Actions Speak Louder Than Words

A phrase I am sure you have heard someone in your lifetime rattle off before. And I’m sure some of the times you’ve heard it, you may have just sort of rolled your eyes, been like I knowwwwww, and brushed it off as if it was nothing. But here I am to be the broken record that says it to you again because it really is the absolute truth. Your word is your bond, and your actions from what you say is what proves your worth. How do you want the world to see you? Do you want to be perceived as someone who can be valued? Or as someone who isn’t worth the time of day because you rarely act the way you say you are going to? It is all your choice.

Another thing that goes hand in hand with this is being 100% transparent with other individuals. My policy has been, and always will be that I don’t BS or beat around the bush. I don’t talk behind your back. Be woman (or man) enough to tell people how they are making you feel and don’t be that petty person that puts a friendly smiling mask on, then shows their true ugliness the second that person isn’t looking anymore. I can GUARANTEE you that it will not stay a secret. And it will be worse for you when the truth finally comes to light like it always does.

Lastly never EVER make assumptions. Weather it’s something you heard, read, saw, or were told, you’re probably wrong. Go to the source. Find out the absolute truth. All you get from assuming you know something is making a complete ass out of yourself because guess what?!! You were wrong. Approaching people can be very difficult I realize, and yes, there will be times where you still get lied to, but you can know in your own heart that you did the right thing. And your actions will be noticed by the people that matter, and you will find yourself surrounded by other individuals that are true to themselves as opposed to a bunch of people wearing masks to hide their true ugliness.

This blog comes at a time where I have been very very hurt by individuals wearing these masks. Sometimes hurt is something you will have to go through though in order to find the true beautiful people in your life. And honestly it is a quick way to get rid of the negative energies in your circle, and keep it only filled with peace and positivity. I’m speaking out to let you know, no matter what age, or how genuine you are, it happens to ALL OF US. and I also hope that this can help some of the people hiding, to finally ditch the mask, and become the beautiful person they had the potential to be all along 💜

Make The Connection 🌱

This is what has been eating away at me lately. Since I made the transition to a vegan diet about 5 months ago, my entire perspective has been turned upside down. This definitely started as more of a health venture for me, and was something I was doing to help improve my daily life with Crohn’s Disease. If you know anything about me at all though, you know I am the curious type, I always have to research things on my own, and know everything about a subject. So of course in my vegan journey, I came across Earthlings…….

This Documentary moved me to my core. I absolutely sobbed through the footage and in that moment everything I thought I knew was turned upside down. I think we all have some sort of awareness that slaughterhouses are terrible places, but we have been trained to place sooooo much disconnect between that and what’s on our dinner plates that for most, what that living being had to go through in such a short horrifying life isn’t even a thought. I feel so much guilt now that I no longer have this disconnect. How many innocent beings have I had a part in murdering? How many lives have I selfishly taken because I’m attracted to the salt in their flesh, not even questioning if this is really what’s “Healthy” for humans.

I want you to really take a look at this photograph for me. On one side we see a cute puppy, which as humans we have chosen as a companion animal. On the other side is an animal which society has taught us is for slaughter, and doesn’t mean as much as the dog. The truth is that THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. They all feel pain, fear, and loss just the same as us. Yet we repeatedly rape them to produce milk which is made for their baby cow, then we steal the calf from its mother, and if it’s a boy he will be slaughtered for veal within a few short weeks. If you go to China, a dog is food. If you go to India, cows are sacred. Perspective is everything, and we need to as a society start seeing the side where we live in a world without needlessly killing sentient beings.

The new documentary “Dominion” was recently released for public viewing online for a small price to either rent or own. This was 7 years in the making and completely exposes all the ways in which we are exploiting animals. The majority of the footage is taken in Australia, but it accurately depicts the farming industry standards pretty much worldwide. It is a film that the world needs to see. It’s time to take the blinders off and expose the truth. I won’t sugarcoat it. The evil you will witness is going to make an impression on your soul, but sometimes that’s what has to be done in order to change. There is a reason we take our kids to the apple orchards but not the slaughterhouses. There is a reason that everything is hidden. THE TIME FOR SILENCE IS OVER. THE TIME FOR ACTION IS NOW.

There will never be a day that goes by now where I’m not thinking about the voiceless beings that can’t speak up for themselves. There will never be a day that goes by where I don’t say I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I plan on bearing witness to these beings as they are driven to their death so that they can see someone cares even if it’s in their final moments. I’m crying as I write this because since my eyes were opened, I can’t stop hearing the babies screaming for their lives in my head. The holocaust never ended. It just switched species.

