Sighhhhhh

So nice to stop sometimes. Flop on your bed...and stop. That moment just for you...ahhh. Hang for a minute and think about nothing or everything. Breath in and out, close your eyes, watch the dust through the sunlight. Isn't it great to just be for a minute? I love it!  

Drugs

No…honestly, please, just no. No to drugs, yes to life. I don’t care what you think or are being told drugs will make your life less than it could be and possibly kill you. 

That sounds so dramatic doesn’t it…DRUGS WILL KILL YOU…okay let’s throttle back a bit. Let’s say drugs will not kill you, every time you use them. But they will ruin your looks. You will break out more and your skin will become very thin. Thin skin means you will wrinkle much younger. You will develop those oh so attractive little lines around your lips that your grandmother and great aunts have. Your hair turns dry and brittle like an old Barbie doll and your gum's loosen which leads to your teeth falling out. Well isn’t that just awesome?! In a world that lives for youth and beauty you are going to age yourself with drugs….smart, very smart.

Hey, while you are it start drinking…that is a great idea too. While your skin and hair look like crap why not add a few pounds with beer or wine? Yes! Perfect. And then to top it all off, get behind the wheel of a car, or in a car with someone else who is drunk or high, and drive completely wasted. You know since you are going to look horrible anyway why not kill yourself, or someone else? Hey, maybe you will just end up in a wheelchair or paralyzed. In fact that is why I think your parents had you so you could completely ruin your life drinking and doing drugs. Yup, I am sure of it.

You are so much better than that. Anybody can get high, it is so much cooler to say no. Be your best friend.

No…honestly, please, just no to drugs and yes to life. I love you!

4 Year Olds Rock

Do you remember what it was like to be 4? It was awesome...you were awesome! Everyday was about you...there were some big decisions to be made. What you were going to wear, who you were going to play with...what was for lunch. Big, big things to decide. And no matter what you decided to do it was fun...and you thought you did it the best....even if you didn't. Your confidence was at an all time high as it should be. You didn't "feel fat" in your jeans...you didn't worry about your hair not being perfect because 4 year old you knew she rocked...messy jeans, crooked pigtails, sneakers too big...stuunnning!
How do you get that back? How do you stop caring what other people think?  How do you silence the nasty voice in your head telling you you can not do something and listen to the 4 year old that says "Oh yes you can"! When you are feeling doubt stop for a minute and find the 4 year old...she is in there and dying to tell you how great you are...how you can do anything...and however you do it is fantastic. 

Be your best friend. I love you!

With Love

Be the friend you would like to have, bighearted, honest but kind.  Love like you want to be loved, forgive like you would want to be forgiven. To be kind and generous of spirit is such a good way to live. When it is all so crazy...and not the way you would want...stop! Just stop! Remember that the person you are dealing with is just that, a person like you. And believe it or not people make mistakes and sometimes need to be forgiven.

Accept people as they are, love them for who they are...not who you hope they will be. Before you expect someone else to change...remember how hard it is for you to change.

You are a gift, your friendship is a gift, give your gift wisely and with meaning. Remember to give it to yourself as well.

Love,
Your Friend

Happy

Who doesn’t want to be happy? I know I do, it seems everyone would want to be happy. But seriously, sometimes it is hard. Between school, friends fighting, getting grounded for nothing, always feeling tired, periods every month…it is kind of tough to always be happy.

I am sure once your parents get off of your back,  you have a great boyfriend, lose 10 pounds, face clears up and you get the perfect boots you have been wanting then you may be happy or at least headed towards happy.

Wrong! It is no one’s job to make you happy, sister. This is your job and your job alone.  How you choose to view your life is your job. How you decide to react to your life is your job. Not your Mom or your Dad, not your boyfriend or your friends…no one but you is in charge of your happiness.

When your alarm goes off in the morning, what do you do? If you start the day grumbling arrrghhh…and slamming the pillow over your head, you are probably not off to the best start. Why not give yourself a better start to the day? When you wake up, find a positive thought. Something like, oh good, I get to be me again today, how lucky is this world to have me?  Could be anything…you pick, after all it is your thought, your day your happiness.

Make an effort to find the happy in whatever is going on, the squirrel in the tree, the hot boy at lunch that you can see but he can’t see you. Your favorite jeans are clean. It is easy to complain and find all the bad, but why do that to yourself?

