My friend used to be obsessed with 11:11. He said he'd see it everywhere. As we got older we realized he saw it everywhere because he was looking for it, and his brain would make mental notes whenever he saw it. That idea applies to a lot of what we notice in life. We have biases. If we don't like someone, there's very little they can do to change our minds. When we adore someone, we'll be very forgiving of their shortcomings. Our brains are more complex than we think, and our first mistake is assuming we can completely understand ourselves. The smartest thing we can admit is that we'll never fully understand how we work. There's power in noticing...
Be nicer to yourself. It doesn't benefit anyone when you're hard on yourself. It doesn't make you work harder, it doesn't keep you motivated, it doesn't help your mental or physical health, and it opens the door for others to treat you the same. The way we treat ourselves sets the tone for the way others will be permitted to treat us, and it's nobody else's responsibility to keep us safe from that type of bullshit, but ourselves. Our brains are wired to focus on things that are out of place, that's how we survive. In modern life, that means we focus on what's wrong, and disregard all that's right, and that's not very helpful. When someone loves themselves...
We're not grateful because we're happy, we're happy because we're grateful. We wait for things to be thankful for, when really, we're better off searching for things to be thankful for in our everyday. We can be thankful for the oxygen in our lungs, the internet access we have, the fact that we have some real friends, or that our Instagram crush just posted a new pic in a drool-worthy outfit. There's no shortage of things we can appreciate, it's a choice we can make at any time. When I say good things happen to those who appreciate, I'm not promising a winning lottery ticket, or a cute boy's phone number. I'm saying when we search for beauty in life,...
Bad shit is going to happen, and bad feelings are going to come from that bad shit, and that's normal. It's even normal to feel sorry for ourselves when bad shit happens to us, sometimes folks sink a little too deep into self-pity and then bad shit turns to worse shit. Feeling sorry for ourselves helps us feel connected to something, but if we do it too much, we begin to isolate ourselves from everything and everyone else. People who use self-pity aren't bad people, they may just not have explored other ways to feel better. We gotta do what we gotta do to feel better and heal, so we can keep moving. I respect that healing takes time, but I also...
When I met thesandylion, she was an intimidating and stylish monster, stealing all the oxygen out of the room with her unfairly symmetrical face. To add to the mystic, she was private on Instagram. After a little poking, she went public and started by sharing pictures of outfits laid out on the floor. Slowly, over time, she continued to evolve her content and showed the world how to feel good about themselves through their own personal style; no expensive clothes needed, just some creativity and bravery. Whenever brands reached out to her to model, she delivered in front of the camera, and then showed them her genius behind the scenes, styling red carpet looks for celebs, music videos, and photo...