I hope something in this inspires you to look for yourself. If you need support please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I know my schedule is crazy, but I respond always within a few days. I’ll give you vegan resources, tell you how the switch went for me, share Dominion with you etc. please please PLEASE don’t hesitate to ask. I also know that change takes time. Not everyone is insanely stubborn like me, and when I decide I’m giving something up it’s all gone at once. It’s time to put more love and compassion into the world overall. I get to make the affirmation every time I eat that no one had to die in order for me to nourish myself. There is no death in my body. Only a garden, and it has been the best decision I have ever made in my life. Hopefully I’ve helped you in some way to make the connection that we are all Earthlings and we all deserve LIFE. 🌱💜

Vegan?!?! 🌱

Are you insane?!?!

This was the main reaction I received when I shared with my friends that I was going to finally change my diet to entirely plant based foods. It wasn’t a completely sudden change, I had been dwelling on the idea for a while now just never acted upon it, but one day I got a wild hair, and jumped in headfirst.

I’ve been lactose intolerant for a long time now. When I was diagnosed with Crohns Disease in high school that was one of the fun things that came along with it. I will be completely honest with you though, I never listened. Cheese was my best friend 🧀. I could hear it in the refrigerator calling me at night. But until I completely removed it, I didn’t realize just how sick it was making me. I was swollen, stuffy, and my stomach was never really “right”. Is that a way any human being should live? And it was realistically all just because my brain was completely hooked on the stuff, not because I was in need of dairy nutritionally in any way.

What about Meat 🥩? How can you live with out chicken?! Burgers?! Steak? How??? Well, it’s really not that hard at all. Tofu is a wonderful thing. At first it’s a terrifying colorless, odorless, tasteless blob of nothing you have to turn into something cooked and delicious. I promise, it’s all about the brands in that department, and once you screw it up a few times, you figure it out, and tofu becomes quite delicious. Don’t even get me started on the wonder that is Tempeh! Drool!!!

The difference was truly almost instant. I felt like I was a completely different woman. My energy picked up, way easier to wake up in the morning, and I could see the puffiness just disappear off of my face. Did I crave meat? For a little while, yes. I did miss it. My favorite cheat meal was buffalo wings before this, so I was almost sacrificing a part of my soul here. Buffalo sauce is vegan though so I get to survive another day.

The true reality is, I feel like I’m an actual functioning human being now. I was so sick all the time that I was just used to it. Nobody should ever have to live like that. Once you realize that actually listening to your body is what you’re supposed to do, the transition isn’t hard at all. I could start going into the health facts, save the animals!, and environmental crap but I’m not here to preach all the benefits to you. If you care to know, you’ll go looking on your own, it’s not hard to find. I’m just here to tell my side of the story and say there might just be something to this whole vegan thing. Maybe I sparked someone else’s curiosity too…..

Relationship Ebb and Flow

I’m going to preface this post by saying am not talking about any specific person. I am just speaking about what I have expierencied throughout my life, and how relationships you have with people are ever changing…….

When you were younger, did you have that one friend who was going to be your best friend forever? You couldn’t imagine a world without them in it beside you? Or that first love who you couldn’t ever see leaving? But I’ll almost bet, that in most cases, these people are barely even blips on your radar at this point. And now you are probably trying to think of how that happened, or in some cases you know exactly how because of the scar it left behind in your heart. 

Something that I’ve always struggled with is accepting that people change. You may be the best of friends at one point, or this is the knight in shining armor you always dreamed of, but when circumstances shift in life, so do these relationships. I’ve had many people ebb and flow into my life just like the tides of the sea. Sometimes they are close, and the connection you share is that of nearly a psychic nature. 

But as we grow and mature as the years go by, things begin to recede. As we begin to learn more about each other, things aren’t going together like peanut butter and jelly any more. You may react with someone you loved with your whole being like oil and water now. 

