Posted in Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration

To Whoever Reads This…1/6/2016

Posted on by SparklyWarTanks

Things take time.  I learned that today.  No matter the circumstance, the situation, your ability, inability, your doubts, self-esteem, everything has its own process to go through no matter how you feel or see things happening for you.  Don’t let your self-doubt, negative self-talk, or things out of your control make your vision for yourself misty.  You are something that is going to take time, persistence, and energy.  Make yourself a priority!

So with that in mind consider this: everyone has goals for themselves (I’m going to eat better, exercise, brush my teeth twice a day, smile more often, overcome my anxiety/Depression/obsession/addiction) and I know your goal is great because its designed by you.  As you wake up in the morning know that that goal you made for yourself is implanted and ingrained in your purpose for this year.  Remember to keep at it.  Don’t forget it and don’t let days, weeks, months pass before acknowledging that goal.  Make bettering yourself a daily habit.  Don’t let daily routine distract you from putting yourself first.  Remember there is no equation without a functioning you.  Work can’t get done productively without you nor can communication with loved ones or school assignments or whatever is important to creating a great life for yourself.  So remember, you are important!! don’t forget that.

Mental Note: Take care of myself this year.  Make my happiness a priority.  Stay focused on sustaining a better me!

Quote
Heart of a fighter quote
Posted in What Just Happened: Personal Anecdotes

Dear 2016…

Posted on by SparklyWarTanks
The year 2016 written over and over in black bold numbers
The year 2016

Dear 2016,

It took me awhile to talk to you because you didn’t start how I hoped, with the struggles of everyday anxieties and the pressures of deadlines, the fear of failure and the rawr of my daily worries, I stood silent.  In disappointment.  I thought you’d be different.  You promised me a engagement ring of change, but all I see if everything I left before 3 days before yesterday.

Can I do this?  Another year to do my best and hope for a better tomorrow, today.  To live in the moment and not in the  stresses of what tomorrow,  next week, next month, next year…2016.  I mean, I want you to be good to me.  I want the rain to turn into broken clouds, a pink and yellow sunset. I want the hard nights into content mornings, mornings of gratitude and positivity…2016.  In the pursuit to change the world, but the first frown to turn upside down is my own..2016.  I want to leave all the baggage and excess pain, the dry scabs and open wombs in the year before.  I want to declare the shedding of my dead skin into a new and fresh awakening 2 0 1 6!

2016 I want to wake up and be who I imagined.  The one who is not afraid or ashamed to look at her naked body, to declare that she is beautiful in all of her weights and bandages.  All that she has covered, unraveled in its exposure.  Please 2016 listen!  I have to be different then I was when the 4 became a 5 because this 6 is whats going to change my life TWENTY SIXTEEN!  Where everything I’ve been confused about will suddenly become clear, like that epiphany that scares you because everything has been right there.

2016.  The year I have to be different.  Something that I’ve never been before.  Happy in my own body, my own mind, not agitated at all the work that needs to be done, but 2016 you’re just a year.  A continuation of my life and my stresses, my struggles, my heartbreaks, my pain, my sadness. You are not.  You came unexpectedly as I watched the 59 turn to 00, the yells of a new year.  What now?

My stomach turned as new goals and motivations just overflowed out of my head, but my body didn’t move.  Like a new born baby I wash forced into a new world, unfamiliar, where I’m expected to make something of myself out of the nothingness that I see PLEASE 2016.

This year that 6 will be the 6 things that I will see blossom out of the dry cracked dirt.  The me that overcomes and removes all the weeds around the rose…2016 will be the year that I am reborn into something I’ve never seen.

I can’t be who I’ve been and I can’t continue to living as if I haven’t been given the gift of individuality, independence, and opportunity.  I can’t go back now because you’re already here…2016

Sincerely,

A Broken Tank

 

 

Posted in Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Love, Potential and Worth, Power, Quotes

