I am going to be starting again where I left off when it comes to the 30 days of truth. I haven’t done it in a few days but I am getting back on the bandwagon but today I am going to post pictures of what happened yesterday when my legs decided to stop working and I fell.
Those are the best pictures but lets just say they are killing me and so sore. I had a hard time sleeping because every time I would turn over or the blanket would rub up against it I would wake up. The left one is super swollen and is the most painful. The MS makes my legs just give out and stop working. A lot of people with MS use wheel chairs because you never know when your legs are going to stopping working. To top it all off I ruined my favorite pair of jeans!!!!!!!
Editors Note: Melissa is an amazing person. I have gone through some of the things she has and her blog really helps out. It helps me see that I am not the only one that goes through what I am going through. This post today funny enough is something I need to hear and yet I just asked her to write about whatever she wanted to write about. I invited her to post once a week if she feels up to it so this is her first post! I hope you all enjoy her as much as I do! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Since this is my first time guest posting over here, I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Melissa Mashburn and I blog over at Sugar Filled Emotions. I am very excited about Margaret giving me the opportunity to guest post on her site. I have gotten to know her on Twitter and my life is that much more blessed by having her in it.
“Be gentle with yourself, learn to love yourself, to forgive yourself, for only as we have the right attitude toward ourselves can we have the right attitude toward others.”
Wilfred Peterson
The most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself. Most of us have heard something similar to this at some point in our lives. Yet, how seriously did we actually take it? I know I gave little to no thought to the notion of loving myself for most of my life.
What does it actually mean to love yourself? I believe that loving yourself is not really so much of a feeling as it is a decrease in self doubt, self loathing, and unforgiveness of yourself. Loving yourself means that you take your well being seriously. Doing the necessary and practical things that you need to do to take care of yourself.
It seems simple. Yet, so many of us find it so difficult. We are hard on ourselves. We dislike who we are. We do not think we are worthy of anything good, and we find it impossible to forgive ourselves, even when we have done nothing wrong. When we have a poor relationship with ourselves it taints our other relationships.
People who have a healthy amount of love for themselves usually have certain characteristics:
They tend to focus on feeling good.
They allow themselves to feel happy and enjoy sharing it with other people
They treat themselves well.
They do not allow others to mistreat them.
They are caring and supportive of others, because it makes them feel good too.
They put themselves first so they can better take care of family and friends.
They find a quote, motto or thought that resonates with them and practice it. (I made my own personal motto)
They allow themselves to succeed.
Developing love for yourself can start with something as simple as having the intention (desire) to love yourself more. However, at some point after you gain that desire, it will become necessary to follow it up with some action. It does not have to be anything big or drastic. In my opinion, baby steps work the best, especially if you are anything like me and have spent the better part of your life not loving yourself.
One of the first things I did when I was learning how to love myself was to take some pictures of myself to share with others. For the last few years, I have hated how I looked. I disliked having any pictures taken of me, and there was no way I would post an accurate picture of myself even on Facebook. I thought I was clever in the way I got around having to do it. I would just post old childhood pictures. The time came when I decided to take a chance and let everyone “see” the real me. I knew that it would be impossible for me to like any serious picture of me, so my daughter and I worked together to create the silliest pictures we could. Being silly with my daughter allowed me to be more comfortable with the whole picture taking process, and also put me more at ease when it came to choosing one to show the world. It made me feel good to accomplish that.
Some suggestions for you to try when learning how to love yourself are:
Acknowledge when you accomplish something, even something small, and praise yourself for it.
Write yourself “love notes”. These can be notes to yourself, inspiration quotes, anything that makes you feel good. Put them in places where you will see them and read them throughout the day. My favorite places are my bathroom mirror and the front door.
Take some time for you. Even if it is only 15 minutes, make clear that this is time for you. Read, take a bath, talk to yourself, thinking about nothing….
Find ways to reward yourself daily.
Nurture yourself.
Focus on solutions rather than worrying about the problem. Being proactive in solving your own problems really does make you feel good about yourself.
Replace any negative thoughts with positives ones. Or at the very least, when you have a negative thought, immediately follow it with a positive thought. I try and find at least three positive things about every situation.
Allow yourself to succeed.
Who you are is more important than what you are. You are valuable and nothing can change that.
This week I chose #1 which is Dear Mommy and/or Daddy…(write a letter to yourself from one of your children). Since I don’t have human kids I am going to write a letter to myself from my girls(cats). Enjoy! Let me know what you think of it!
Dear Mom,
Sylvia and I have a few demands that must be met or we are going to raise up and have a rebellion. First we need more catnip! We are not getting enough of it a day and it is a total joke that you expect us to share it! You should know by now that cats DO NOT SHARE ANYTHING!!!!!! Hell we can’t even share the bed at night let alone our weed! Secondly we need you to sleep somewhere else so that we can properly stretch out on the bed at night. There is no need for you sleep in that bed. So it would be greatly appreciated if you would relocate to a different spot at night. Lastly we also need you to not wake us up when you get back from where ever you are all day. We need our 20 hours of beauty rest and we don’t get that if you wake us up when you get home!
We would like you fix these problems ASAP!
Love Elinore & Sylvia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This topic is easy! I can sum it up with one name Josh my husband!!!!
First off I have to say my girls Elinore and Sylvia. Even though they can be the biggest pain in my ass most days.
There is Misti because she is more like family than my own family. We have are moments but all sisters do!
I also couldn’t live with out my Macbook and my Blackberry!
1. What is your favorite fair/carnival food? I love the Indian Fry Bread! I shouldn’t eat it but I could eat it all day long while I am at the fair. 2. Are you holding onto something you need to let go of? People-I need to just forget about them and move on that is for sure but for me it is a hard thing to do. 3. What is your favorite gift to receive? Something from the heart! I don’t care what it is as long as it is from the heart. 4. When was the last time you tried something new? It has been awhile because I don’t like change. 5. What is your favorite and least favorite book genre? Right now I am really into mystery books. 6.Silver or Gold? Silver 7. What makes you sigh? Stupid people 8. If you didn’t know how old you are, how old would you claim you are? 21!!!! 9. Would you break a law to save a loved one? To protect a loved one? Nope If you did the crime you can do the time! I couldn’t bring myself to do something dumb and against the law just to save someone. 10. If you had to teach something, what would it be? Something about Facebook or Blogging! 11. You’re having lunch with 3 people whom you respect and admire. They begin to criticize a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend. What do you do? Stick up for the person! I always stick up for my friends even if it makes me the odd man out. 12. Which of the 5 Love Languages is your prominent means of experiencing love? Quality Time Physical Touch Acts of Service Gifts Words of Affirmation
Today’s topic is easy in one sense and in another sense it is hard. I could very easily write a letter to my mom who could have been my hero but why? She wasn’t around and now that she could be around she still doesn’t want to be around. Other than that there really isn’t anyone who has let me down. I don’t have hero’s because people are human and they can let you down. Now I have people I care about and look up to so I guess you could maybe say they are hero’s. Then it goes back to the fact that all people will let you down and I don’t like to set myself up to get hurts. So in the end I am going with I don’t have any hero’s because I don’t want to get hurt.
The first thing that comes to mind on this one is buy Simple Plan called Welcome To My Life. Here is the video if you haven’t seen or heard it before.
I can’t really write a letter about it but I will tell you why to this day I love this song. I first heard it when I was pregnant and I really did feel all alone. I would put this song on repeat and listen to it over and over. Now Every time I am having a rough time I turn it on and it makes me feel better. I wish that some people in my life would listen to it and get what it is saying but that is a post for another day. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
