Photo Credit: Dreamgirl Photography
Since the start of the Dreamworld, there’s been a constant theme of searching for my passion and ultimate happiness, while inspiring others and sharing success stories. It’s taken several years, but I’ve finally discovered that it is hard searching for myself and inspiring all of you at the same time. This explains my frequent breaks from blogging. At some point, I needed to take my own advice, right? Well, I did…and it worked! Continue reading
When change comes about, don’t fight it. Sometimes it’s best to let it be and not search for understanding. I believe when you go against it, that’s when the darkness wins and your mind no longer belongs to your soul because you begin to worry and panic.
We get accustomed to routines and schedules and when either are altered, we realize that we’ve been chained to the idea of what is normal.
I don’t want to be normal anymore.
If I sat down and wrote a story about my life over the past few years, you’d wonder how I’m still pushing through each day. I surprise myself. I never knew how much strength I had until my closest friends abandoned me, until every door closed in my face, until I had no choice but to get up each day and try again. We all go through our own struggles; we face our own storms. When you are left with nothing in life but your health, a clean slate and family, you’ll learn just why God created you the way He did.
All of my experiences in life have prepared me for this very moment. All of my mistakes have uncovered my strong desire to do better. All of the untrue people I surrounded myself with helped me to appreciate the loyal ones.
I’m constantly discovering a new part of me that I didn’t even think existed. When I look back on MY life thus far, I’m confident that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be and I won’t allow tough times or bad experiences to defeat me. All of life’s happenings push me to set new goals, take risks and to not settle.
I’m getting through my storm because I’m realizing that it’s not a storm… it’s a transformation.
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. ~Maya Angelou
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking in regards to where I want to be in the next few years. Along the way it has become painfully obvious that no matter how much we plan, God has the ultimate say-so. So, with that in mind, I can have hopes and dreams and pray that I am moving in the right direction, but I have to be prepared for things to just not go as I may want them to.
If I reflect on the past few years, there are many things that I’ve wanted to accomplish, but for some reason I meet someone special, things get put on hold, and before I realize it, years have passed and I’m left regretting not doing more for myself. Of course life lessons came out of each experience, so I can’t be too mad at myself, but I do often wish I’d been just a tad selfish.
If I had to answer my own question, I’d say, “no, I would not alter my dream for love” because I’ve altered, paused, forgot, abused and neglected my dreams for love before. Anyone who truly loves me will join me for the ride and support me along the way.
Source: http://www.michaelbarata.com
We all must walk our own path in life. No one person in this world can live our life for us. That means that we all possess an immense amount of power, starting at birth. However, most don’t even know the tools that they are equipped with to help them on their journey through existence. Think about even the most basic of tools such as tear ducts. Who knew that we would have a tiny hole on our bottom lids to release fluids? When we are upset, hurt, happy, etc. we can release those emotions through tears. Imagine if you had to keep those emotions inside; how weird or traumatized would our bodies feel? Let’s take it a step further. What about our limbs? We have limbs to help us run, walk, jump, crawl, roll, dive, swim, hike, flip, etc. In danger, we can move fast. In competition, we can excel. We are able to work, play and survive. Humans have intricate organs to keep them alive and healthy and are given the most important muscle of all; a brain. This isn’t an anatomy class; this is understanding that we have everything we need, to make decisions for ourselves and to work for the things we want in life. So, why are people stuck in their unhappiness when they can essentially create any situation that they want to be in?
We are attached to personal things and create a false sense of value for ourselves that eventually clouds our judgement. We work crazy jobs with long hours and unhealthy environments, just to be able to pay bills. Daily routines are established that produce robots out of people who are meant to be extraordinary. So, I ask the question again…would you be willing to give up everything for personal happiness? All of the things and people that you are personally attached to, could you let them go? Could you jump out in the world with only your God-given tools and make something of yourself? Instead of working to pay bills, could you work to travel and enjoy life? True happiness isn’t being able to afford the best things, it’s being able to feel fulfilled without.
I’ve heard this preached to me many times, I’ve read books to explain this concept, I’ve tried to adopt the principles of such a lifestyle. However, I just never allowed myself to fully live in the premise because I was too attached to what I thought was happiness. It wasn’t until I lost the “things” that I was attached to, that I began to think in a different way. All of the attachments I had used to make me feel safe and protected. I was able to pay rent and bills, I had friends whom I became dependent upon too much, I was comfortable. My world was shaken when I lost my comfortable job of four years. I had no clue which way was up and I was devastated. But, then I realized…it was a sign. I would have never left my job. I was good at it, it paid my bills and I had my routine down. Now, I realize that I was just going through each day with no sense of living in the “now”. Days, months and even years had passed and I didn’t have much personal happiness to show for all of the time invested.
