Posted in Challenges, Confessions, Creations, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Mental Health, Potential and Worth, Power, Reflection, Self-Talk

8-Day Reflection Card Series Day 5

What do you see yourself becoming? What is your overall vision? What does a constant state of healing or thriving look like for you?

To have goals means to see an outcome or idea come to life. Ideally, if you can craft what success would look like for you, how would you describe it? Create the image of what you want to accomplish then start becoming more and more of what that success is for you.


Reflection:

When I think of success, I think of who I want to be, and what I want to become. Being able to network, open up, and communicate with others is an important aspect of my vision of success. In order to get my creative vision flourishing, speaking with others and gaining different types of resources is important.

Success for me is also self-awareness. Self-awareness is my main tool for healing. The more I know me, the more I’m able to gain control and feel how I want to feel.

Goal/Affirmation: I am who my own purpose and I will work toward becoming successful in the ways that fit me.

Posted in Challenges, Confessions, Creations, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Potential and Worth, Power, Reflection, Self-Care, Self-Talk

8-Day Reflection Card Series Day 4

Whether we believe it or not we are progressing! With every goal we achieve, no matter how small, or every time we do something we didn’t think we could, we are becoming better.

Better can mean more aware, more accessible, or even an increase in willingness. With each step, we are becoming better at what helps us.


Reflection:

Calmness is the ultimate mental space I wish to be in at all times. With anxiety and depression, it’s difficult to calm myself, especially during an emotional downward spiral. Each time I’m able to calm myself, I’m learning to take control of every moment.

Affirmation: With every breath, I have the choice to remain in a constant state of calmness.


You can find this reflection card on my Mighty page here.

Posted in Challenges, Confessions, Creations, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Mental Health, Potential and Worth, Power, Reflection, Self-Care, Self-Talk

8-Day Reflection Card Series Day 3

What is something you are working on in terms of feeling fulfilled?

One of the greatest feelings is knowing you are continuously working toward something. Whether professionally or personally, feeling and doing your best is important.

Now that we’ve reflected on struggles vs. things we’re good at that can help us cope, what do we want to work on? What are our next steps to getting to a place where we want to be mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc.?


Reflection

Working on finding worth and value in myself is my main goal for this year. Whether it’s being proud of myself or not taking it personally when things don’t work out the way I planned, I will still know that I have value and worth.

The more I see myself as worthy of success and peace, the easier it will be to realize my intrinsic value.

Affirmation: I am filled with value and worth. I accept and love myself.

Posted in Challenges, Confessions, Creations, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Love, Mental Health, Potential and Worth, Power, Reflection, Self-Care, Self-Talk

Introduction: 8-Day Reflection Card Series Day 1

For the next 8-days, I will be sharing prompts in my Reflection Card series. Each day will feature one card with a two-part fill-in statement of reflection: the first part being your name and second a reflection/confession.

Approaching the fill-ins are your choice. What you feel you need to reflect and come to terms with, you can place in the blanks. Whether you want to reflect on your mental health, past, present, or goals will guide your responses.


The first card is on struggles. What do you struggle with professionally, emotionally, personally, or spiritually? What do you want to improve?

Be open and honest with yourself about what you struggle with. Coming to terms with your struggles can be tough, but it can also open the door for self-awareness and moving forward.

Be gentle with yourself and your realizations.


My Reflection:

As an adult, coming to terms with my struggles is difficult. For this card, I will confess to struggling to let go and forgive others. Although for some, not being able to forgive or let go affects how they interact with others, for me, it’s the opposite, I blame myself. Ever heard the phrase “Hurt people, hurt people,” for me it’s “hurt people hurt/blame themselves.”

Next steps:

Moving forward in realizing I blame myself for the people that hurt me leaving it hard to forgive, I will work toward healing those wounds within myself. I will be content with not getting an apology and forgiving myself for carrying those burdens.

I will move forward with peace.

I will begin to let the pain go. Let it disappear. I will not carry this around anymore.

Posted in Confessions, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Mental Health, Potential and Worth, Power, Quotes, Self-Care, Self-Talk, The Mighty

#MightyThoughts: I See Myself In You

It’s 3:53 in the morning and I can’t help but realize that I see myself in you.
We may see something inadequate, or something broken. We notice all that is wrong yet have no idea how to feel like we’re worth something spectacular.
That’s the thing, we can’t see how worthy we are of life sometimes. We define who we are by what we’ve done or how bad we’ve screwed up something. Over and over we may come to a place where we can’t see the value we possess.

Here is a message I tell myself daily and would like you to know too: You are of value no matter what you are doing or what you’ve done. You wake up with purpose and will always have purpose. Adequacy, worth, value, peace, joy, calmness, balance, and wholeness is all that is you already. You just have to believe it to be true. Believe in your healing. Believe in your recovery. I love you guys.