Chances are at this very moment you are dry, your belly is full, and you are sleeping in a bed at night…life is good my friend. Be happy.

I know bad things happen. Really terrible, terrible things and not so terrible things (maybe not end of the world things) but things that seriously tick you off will eventually happen. It is not always easy to find the happy. When this is the case I give myself 48 hours to just enjoy my misery. That’s right…48 hours…two days. Two days to cry, be angry, call my friends for sympathy…you get the idea. Then that is it, LET IT GO.

 After two days, you need to get back to living your life.  Enough is enough. Start finding something to make you feel a little bit  better, then a little more…then happy.

Your whole life will change. This I promise you. You will attract good things to you because that is what you are noticing. What a great gift to give yourself…and who doesn’t like gifts?

Beautiful

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” this is a lovely quote but maybe a little tough to apply to todays world.  Everywhere we look we are bombarded with “beautiful people”…or what we are supposed to think of as beautiful people.

Tall, skinny, long legs, flowing hair, perfect skin…ehhh…whatever. I say boooorrrriiiing.  Take yourself to the mirror, get super close and look at all of the colors in your eye, you are the only person in the entire world that has that beautiful eye. Lovely!

Beautiful is a baby, a puppy, new shoes, a butterfly, rainbows, there is no one definition of beautiful.

Beautiful is you…absolutely stunning you! When you wake up in the morning and you are looking kind of funky, that is beautiful. When you are doing something you love or laughing so hard you cannot  breathe, that is beautiful.

Walk proud my beautiful friends, you are truly stunning!

Best Friends

Best friends…that makes you smile doesn’t it? You start thinking about your best friend and the goofy things you have done or said together. The inside jokes, how much you love them…sigh…it is all good.

How does a best friend act, what exactly makes them your “best friend”.

They are the first person you call when it all goes good or bad. The one person that you know has your back. She is the one sitting next to you in the principal’s office whispering to you…”I can’t believe we did that!!!”

You love her completely, she is the other side of you. Hmmm, interesting…she is the other side of you.

Here’s a thought, why aren’t you your best friend? Who spends more time with you…then you?

You know when you are trying something new and you hear that voice in your head telling you “You can’t do that. Why are you even trying, you look stupid. Just stop embarrassing yourself.  Oh yeah…and your fat/ugly.” You know that voice, it stinks. It is our own personal Mean Girl in our head. I hate her. Where did she come from and how do we make her GO AWAY?

In my experience she shows up around the age of ten years old, give or take. Let’s go back to when you were four years old and knew you rocked! You were the bomb. You know what I mean, the four year old that discovered she could hop on one foot and made sure the world knew it. The four year old that would yell to come watch this cool thing she could do…Hellooo, I am hopping on one foot here, I am AWESOME…..and tomorrow I will do something else amazing so stick around people!

Then, around ten years old you discover doubt. You are not as pretty as the girls on the Disney Channel, you can’t sing or dance. Your clothes are stupid and you are clumsy. Somewhere along the way certain adults and others have told you that girls shouldn’t…or don’t try…or you can’t…and silly ten year old you…you believe them. Crap!  It is time to be four again and rock the world with your mismatched socks and droopy pigtails. Because four year old you does not care what anyone else like or does, four year old you is too busy being her amazing self.

So what to do? Be your own best friend. If your friend, let’s call her Sara,  if Sara walked into school and told you she studied last night but couldn’t remember anything and she just knew she would fail her test, what would you say?

“Gee,you studied and can’t remember any of it?  You are stupid, you are going to fail…oh and your fat” or would you say “Stop it, you studied, you’re smart, you are just nervous. You will do great...oh and I love your hair today”

If Sara told you she felt terrible because she didn’t want to work out and she feels like a slug because she knows she should, but honestly…she just doesn’t want to…what would you say?

“ Well, you are just a lazy cow and no one will ever like you...oh and your fat” or would you say “So what, let’s go shopping and have some fun. I will work out with you tomorrow…oh and I love your shoes”

Well…hellloooo. Let’s do this with ourselves shall we? The next time the mean girl shows up I want you to say out loud: Shut up and go away! You need to tell yourself that you are fabulous. You are the most awesome you ever and say nice things in your head the exact same way you would to your best friend. Life can be tough enough, it is time to start being nice to you.