Journey on Yourself

I’ve been thinking so much over the last two weeks about perspective and how I am choosing to see things, and how I am choosing to react to things. You see, I am a very emotional person, and as such, my perspective sometimes comes from an emotional place rather than a wise one. I can spend all day asking people to forgive me, or I can start changing the way I see things. I can start trying to see things from other’s point of view and maybe choosing the way I react a little differently.  Anybody else out there feeling this way?

I recently was lamenting to a friend about all the crap I have going on in my life. This friend literally took every single situation I spoke of, admonished that it is in fact so much to be going through, but then literally broke down every single situation and asked me to think about what good, and what message I could be seeing in each situation, if I were letting myself. As I set reading how each situation was broken down and being forced to maybe see the positive in each situation versus the negative, it literally made me change my perspective on each individual situation. Isn’t it amazing how changing your perspective, and trying to see them from other people’s eyes, and not focusing on the negative in the situation changes things completely!

Maybe you’re like me and you take everything personal! If you’re not like me and you don’t take anything personally, you are my hero!! What would happen if instead of taking everything that people say to us to heart, if we stop for a minute and try to think where they might be coming from, and think that most likely what they said to hurt us, had absolutely nothing to do with us, and everything to do with how they feel, and where they might be in their life. Would that keep you from reacting with emotion and reacting negatively? I think if I stopped and thought like this every time, I might just react a little differently. I might be able to feel sorry for that person. I might be able to react with less emotion and not take things so personally! I might realize that they’re reacting from their point of view, from what their perspective is at the time. Let this sink in for a minute! Stop being so selfish and let that sink in! Could this change your perspective to each situation you find yourself dealing with?

Please know that I am not negating what you’re going through. Lord no, I am not because I’m sitting over here in my corner feeling a little negative about things right now myself. Your pain is real! Your hurt is real! All I am saying is what if you look through that situation from another lens and try to see what this might be teaching you. Maybe that person who is accusing you of things you didn’t do is feeling guilty themselves about things in their life and rather than facing them, they’re choosing to accuse you. Would that diffuse your hurt and anger? Would you maybe be more understanding and not take the attack so personal? Maybe that lost job is to push you to something greater that you would have never gone for. Maybe the end of that relationship is because that person was only going to hold you back. Maybe that set back is really a set up for something amazing! Maybe that trial you and your spouse are going through is setting up your marriage for the greatest days in your relationship that you have ever seen and for years you will ride high supporting each other from what you learn in this valley.  Maybe that person who doesn’t like you is making you take a good long look at yourself and that will propel you into greatness.

Change your perspective today and you might just change your life.  You may react differently! You may take a step back and instead of taking so many things personally, you may try to see them from the other person’s point of view and not let it make you sad, angry, bitter or hurt! You may find yourself dealing with things and reacting to things with more wisdom and less emotion! I know that this is how I am going to try to start doing things and right now! I plan to change my perspective!

With love for you all!

Shauna

 

 

 

 

As I sit here writing, yet again finding myself in the middle of another trial in 2019, I don’t even know where to start today. My head is in a million different places and focus is a struggle! I laid on the couch at 1 a.m. Saturday morning struggling with my faith, and my eyes were drawn to a sign that sits in front of my TV. It simply reads BELIEVE. All I could do in that moment was look up to the sky and say God, I don’t know if I can believe anymore. Ever been there? I am a woman of faith. I was raised by a woman of faith and over the years faith is all that’s gotten me through, but this time, I am tired and I am struggling with my faith. Maybe you have never been there, but I am being honest and transparent like I always am.

I have dealt with disappointment in life. Dealing with divorce, infertility, false accusations, but this years events have shaken me to my core. I wish I was stronger, I wish things rolled off my back, but for some reason this year, I have not been very strong! This year it seems it has been cutting words and let down by people that I love and who I thought loved me, and yet, it’s been words that have cut to the bottom of my heart!  I am not perfect, far from it, I have made so many mistakes in my life, but I always thought I had the biggest heart and genuinely helped everyone around me, but apparently that’s not been the case. Ever been accused of such things when you thought you were being everything to everybody?

