The relationship you have with yourself, I have come to realize, is the most important relationship in your life. If you are not happy within yourself, it is going to be so hard to be happy in any other aspects of your life. I, personally, have not always lived my life with self love. I have struggled with my identity, struggled with alcohol, and was living a very anxious and pessimistic life for a few years. Now that I have gone through what I feel was the lowest point in my life, I am so grateful to be on the other side and feel confident and powerful in all of my roles in life.

Before, I was looking at my life through the lens of the “glass half empty”. Now, I see everything that I am thankful for and I put my energy towards those things. I’ll give you an example. My husband got a new job this past year where he has to leave for work before the kids and I even get up, which leaves me fully responsible for getting the kids fed, ready, and to 2 separate schools in the morning. That’s a lot of responsibility, right? Some mornings I panic that we are going to be late (my type A personality HATES being late) and my head spins from all of the things that need to get done first thing in the morning. My attention would be on how stressful this situation was and how lucky my husband is that he gets to wake up and get right out the door without having to worry about anyone but himself.

Now that I am on the other side of it, I see how LUCKY and BLESSED I am that I have the opportunity to spend so much time with my kids and that I get to be the one to spend every morning with them. Some moms have to be at work before their kids get up and don’t get to spend a lot of time with their kids during the week as a result, so I have to appreciate that I get to enjoy my kids so much every single day. Do I still have some tough mornings? Sure. Of course I do. But the good outweighs the bad and I am choosing to focus my energy on how grateful I am to be their mom and to be their primary caregiver every day.

Positive self talk is something that I have always struggled with. I have heard that speaking to yourself with kindness is so important and that it can affect your mental health a lot, but I honestly didn’t believe it would make a big difference in my life. Once I started the antidepressants and began to look at my life in a positive light, I began seeing myself for who I truly am: a great person. I am doing my best every single day and I feel so proud and confident in every aspect of my life. I say kind things to myself on a daily basis and I recognize that if something goes wrong, it is not the end of the world, but rather just a bump in the road. This new mindset has been life changing.

When I feel confident in my decisions and who I am as a person, not only am I living my life to the fullest, but everyone around me gets to experience me at my best. Life is short, and unexpected things happen all the time, and I am making the conscious decision to be happy each and every day and to appreciate all that I have and to love myself at all times. A quote that I have been saying to myself lately is “What if you fall? Oh, but darling, what if you fly?” The only thing holding you back from pursuing your dreams is your fear of failure. WHO CARES?! I know it can be hard to get out of the way of yourself, but YOU are in charge of your destiny and YOU deserve to be happy and live a purposeful, amazing, beautiful life. This is your sign to lean into yourself and your dreams and to start living life the way you have always dreamed.