31 Women Stated Why They are Beautiful and Why They Love Themselves

Posted on by SparklyWarTanks
Sparkly War Tanks in Blue in the middle of a poster board with 31 quotes around the white poster stating why women feel they are beautiful in small letters followed by the phrases "I am beautiful because" and "I love myself because"
SparklyWarTanks Poster. Original Image.
  1. I love myself because I’m resilient and powerful.
  2. I am beautiful because I am not afraid to fail.
  3. I’m beautiful because I’m not afraid to take strategic risks.
  4. I love me because I’m smart.
  5. I love myself because I can see the optimism in everything.
  6. I am beautiful because I am not ashamed of my natural hair. I wear my hair as my crown.  I am a queen!
  7. I am beautiful because I am strong.
  8. I am beautiful because my whip game is fire!!!
  9. I am beautiful because of my personality.
  10. I love myself because I make my own happiness.
  11. I love me because God made me.
  12. I love me because I’m flawless.
  13. I love me because I am determined to achieve my highest goals.
  14. I am beautiful because I am loved by God.
  15. I am beautiful because there is no one else like me.
  16. I AM beautiful because I BELIEVE I am.
  17. I work my butt off for everything I love!
  18. I love me because it took a long time and a lot of effort for me to get to a place where I understood that I am exactly who I’m supposed to be for the purpose that is in me.
  19. I am beautiful because of my kind heart.
  20. I am beautiful because God made me this way.
  21. I am beautiful because I am happy.
  22. I am beautiful because He made me unique and gave me ministries to help me set the bond free.
  23. I am beautiful because I won’t let me age- 50+ gasp!- dictate what I can do or how I can behave or what I can be interested in.
  24. I am beautiful because beauty is subjective do why not.
  25. I love my face, my hair, my personality, my vibe, my swag, my me. I mean why  wouldn’t I love me! I’m me!
  26. I love me because God is transforming me into a woman of importance, passion, and value.
  27. I am beautiful because I am a mom.
  28. I am beautiful because I love my flaws.
  29. I am beautiful because I know my worth.
  30. I am beautiful because life is too short to think otherwise!
  31. I love myself because there’s only one me, just like there’s one you. We are all unique.
Posted in Self-Care, Tips

SparklyTips: Take Care of Yourself

Posted on by SparklyWarTanks

In thinking and understanding what self-care means for you, its important to consider what you feel is important in taking care of yourself.

Think about what you value and why you value it.

If you value time with friends, then spend some time during the week to relax and chill with friends.  Make sure, however, that you are giving yourself time to do what you value and what you need to do t maintain sanity along side your responsibilities.  Carve out time to balance work and things you want to do.

If you value alone time with music or TV, carve out time just to relax, watch TV, Netflix, or Hulu, eat some popcorn and relax.  This time is more important then you think.   Give your body time to rest.

And DON’T WORRY ABOUT THINGS DURING THIS TIME TO YOURSELF!

Whatever it is that you like to do, spent time doing it.  Singing, dancing, spending time with friends, eating out occasionally, are all important if you value doing it.

Make sure to eat right.

This is big because I know I don’t eat right.  Make sure to eat at least three times a day.  Have a balanced diet.  Eating is very very important.  Food gives you energy! Take vitamins too!

Sleep!

Along with food, you need sleep!  Without sleep you will not function as sufficiently as you want.  I know its difficult sometimes especially as a student or a worker, a mom, but get as much sleep as possible.  If you can, sleep at least 8 hours a night.

Save time to reflect about things that are happening.

Often times we are so caught up in life that we let life get ahead of us.  Take time to sit back and reflect on things that are happening around you.  What did that A on that text mean?  Or that C?  That conversation with mom was really deep.  Keep tabs on what is going on even if that means slowing down.  If you realize that you are loosing track of whats happening, its time to slow down and reflect.

**Also if you need help, please seek help! Its worth going out and speaking to someone you trust.  Talk to your best friend, a counselor,  a therapist, your mom, dad, anyone who you feel will help you maintain a mental and physical balance.

Oh! Don’t forget to go to the doctor!

Check ups help you to know that your body is doing okay.  Stress is not good for the body, if you feel changes happening to you, time to visit the doctor!  ( I know, I don’t like it either)

Although this is not everything there is to say about self-care, these things are some important aspects you can consider when thinking about self-care.

Written in black marker on a pink piece of paper
Always take care of yourself. Taken from http://swanwaters.com/healing-with-mindfulness/always-take-care-of-yourself-first/. Google Images.
Posted in Self-Care, What Just Happened: Personal Anecdotes

I Amplified my Anxiety Because…

Posted on by SparklyWarTanks
Shadowed Pencil drawing. Man with a cup in his hand and hand on his face.
Shadowed image. Used from http://perfect-madness.deviantart.com/art/shadow-of-sadness-33397143. Google Images.

