October is my favorite time of year. It’s a month of newness, a new birthday year, autumn is in full swing and I do an internal reset. I take a look at the year ahead and my goals and I really check where I’m giving all of my energy to. This year has been a wild rollercoaster of major ups and downs, but all in all everything leading up to this month has been pretty amazing. I wrote my first cookbook which I still have to remind myself of daily. I wrote a cookbook which is a pretty amazing life accomplishment. It’s wild to me that a book I wrote will be on shelves and in stores. A real book!
With good comes bad, and we lost Harley earlier this month. That was one of the worst days of my life and I actually convinced myself that before his passing that I wouldn’t be able to handle it or get through it. But you know what? I did get through it. We survived. It was sad, scary, awful, and heartbreaking, but we came out of the other side stronger people. Losing Harley made me realize how short life is. We have very little time on this planet and we need to make the most of our time here.
I’ve already changed so much as a person in the last two weeks. I react less. I don’t give into people’s BS, if I don’t like something I don’t do it or engage. I’ve let go of toxic friends and people and stay away from negativity. Just doing those things I just listed in the last two weeks has made me a better person and has made me feel a whole lot lighter. You don’t have to react when a friend tries to bait you into a fight. You don’t have to put your guard up when good things happen to you. You don’t have to diminish your light to please or appease someone else. Harley was a blazing ball of light and didn’t let anything bother him. He was literally the happiest dog in the world and the most basic things made him happy. I’ve learned to appreciate the little things more and really appreciate the big things. I miss him constantly, but I also know he’s watching over us.
I’ve always had this awful habit of falling to the negative side when good things happen for me. I was raised to believe that I didn’t deserve good things and it’s taken years of my adult life and loads to therapy to un-do all of the bad habits I learned throughout the years. If you’re somewhere in the world reading this and you are struggling, I’m here to tell you that YOU do deserve amazing things. You do deserve happiness and you should celebrate your wins always! You don’t need other people to celebrate you, you need to be able to celebrate yourself. You deserve all of the good coming your way and you deserve to feel amazing about yourself.
I’m also here to tell you that you can do hard things. Life is tough, but you can handle the hard and scary stuff. Even if you don’t believe you can do it, do it anyways. Pretend you can do it. Go through the motions and do the stuff that scares you. Whether that be appointments, or work meetings, or important, nerve racking phone calls, you can do it! Having anxiety makes doing hard things a million times worse because anxious people perpetually believe the worst will happen. For some reason we have a very hard time believing that good things will happen for us.
I know with my anxiety I have this frustrating habit of anticipating the worst. I’ll literally put my mind and body through so much stress because I automatically assume and think the worst. If you watch The Great British Bakeoff (I’m obsessed!) in season 2 there was a contestant on there who thought all of her bakes were terrible. And she made it to the finals! Throughout the entire process she would beat herself up and tell the judges her creations were terrible before they even got a chance to taste her bakes! Not only is this detrimental to one’s emotional well-being, but this kind of brutal thinking can have permanent psychological damage long term. It’s not healthy or beneficial to constantly think the worse of yourself or assume the worse it going to happen. I use this contestant as an example, because not only did she come in top place most weeks, but her work was incredible!
Some of us are hard-wired to assume the worst, while others it’s taught to us in our most vulnerable years of childhood, but either way we must learn to break this habit of perpetually telling ourselves we don’t deserve good things. Because we DO deserve good things. Say this out-loud to yourself right now. “I deserve this happiness.” “I deserve good things.” Continue to say it out-loud over and over again until you actually believe it. Believing it is the hardest part, but I promise you that if you do this every single day you will believe it. Repeat it as many times as it takes and do it daily.
And with believing in your amazing self and knowing full well that you can do and handle hard things, you need good clothes to do all of the amazing and hard things in. I’m so grateful prAna partnered with me on this post and asked me try their beautiful new hemp line. I’m already a huge prAna fan and I’m in love with their new Cozy Up Clothing Line which you can view here. I love that prAna’s clothes are sustainable and that this line new is made with organic cotton and hemp. The other amazing thing about their new Cozy Up line is that it’s all made from organic hemp and the best part is that it’s super soft, comfortable, and has a UPF 30+ so the entire line is great for hiking and all of your fun outdoor excursions!
The best part is prAna has been gracious enough to offer all of YOU guys a 25% off discount that you can use through the end of the year! Use my code: GJERprAna25 and check out the new prAna Cozy Up line.
Remember friends, you are amazing, you can do hard things, and you’ve got this!
This post is sponsored by prAna. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. I truly love all of the brands that support Fitty Foodlicious!
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