What this post is mainly about is that this is completely normal. I believe people show up in our lives At the times that they do to teach us something.Whether it be about ourselves, life, or relationships in general. But we have to learn how to treasure these moments and people for the time that we have them, and focus on what it taught us. We also have to know how to let go, and not let the separation ruin us as people. We must grow stronger from our expierences, not shut down from them.  To be sure though, you will have the few that stick around, and these should be treasured even more. 
I hope this helps anyone feeling the pain of a loss of some sort of relationship. I know this reflection helped me 💜

Happy Hermit 🦀

Ok,  so the latest thing that has been on my mind is the fact that I am a type of person that seems to isolate themselves. Like a lot. It’s not that I don’t have the opportunity to go out and be around a lot of people at once, but sometimes the thought is overwhelming to someone like me. You’ll hear me say the phrase “it’s too peopley” all the time and I really do mean that. I prefer a quiet setting with my cat, over a crowded downtown club where I’m shoulder to shoulder with strangers any day of the week. Does this make me a hermit? I suppose, but I am a happy one 

When you do isolate yourself though, it does get a little lonely. And I feel like sometimes people don’t understand why I turn down going out and about, and can even get offended by it. I’m never trying to upset anyone, and it’s not that I don’t want to be around them, but sometimes my brain just can’t handle it. 

I grew up as a very shy child. It was painful for me to meet new people, and I usually ended up saying or doing the wrong thing. Maybe this is where part of my isolation habits began. Maybe it was because when I was younger if I made one of these social faux pas, kids were cruel, and would laugh at me and make me feel even worse than I did before trying to be social. Eventually I just stopped getting asked to go places, but ironically that hurt too. It’s never that I don’t want to be invited, and sometimes I do want social interaction, but people are quick to give up on the kid that alsways seems to say and do the wrong thing. 

Over the years of hurt and sadness, I learned that I can still control my happiness weather or not I’m always with the crowd. And I’ve also learned that it OK to ASK others what’s going on rather than to just assume that “no one wanted to invite you” if you’re usually the type who says no when they do. Maybe you’ll happily surprise them when you do go out at a time where you feel comfortable with it.

Isolation is my friend. I love to read a good book, cuddled up with my cat and do it dressed however I want with no one looking on to judge me. I love singing at the top of my lungs in the shower (poorly) and knowing that no one cares if I missed Freddy Mercurys high note……again. I love dancing around my room to a song and just being able to cut lose for those 3 to 4 minutes and the only person whoever sees it is my own reflection in the mirror. I love being able to meditate on life and reflect on everything that is going on with me. 

So if you are what is considered the anti social type, and you may be looked at as a weirdo for it, EMBRACE IT!!!! because what all of us happy little crabs hiding in our own shells know, is that while the rest of the world is out there trying to fit in and be “socially acceptable” we get to be our true selves. And then when we do leave our shell for a bit, our beautiful unique perfect us is what shows. 💜

1 week and I’m a Skinny Coffee Babe for life!!!

Holy amazingness batman! I have been using Skinny Coffee for 6 days and let me tell you. I AM IN LOVE!!!! 😍😍😍 let me give you all of the details and I only speak the truth. 

First of all the taste is GREAT! I’m a would you like some coffee with that creamer type of gir usually but I drink this coffee black. And I actually enjoy it that way! It has a great flavor that isn’t overwhelming so you are ok even without the cream. I brew mine in a mini French press so that would be my recommended method for everyone. 

Now I know if you’ve dabbled in the weight loss teas like I have, some of them can have a terrible stomach ache effect. There is nothing like that from the coffee. All I felt was a great boost of energy in the morning and a very happy belly. Definitely something you have to be happy about! 

Now the picture above shows my progress after 6 days. ONLY 6 DAYS!!!!! That’s insanity!!! There was also 2 lbs of weight loss in the first 6 days. I feel so much better and this is only the beginning. I really can’t believe how awesome this product is working. I will definitely continue to use it and may or may not have just ordered 3 more months worth 🙊

Check back after the full 28 day cycle to see the next update!!! 

Skinny Coffee? YES PLEASE!!!

Ok guys. So how many weight loss teas have we seen on the market? Like a million right? Well I don’t know about you guys, but I’m a coffee drinker. Call it my Seattle blood but it just is my preferred beverage of choice to get myself going in the morning. 

Now I’ve tried some weight loss teas on the market before but this on really grabbed my attention because well, ITS COFFEE!!!! Skinny coffee is made from all organic ingredients and is quite affordable. It is made in the U.K. Though so if you’re ordering from America like myself, you will wait a little over a week to receive it. But don’t worry, it’s coming! And the shipping is free! 

I’ve started the 28 day trial as of this morning and I have to say the coffee tastes amazing! I prepared mine in a French press because of course. I am a bit of a snob sometimes when it comes to my coffee 🤗. I can also feel the difference in my energy level. I usually drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee every morning but it feels like I did that and I only had a single cup! We’re off to a good start on this one. The pic above is my starting point. I will review the difference after a week. Either way I’m excited to continue on this journey and really be a #SkinnyCoffeeBabe 💜💓

Happiness is a choice…… Choose wisely!