Find it on The Mighty here

Posted in Confessions, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Mental Health, Notes, Potential and Worth, Power, Self-Care, Self-Talk, The Mighty

#CheckInWithMe Mighty Thought Note 35: Learning to Sooth My Inner Child as Someone With Depression

My Inner Child and Perfectionism
Growing up I was a perfectionist. And while I’m now able to regulate my impulses to go well past my emotional and mental limits, as a child my self-worth depended on overachieving to feel seen and heard. Whether it was a school assignment, cleaning my room, or comparing myself to everyone else, I found that my high expectations built an inner bully that still rests in the inner child inside me.

When situations happen or certain phrases are spoken to me that affect my inner child, a wave or impulse of pain passes through my chest and my heart drops to my feet. I could instantly remember a similar situation or feeling from one in my past. Examples of these are being ignored, feeling as though my voice isn’t being heard, being pushed to the side, feeling alone, not knowing who to talk to, or feeling less-than and not good enough.
Depression, Connection, and Growing in Self-Awareness
The more I grow in self-awareness, the more I’m able to connect and identify the situations, experiences, self-talk, and thoughts that hurt my inner child. Much of my depression, I now realize, rest on the pain and experiences of that hurt little girl. I’ve learned that the more in-tune I am with soothing my inner child, the closer I get to understand the best ways to take care of myself through depressive episodes.

Connecting with my inner child is a bit painful, but it allows me to begin to let go and progress to a more workable and healthy relationship with myself. I want to love myself more in my recovery with depression. As I feel the pain resurface, I’m learning to let it go. I imagine speaking with my inner child while building trust and honesty with myself.

Soothing as a Process of Moving Forward
Workable self-talk and writing are two soothing tools I use when experiencing mental turmoil. Detaching my thoughts from my mind onto my phone or paper helps me to see what I’m going through using words. I’m able to soothe myself and create something positive as I switch negative thoughts into more positive ones.

The more I write, the more I can show my inner child that it’s okay to feel hurt. My worth is no longer connected to what I do but to who I am. In my journey of healing and recovery, I’m accepting all parts of myself without judgment. An increase in self-awareness is also an increase in self-love. Self-love means I will do what I can to be better and feel better.


Find it on The Mighty here

Posted in Confessions, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Making Sense Analysis, Mental Health, Potential and Worth, Power, Reflection, Self-Care, What Just Happened: Personal Anecdotes

Breaking From Trauma: Accepting Split Pockets of Peace

The Split Second

A week ago I sat at the edge of my bed and noticed a sensation I forgot I had the ability to feel. While coming to terms with the symptoms of my anxiety and basking in its reality for most of three years, I hadn’t felt a day that didn’t consist of nausea or worry. I haven’t felt nauseous for two weeks now. I recalled the sensations of calmness and suddenly didn’t understand what to think. Feeling okay felt strange and alien.

Being in a constant state of panic, worry, or fear became how I lived for years leaving calmness and peace strangers in a barren abyss. No thoughts resided in my head, my body felt rejuvenated from a full nights rest, and an overwhelming desire to get some work done filled me with energy. This is what it feels like to be okay, to be ready to take on the day. I didn’t think I could feel like this again.

Recollections

Although this year continuously has torn me to pieces, I didn’t realize the amount of effort I put into dragging myself out of countless depressive moments. Whether it was getting out of bed, not sleeping in, giving myself a bedtime and writing/career goals, eating more fruits and less bread and sugar, or even choosing to separate myself from thinking about situations I cannot control I became unconsciously active in my desire to feel better. Physical aches and pains have plagued this years list of what nows, but learning to not overthink is my new habit of choice.

Despite finding myself in really low moments and contrary to what I expected to become of me by this point, I recall several split moments of peace like the one mentioned above. Pockets of rainbows I would call them.

Accepting and Welcoming Peace

Confused by how I could possibly see or feel pockets of peace in arguably the worst year yet, it’s only fair to give myself some credit. Fear of leaving my trauma behind brought up some old feelings following the pockets of peace, allowing me to realize the comfort I sat in when it came to my anxiety and depression.

I’m used to feeling anxious and depressed. I don’t know what it is to not feel constantly overwhelmed with everything. Living and existing in a state of uneasy chaos is how I know to survive. I learned to live like this, who am I without it?

Witnessing and realizing that I’m able to feel better has caused both panic and peace disrupting the old state of chaotic homeostasis (if that makes any sense). I found myself having nightmares almost every night filled with both obvious and hidden messages. I’ve also recently become aware of my shadow and toxic characteristics, making me aware and awake when it comes to how I interact with others.

Now, because of all that’s happened, I’m able to gain control and pull myself to a more stabilized consciousness quicker than before. Both bizarre and contradicting as it seems, I’ve always thrived in a state of turmoil, it would only make sense for the key to my healing to lie in my darkest moments.

What Now?

Aware that I’m in another phase of transformation like in my college years, I’m open and accepting of something new to come. Despite the on and off nature of these pockets of peace, I know I’m able to gain control of my mental wellness more than believed before.

I’m both scared and excited to continue to take on the beast that is overcoming my trauma and will not give up knowing I can and will.

Posted in Events, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Mental Health, Potential and Worth, Power, Reflection, Self-Care, Self-Talk

“This is Me” Reflection: Self-Reflection is Powerful

To acknowledge, reflect, visualize, create, and share goals, aspirations, next steps, and working points are the backbone of improvement and progress. “This is Me” opened up a space of opportunity to understand not only who you are, but also what you want. To be able to pick images, quotes, letters, words and symbols that reveal and mirror what it is you want to accomplish takes strength and dedication.