Fast forward to present day. I’m in a basic job where I serve. How much money I make is dependent upon the level of effort that I want to put in. I don’t work everyday, I pretty much make my own schedule. I don’t have an apartment anymore that I have to pay an extreme amount of money for. I have a very tight circle of friends whom I just appreciate for being in my life. I don’t have it all, but for the first time EVER, I feel so free. I can pick up and move where I want to, I can take as much time off of work that I want, to just travel and explore, I’m not tied down to material things. I have so many moments that I didn’t have before. I don’t just feel happy; I AM happy. Can you say the same?
“We don’t grow out of comfortable situations…we really start to grow when it’s uncomfortable for us.” ~A Friend
I will say this…the past year was really HARD! I went through some serious changes and adversities to say the least. The silver lining in all of this is that everything that I’ve faced has made me an even stronger person and I now know that I’m built for battle. Here’s a breakdown:
Family:
I’ve gotten closer to my family and have looked to them to really help me through the tough times. I realize that when the world has turned its back on you, they are the people who will be around to help pick up the pieces.
Love and Relationships:
I walked away from someone who I thought was the love of my life. I’ve tried dating, but I have come to the conclusion that I need to make myself whole before I can open my heart up to anyone and it feels good to really get MY life together and focus on what makes THIS girl happy!
Work:
Lost my job and am starting over! I am starting from a clean slate and am actually tackling the things that I’ve been “dreaming” about…exciting stuff.
Friends:
This one is probably the hardest one to touch upon because simply put, I lost my best friend. I learned that the people who are closest to you can turn on you. When you apply heat to anything, you get to see what the foundation consists of and the reality is, anyone who is willing to walk away from me really doesn’t deserve to be in my life. I refuse to have seasonal friends so all I can say is, keep walking your ass in the other direction because I don’t believe in forcing anyone to ever be in your life.
Overall:
I learned a lot in 2013, but I am really glad it is over. The chapters have ended and my new book of life is just beginning!
Happy New Year!
Let’s see, how can I explain this? I feel as if there has been a secret society this whole time and I just got invited to join. It’s as if a weird sense of enlightenment has come over me. I have more drive, more clarity and more guts! Dreams that I have always looked at as far into my future, are closer than ever before and I can taste a change coming. I look around and see so many people living a day to day routine, just like a robot and I find myself silently screaming at them like, “WAKE UP! DON’T YOU REALIZE HOW BORING YOUR LIFE IS?!”
Furthermore, I see sprinkles of other people around me who are getting the same itch to scream at the robots. I’m uncertain of what’s specifically happening, but it’s true what they say about how everything changes in your 30’s. If you jumped from your 20’s to your 30’s and felt nothing, I’m almost convinced that you’re missing a queue. Maybe a big life change needs to happen in order for you to jump out of your monotony.
It’s been a while since I’ve written an inspirational post and I am definitely in need of one, so this is not only for you…it’s also for me! Here goes nothing:
This month has been CRAZY! The word “stress” is definitely an understatement. I’ve been so stressed that I can feel it in my shoulders, in my back, my head…just everywhere. I will spare you the details and focus on the lessons of said stress. For starters, I’m learning not to put my faith in man and when I say “man” I mean people in general. I’m almost forced to only rely on God and prayer and I think that’s what I’m supposed to be doing because it’s helping. I’m finding myself being super sensitive with just about everything, so prayer offers some solid alone time with just me and the big guy upstairs. I need to refocus, set up a game plan and work towards certain goals within the upcoming months.
Is that enough of a pity party for you all? Ok, it is for me so that’s where it ends (lol). All I’m saying is, just go through the motions of whatever you may be experiencing and start praying hard. When you feel yourself getting angry or frustrated at the world then it’s time to take a step back and just relax. As the saying goes, it could always be worse so search for perspective. That’s what I’m trying to do.
Hello, world! Welcome to another installment of Become a Blogger Mondays! I’ve noticed that some of the main blogs I follow seem to never stop. It’s as if the person’s site is operating 24 hours and no beats are skipped. Naturally, that makes me go “YIKES!” because, as you all know, I don’t blog 24 hours a day. I’m still learning the ropes, therefore I notice major details like this and I wonder what makes the popular sites so popular! I’ve come to a couple of conclusions and one of them being that you can never tell when “life” takes over. I’ve got to be better at posting even when I have SO much going on (I’m slapping my own hand right now). The other conclusion that I came to is that they must be so successful that they have a staff of writers to help them out. They must be on a “life” schedule so that when “it” happens, someone else is there to pick up the slack. So, in ultimate conclusion, I don’t feel that bad anymore lol. When LIFE happens, just go with the flow and hope that a ghost writer shows up to help you soon (hee hee)! Happy Monday folks!
Danithedreamgirl 