Happy And Healthy Lifestyle

TRIGGER WARNING: This post deals with an account of sexual abuse and may be triggering to some people. “Emotional pain cannot kill you but running from it can. Allow. Embrace. Let yourself feel. Let your yourself heal.” ~ Vironika Tugaleva I was nine years old, sitting on the couch with my dad, watching a Very Brady Christmas (on my sister’s birthday, December 20 th ) when he first molested me. Terror, confusion, disbelief, and shame comingled to create a cocktail that would poison me for many years to come. We grew up in a family that, from the outside, seemed ideal. We would attend church with my mom’s side of the family every Sunday, going to breakfast at a restaurant after. My brothers, sister, and I spent weekends partaking in fun activities that would range from spending the whole day building towns made out of clay to rollerskating while my mom baked homemade bread. To anyone that knew us, we seemed like the perfect family. And then one day we weren’t anymore. After that...

“This is a moment of suffering. Suffering is part of life. May I be kind to myself in this moment. May I give myself the compassion I need.” ~Kristen Neff Your best friend just lost her husband and her mother within five days of one another. Her husband was terminally ill. Her mother was eighty-six. You don’t know how she is going to get through this. You know that she was assuming that after her husband died, she would console herself by spending time with her mother. But that is not how it is going to work out. Your best friend is grieving. Doesn’t she deserve your compassion? And by the way, by best friend I mean you. You are grieving, and you need to treat yourself with compassion. How do I know? Because in November of 2014, my mother died and then five days later my husband died. I had no idea how I was going to make it through the day, let alone a month, or a year, or beyond. I quickly learned that I needed to be my own best friend, to wrap myself in self-compassion. Underst...

“Fear, uncertainty, and discomfort are your compasses toward growth.” ~Celestine Chua Uncertainty can be the glue for anxiety if you allow it. One thing can snowball into another and soon you are looking at the road ahead, absolutely dumbfounded about which way to go. It shakes us to our core; it disrupts our security, our stable foundation and makes us feel unsettled, even a bit lost. But can our lives change without uncertainty? I don’t believe they can. Two years ago, I found myself wondering: Is this all there is? The road I’ve been on is where I’ll stay; no passionate youthful ambitions, no joyful exuberance; just working and paying the bills, day in and day out. That’s being an adult, isn’t it? At least I have a comfortable life, I told myself, with little disruptions, no drama, and nice friends that I have trouble feeling close to. There must be something better, I told myself. I searched everywhere. Then I found my passion. It was buried deep. I dusted the cobwebs off....

As the Black Lives Matter movement gains traction across the nation and the world, many of us are being called to use the skills we’ve learned to improve ourselves ⁠—such as speaking our truth, setting boundaries, and breaking the people-pleasing pattern⁠—to improve our communities, our countries, and our world. Those of us who are allies are conveniently positioned to have conversations about racial justice with our family members, friends, and coworkers. However, historically, many of us have balked at these conversations out of fear of our own awkwardness, others’ anger, or the possibility of creating rifts in relationships. In the past, I’ve done a subpar job of asserting my boundaries with racist relatives. Instead of saying, “Hey, that thing you just said was really racist,” I usually opted to stay silent. I justified my silence with one or all of the following excuses: “I can’t change their mind.” “They won’t listen to me anyway.” “It’ll just start an argument.” “If this...

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” ~Martin Luther King Jr. A few months back, before the pandemic upended life for all of us, I went through one of those times when I could do nothing but sit at home and rest for my health’s sake. I’d recently had another one of my surgeries; I was born with a genetic condition called vascular malformation, which grew and spread quite rapidly on my left cheek and into the mouth during my childhood. It’s the reason I’ve been paying visits to operation theaters for all of my life. I had my first successful operation, which was also the toughest time of my life, almost twelve years ago. Yet my visits to the hospital don’t seem to end for one complication or another. I’d always had faith in my early years that it was only a matter of a couple of years, that by the time I grew up I wouldn’t have to put up with any of the pains and discomforts and interruptions to life goals, that I’d finally be able to lead a...

Heads turn and hearts flutter when a Lamborghini sports car is spotted. Lamborghini is an automotive icon, trendsetter, and record breaker. In recent history, the Huracan Performante set a new Nürburgring Nordschleife production car record in 2016. The lap time of 6:52:01 stayed at the top of the records chart for more than a year, ending in September 2017. Before that, the Lamborghini Aventador LP 750-4 SV had set the record in 2015. The Aventador delivered a sub-seven minute lap time. In 2018, the top spot returned to Lamborghini once more. Learn all about the record-setting Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. Setting a New Record for Speed Photo Courtesy of Lamborghini The all-new Lamborghini Aventador SVJ was set to be unveiled at Monterey Car Week in August 2018, but the team had a surprise in store for fans. The newest sports car from the “House of the Raging Bull” was instead going to make a debut at the Nürburgring Nordschleife one month earlier, in July of 2018. It was here that his...

How To Love Yourself And Be Confident With These 15 Self-Love Tips Can you honestly say that you love yourself? Are you having a hard time being happy with yourself? It is so easy to focus on your faults and everyone can dwell on their insecurities instead of the things about themselves that they are happy with. Doing this can cause you to dislike yourself. You may also be too busy focusing on others around you and not focusing on loving yourself. Some people don’t want to be alone and fear to do things on their own. This can really hinder your journey to self-love, as you have to learn to be comfortable being with yourself. So, keep reading to discover how to love yourself today. Plus, we are going to take a look at some ways that you can fall in love with yourself to help you get started on your self-love journey. First, let’s take a look at why you need to love yourself. Why Is It So Important To Love Yourself? This may seem more important to some than others, but self-love is one o...