The Event

Who am I?

Before building our vision boards, I came up with a small diagram to get everyone to think of different angles to approach the “who am I?” question. While this is the most complex question to ask yourself, visualizing different parts of your identity can help to jump into ideas about goals, achievements, feelings, strengths, limiting beliefs, toxic tendencies, memories, things you’ve learned, and where you want to go.

It’s not only useful to think up goals and how you want to get there but also asking yourself critical questions of ways to improve allows for a grounded and holistic approach to becoming who you want to be. Vision boards allow you to see yourself in all that is you. They show you the space to see past, present, and future possibilities while influencing and reminding you how to get there by reflecting on yourself.

While we tend to focus on one part of our identity, it’s helpful to dig into ourselves and all of our dimensions to answer questions only one part may not be able to answer. Focusing on our career and professional goals can be supplemented by our mental and spiritual strengths to place ourselves in work environments that fit us. What do we actually want? How can we improve and become better versions of ourselves by tapping into all of who we are? We are a complete being, therefore we must look at everything that makes us a whole.

The Boards

The more we looked at our identity’s focal points and where we were currently, the more we were able to grab images that mirrored how we wanted to approach our visions. I was excited to see how much work was put into visualizing the “who am I?” question. With only a limited amount of time, we were able to build and dive into ourselves to create works of art that symbolized us and what we wanted to accomplish next.

I’m extremely grateful for those who came out to “This is Me.” We answered big questions, reflected on who we wanted to be and where we want to go, while also being gentle and progressive with our progress.

Moving Forward

As I become more and more of myself every day, I see and appreciate how far I’ve come. Understanding and witnessing others in their goals, feelings, and aspirations helped me to see myself in mine. While I will always be a work in progress, I must also look at how much progress I’ve made. With all that I want to accomplish I get stuck in how much I need to do instead of appreciating the process.

I’ve learned to love and see myself as so much bigger than ever imagined. I say “I can” more and I’m excited to see where I go next. “This is Me” showed me to appreciate everything about my identity even the things I need to improve. I am me in everything that I am and will continue to work toward becoming more of myself.

Stay tuned for more events and reflections.

Posted in Events, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration

The Mighty and SparklyWarTanks Presents “This is Me”

Round 3 is in the making! Come out to “This is Me.” Unlike my other two events, this event will be more focused on creativity and reflection!


Description

This is me” is a creative event centered on self-reflection and goal creation. We will be building our own vision boards broadcasting ourselves, our strengths, who we are, and who we want to be. We will venture into ourselves using quotes, images, symbols and whatever else represents us. Make sure to bring magazines, newspapers, or print outs of what you will like to add to your vision board. We will have fun building community, reflecting, and sharing who we are with each other. Don’t forget to be gentle with yourself as you reflect on who you are. You’ve come this far and have so much more prospering to go.


Date: April 28th, 2019
Time: 12 pm – 3 pm
Event Space: 39th Avenue Arts N Events
Address: 38-12 30th Street Long Island City Queens 11101

If you would like to come you can send me a message, rsvp through The Mighty or let me know by clicking “going” on the Facebook page.

Hope to see you there!

Posted in Confessions, Keep Moving: Motivation and Inspiration, Love, Mental Health, Potential and Worth, Power, Reflection, Self-Talk, What Just Happened: Personal Anecdotes

Dear Nina, Let It Go

Dear Nina,
You’ve been rejected.
You’ve been betrayed.
You’ve been replaced without notice.
You’ve been looked at as second best.
You’ve been abandoned.
You’ve been left behind.
You feel like you will never be a priority.
You feel like no one will love you.
You’ve never been anyone’s favorite.
You’ve been called weak and pushed to the sidelines.
You’ve been underestimated.
You weren’t taken seriously.
You’ve gotten blank stares.
You’ve tried to be perfect.
You’ve tried to make yourself favorable.
You’ve felt less-than.
You’ve felt unattractive and ugly.

But I’m here to rewrite the script for you.

No matter how you’ve shaped your self-worth or what thoughts you thought you got over but in dark times resurfaced, its time to let it go. You are all the things you’ve convinced yourself that you are not. You are beyond worthy of life, love, acceptance, peace and compassion.

Retake your life from the thoughts that hold you hostage. It doesn’t matter anymore. Live in today. Live in right now. Whatever pain you’ve gone through has made you into the beautiful, empathetic, caring, ruthless, ambitious, untouchable, unstoppable creation that is you. You are a progressed product of what has happened and all of that is now over. You lived in the pain and now you’ve learned. Stop picking at the wounds that are healing. Don’t make your wombs bleed again. Sometimes it feels like the same things are happening again, but guess what? Now it’s time to use what you’ve learned. Don’t fall back into the cycles that amplified your depressive or anxious thoughts. You have the power. You have all the power. I will keep telling you until you believe it for yourself.

Sincerely,
SparklyWarTanks