I don’t know your beliefs, but throughout the Bible there are trials and mistreatment and disappointment and yet God always used those things for good somehow. That’s actually how my blog started in the first place. I had this real desire and yearning in my soul to help other people deal with the things in life that I have endured, but honestly, this past weekend, I literally almost deleted all of my writings because I felt like a failure. I know for a fact that my blogs have helped people, and instead of believing that this trial too has a purpose, I almost let it stop me in its entirety! So if I had let this stop me, who might I have missed at helping? Who might need a word the exact day I wrote a blog that lifted them up, and let them know that no matter what life was trying to throw their way, they too could make it? What if because I didn’t write something, I didn’t save a life?

Let me tell you about receiving a word of hope when you need it! I reached out to two friends for words of wisdom and listen what I received. Remember earlier I said I was struggling to believe? I received a text back telling me God wanted to see my faith and that I had to BELIEVE! Funny how that works! I tell God I’m struggling to believe and I get a text that I must believe. I didn’t tell that person I was struggling to believe either! I tell you that to say, don’t let life’s trials stop you! Somebody needs you to believe you’re going to make it! Somebody needs you to believe there is still good and a life to be lived! Somebody needs you to keep the faith! I don’t know what you’re going through today, but like me, you will survive! Like me, you have a purpose in this life and if we just let these trials make us stronger, the hurt can be healed! I have thought of Joseph from the Bible today.  If you don’t know the story of Joseph, search it out. Search out the trials he went through and how God turned it around in the end! My trials seem so small in comparison to what he endured, yet the way his life ended was amazing.

I hope today that I have encouraged you to BELIEVE! People’s words don’t mean you’re not amazing! People’s words don’t mean you’re not helping somebody! Don’t listen to the critics! Listen to those who believe in you and uplift you! I will end with one last story! I received a message out of the blue recently from an old boss/friend of mine. He told me of somebody who had impacted his life a decade ago. Somebody who had an integral part of him blossoming his love for God. Somebody he said was loved and appreciated by many.  Somebody who was confident, who was everybody’s friend and whose love for God was contagious. You know who he was talking about? Me! Little did I ever know that I had impacted his life so many years ago so keep being strong! You don’t know who is watching you and who needs what you have! Just keep believing in yourself and the light you can be to somebody! Make the decision today to BELIEVE! You will make it through stronger and your failures can be turned for good!

With love for you all,

Shauna

Joy! What does that word mean to you? When I say joy, what comes to mind?

Here’s what Webster says:

Do you ever let yourself just stop and think about what in life genuinely brings you joy? It’s different for all of us. For me, my joy comes when I get to travel to new places. My joy comes in decorating my house for Christmas. My joy comes from cooking a big meal for my friends and family. My joy comes from this blog and the hope that I’m helping people. My joy comes from my family and having a peaceful home that is a place of refuge. My joy comes from working out. My joy comes in making my home inside and out a beautiful place. What brings you joy may be very different from me, but something brings you joy!

Stop for a second right now and grab a piece of paper and think about all the things that bring you joy. Write them down! Everybody talks about their why. I think if you take a second to write down the things that bring you joy, you might just find your why in life! Our why is what gets us out of bed everyday. Our why is what drives us when we feel like we can no longer go on.  If I am being totally honest here, I don’t think I have known my why, or been real clear about my why. Maybe you’re not like me, maybe you do the things that bring you joy on a regular basis. Do you? Do you do that which brings you joy?