So it has been quite some time since I have posted anything. And in that time I have retreated to do even more soul searching for myself. Sometimes you just need to hide out a a little in your own space to figure out What your soul needs to heal. The main lesson that I feel like the universe has been trying to teach me is that your own happiness is a conscious choice you make every single day. 

Have you ever had one of those mornings where you wake up and the first thing you think to yourself is negative? I know personally I am a culprit of this all the time. And it affects how my entire day goes! Just one simple thought can change everything. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed is a real thing. And in the last couple of months I’ve made myself think one happy thing in the mornings. This small change has affected my life greatly. But in all the right ways. I challenge you to try it too. 

My other suggestion to you is to find some way to meditate. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to do it in the traditional sense of the word. Find some activity that allows you to zone out from the world for a few minutes and get lost in your own thoughts. I use running as my time to do this, but there are many different things that could work. Even just heading out to a coffee shop to people watch. We never get alone time anymore. Especially with how extremely connected our smart devices keep us these days. So that’s the main key to a successful get away session, leave your phone behind! This personal time to listen to your soul everyday makes you that much more in tune with what you need on a spiritual level and can make all the difference. 

The power Of thought is real. And it can’t be ignored. Training my brain to be happy and think positively is changing my life. I don’t allow my happiness to be determined by outside forces anymore. I don’t give people the power to control my happiness either. If you start to take a small amount of your time to focus truly on making these changes daily, you can begin to find your true happiness too. It is still a work in progress and I am certainly not perfect myself, but I felt I needed to share just what has been going on in my brain 💜💓

Deja Vu

Do you ever have those moments where you are instantly teleported to a past time in your life? It can be triggered by any of the five senses. Something you see, touch, taste etc., then suddenly BAM! You’re back to feeling something oddly familiar. Well I just had one of those instances that happened to be triggered visually. It’s amazing how the internet works, and allows us to see things that we never would have otherwise…..

The part that is most fascinating to me is the stark contrast to my end feelings of the situation between now and then. I once would have reacted thinking there was something wrong with me, that I needed fixing. Too often we want to put ourselves down mentally, which really takes a toll. The worlds biggest critic really is ourselves. But sometimes it is unwarranted. Manipulated in a way………

Now I take a step back and I begin to smile. See, I realize that I am WORTHY. I realize that I am MORE. and I realize that I am a BEAUTIFUL person, inside and out. We all are. Every quirk, out of place, messy, angry, sad, happy thing about us is an amazing gift that we were given to let shine out and touch and inspire people….. 

The saddest thing is how many people are afraid to let their strangeness show; Are afraid that it will make them not be “good” enough, or that they won’t “fit in”. My intention of writing this is to encourage you to be 100% your true self. No one else can do it, and that is what makes existing so beautiful. Be proud of the things that make up you, the results can be incredibly surprising…… 
  

PMA

Those three letters. “Positive Mental Attitude.” Seems like it is something so easy to obtain. Yet here we are, grumpy and groggy heading to work or school, and keeping the positivity is so quickly lost. What is your automatic reaction if someone cuts you off while you are in a rush somewhere? Or if, God forbid, you drop your coffee immediately after purchase. Suddenly you feel your temperature rising and the anger ignites. Moments like these have the power to completely sour your mood for the remainder of the day, and when you really start to think about that, it’s fairly scary.
The expression “I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” Is very real. But what starts to happen if we take a few moments to think positive and find the good in all situations? Yes you were cut off, but so much worse could have happened, and you are still going to get where you are headed regardless. And trust me when I say coffee is an essential to my day to day life, And when you finally get that first sip it is glorious. It really is a devastating feeling if you drop it and don’t get to enjoy the caffeine you went out of your way to stop and purchase that morning, But what happens if the clerk sees this happen and offers to make you a new drink free of charge? Or yes, it may not be the fancy new Macchiato on the block, but there is still a pot of hot coffee waiting for you once you get to where you are headed.
Life is tough. We face new struggles every single day and that is never going to change. It is part of the beauty of being alive. We have obstacles put in our way to make us stronger as human beings all around. It is how we behave when we face these challenges that makes all the difference. We are faced with a choice, To back down and let the problem win, ruin the rest of the day for us and cause us to check out and miss the beauty life has to offer. Or, we can choose to understand that these things will happen, there is a lesson to be learned in every situation, and to keep on smiling because that alone could change the course of another’s day for the better.