the inspiration

Coming across this bottle cap in my apartment Saturday night was the beginning of an important realization for me. . .

As we all know, with life being so messy, it is easy to get caught up in a constant search for "happiness" or contentment and even easier to throw a pity party for yourself when the search seems to come up short time and time again. Although "knowing" this for awhile now, and also officially deeming this blog a no-judgement zone, I can probably be considered as one of the biggest offenders of this.  

My mind has a knack for tricking me into believing that things are way worse than they realistically are. Here's the time when all you Freud-lovers out there tell me that I wasn't born with this way of thinking and have actually trained my mind to make these negative associations...and I would definitely agree with you. BUT the important thing is not how I came to think this way but what I am going to try and do about it now. 

I have, unfortunately, become so good at focusing on the negative, the hopeless, the stressful, the lack-there-of, the unorganized, the 'what didn't happen' as opposed to 'what DID', that it is now frighteningly automatic. And again, as we all know, we cannot always change the things that happen to us but (cliché

  alert!) we can change the way we think about them. 

So, obviously not wanting my life to pass me by this way, I've decided I want to try and start looking at things a little differently. To laugh things off, embrace the bad with the good, be a person I'm proud to be. There seems to always be that phase in someone's life where they start becoming overly aware of all the unfortunate things that life has to bring and begin to feel entitled in their decision to focus on merely those experiences. I have absolutely been in this phase for too long now and it's time to put an end to it; by coming to terms with the fact that life IS messy, unpredictable and down right frustrating at times and choosing to change my state of mind. 

I'm sure I will fail at this, a lot at first but I'm going to try. For myself, for my friends and family, for everyone. 

With that "food for thought" being said and my blog officially started, choose to follow my day to day ramblings if you would like but this isn't so much for the readers as it for myself: a reason to look for and make note of the blessings that are in my life every single day, a way to put my thoughts into words and make them real, valid and possibly meaningful reminders of what is important or interesting to me and whatever else I feel is even remotely cool enough to share with the world! Take what you wish from my posts, leave the rest and thank you in advance to all that will undoubtedly show endless love and support as I try to follow through with this particular daunting task and the many countless others that are sure to follow ...

For today, it's all state of mind.