Before

My senior year has been very rough this past couple of months. I slept the whole night half the week, the other half I stood up doing work and took short naps throughout the night. I never ate breakfast because class was more important. I never had time to start assignments early because I always had assignments due that day. In one week in September I had a panic attack every day of the week. I didn’t sleep well, I barely ate and if I did I ate one meal. I wasn’t taking care of myself. I panicked because I was stressed. I was anxious. I was scared. Each panic was due to a stressor that was out of my control or in my control that I lacked motivation to do. Things from home, assignments, tests, talking to other people, feeling weak, hopeless, and worthless were all the things I thought about and caused anxiety in me.

Why am I here?…What is my purpose?….What am I going to do after college?…Can I even get into grad school?

I was trapped in my own insecurities. Trapped in my own self-pity. Trapped in self-doubt. Trapped in fear. Trapped.

……..

Why was I anxious?

I was anxious because I wasn’t taking care of myself and I lacked energy, I lacked energy because I wasn’t eating right. I wasn’t sleeping sufficiently. I lacked motivation because I felt like I couldn’t do it. I was just tired. I didn’t want to continue.

After

But here is how I improved!

I can do it. I got this far to finish. I am worth it.

It wasn’t easy for me to realize I wasn’t a superhero, but I ultimately went for help. I went to talk to someone. I sat in the small room. I blurted out why to a stranger sitting in front of me because it was their job. It helped. I was able to talk about why. Why all of a sudden I couldn’t anymore.

Things are not fixed or perfect now, but I can say that I appreciate that I can identify what I need help in. I can’t achieve my goals in one night. Time is a thing. I have to be patient and I have to take care of myself in the mean time. If I don’t take care of myself I can’t achieve my goals to begin with.

I still barely sleep and I eat for the most part, but I changed how I thought about my circumstance.

I am good enough to do what I put my mind to.

Note: Make sure to take care of yourself because you are important, and you are worth it, and you can do it. Anything you put your mind to is yours already. Take time into consideration. Its okay to take breaks if you have to just get back and keep going.

I was tired, I wasn’t taking care of myself, I amplified my anxiety but now I know that I’m important too. My goals need me in the equation.

Posted in Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Love, Self-Care

Take care of Yourself, You are your Most Prized Possession

Posted on by SparklyWarTanks

Loving yourself and appreciating who you are also comes with taking care of yourself.  Often times we may forget, in the mist of all of our obligations and responsibilities, that we need to take care of ourselves too.  We can’t function and be who we are if we are not healthy and well mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  It may seem unimportant to simply have time to ourselves, sleep in once in a while, go out and have fun, but it’s as important as taking showers and brushing our teeth!  All of these things are necessary in order to maintain sanity and appreciate the sun coming up in the morning and going down at night.  Sometimes we need to take two seconds and reflect on everything that is going on around us.  Stepping back and reflecting allows us to process and take in situations and experiences.  If we are always on the go, if we are always running, we become overwhelmed and tired, we may even see ourselves loosing motivation and happiness.  We don’t want to lose reasons to wake up and see worth in every day!

Let’s take care of ourselves!

You can't pour from an empty cup, Take care of yourself first in black with an empty coffee mug in a wite plate with a spoon on it..
You can’t pour from an empty cup. Tumblr image

 

Posted in Potential and Worth, Power, What Just Happened: Personal Anecdotes

Why is Why Important [11/23/15]

Posted on by SparklyWarTanks
The word why in capital letters with a question mark in black with a white and faded blue background
The word why as a question. Original Photo.

About 5 days ago I laid in my bed after a long and tiring day.  As I laid in bed I struggled to see the reasons why I’m in school.  You know, like those moments where you ask yourself why.  The why for me in that moment came down like a ton of bricks.  I felt like I wasn’t good enough to be where I am in life, in school.  I started doubting myself and asking questions about whether I’m doing as good as I thought in my classes.  I just felt horrible and I didn’t know why the doubt and confusion struck me so hard.  It was hard to tell myself, Nina its okay!  You’re doing your best and that’s all you can give.

Now that I reflect on that moment, on a time that I felt worthless, powerless, and doubted my potential, I see that where I am in life itself represents what I can do and where I can go if I work on myself along with taking opportunities that can help me reach where I want to go in my future.

Although the why’s that pop up randomly sometimes make us think critically about our current position, where we are, and if we are actually making progress toward our true potential, they help us to see that we are going somewhere!  Going somewhere, whether it’s small, whether it’s moving toward saying I’m okay today, I appreciate myself today, I’m beautiful today, I made it through work today, I can today is meaningful progress.  Those why’s can be so blurry, but when they become clearer so does realizing your path and potential.

Stay positive and keep going!