my life deserve better and that hinges greatly on who I am or choose to be. On how I respond to the information I receive, lies or no lies.