Joy seems to be my word for the past year. You see, I lost my joy. I let life and events steal my joy. Ironically, Joy is my middle name. It never meant so much to me as it has this year. One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible talks about weeping enduring for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. Joy just keeps jumping out at me everywhere I look. And I mean everywhere. Painted on various items on the street. On signs, on billboards, in quotes, in books, literally everywhere I look! I think somebody is telling me I need to find my joy again! Do you ever find yourself there? Have you let life steal your joy? As we approach the end of 2019, I urge you to take some time to just sit down and quiet your mind and think about the things that bring you joy. I urge you to focus on those things versus what is wrong in life. If like me you have lost your joy, I pray that you do whatever it takes to find that joy again! Life can be so very hard, but in the midst of the storm, we can still have peace and joy in our hearts! So let me end by asking you this question. What brings you joy?

With love for you all!

Shauna



I was just blessed with 6 glorious days on the beach, it was one of the most relaxing vacations I have ever had! I was feeling so good and on the last morning at 4:15 a.m. I woke up stressing, and worrying, and fearful over some things. What a way to end an amazing 6 days! For 3 hours I laid there fretting over things that haven’t even happened and wondering about the future! How dumb!! I need to get through one day at a time, not fret about something days, months or even years down the road!! How do I make a difference and chase my dreams with fear in my heart? I was just blessed with 6 glorious days, peaceful days, in paradise where I just let myself relax, think about the future and dream, and then on the last day, this happens!

I want to talk about fear for a minute. Fear can absolutely paralyze you, and stop you from taking chances, chasing your dreams, and making a difference! I was reading Rachel Hollis’ book Girl Stop Apologizing on my flight home, and while reading her chapter on fear and people’s opinions, it hit a real nerve! Let me tell you a secret about me, and I will probably lose some of you right here, but I am on my third marriage! Pick your jaw up, you read right. I am not going to spend one second saying one bad thing about anyone or trying to justify myself,  I don’t have to, but that fact has paralyzed me multiple times, and stopped me from writing or feeling like I could help one single person. You know what, that’s what people expect me to do! To shut up and not help anyone else! People expect me to sit back, live a quiet life and not go chase my dreams, or do any good in the world! That’s not me though and I refuse to give in to the critics! I refuse to not refuel, refocus and go be all God meant for me to be! I refuse to sit back quietly and not help other people! I was not created for mediocrity and neither were you!

I was told before I went on my trip to let the waves roll in,  and roll back out and while that was happening for me to release those things that were holding me back. To release my fears. Release the judgment of others. Release my past and all the mistakes I have made, and I did just that. Before this trip, I was seriously running on empty! I had nothing left to give to anyone else, let alone myself! Nothing! I have been feeling like a failure lately. I have been feeling like life is never going to change, that this fog I have been in is going to continue and I will never be able to go where my heart wants to go!

Maybe you feel like life is never to change, that life is never going to be better but stop thinking that way and dig your way out NOW!! I have had one of the most emotionally difficult years of my adult life! I know where you are coming from, but I’m getting through it! I am personally doing what I am asking you to do, I’m digging out! I have wondered throughout this entire journey of blogging if there was a remote chance I was making any kind of difference and then I received the following text last week on my birthday! “Happy Birthday! I admire your tenacity and will to never quit. You have never allowed life to keep you down in the pit for long. You regroup, get back up and continue to give it your all. I see you, I like you and I love you. You should be proud of yourself, Shaun! I hope this is the best year you’ve ever had.” So, the answer is yes! Even me with all my mistakes and failures, I am still making a difference! You and I can make a difference even in the tough times! Somebody is watching you to see how you’re going to react to those tough times and if you’re going to make it out! Use your test for your testimony! Don’t be afraid to fail, don’t be afraid to fall down! Just make sure you get back up! Just make sure you take the time to recharge from time to time!

If you’re a young person reading this, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, just don’t be lazy and watch life pass you by! Get out there and do what makes your soul sing! Don’t let anyone talk you out of it! If your example is parents who are complacent and settling in life, who don’t work hard, or make life amazing, break that cycle!! Determine you want more in life and go get it with fire in your soul!! You can do it!

My prayer today is that if you’re feeling down, stressed, not at peace and not feeling like you can make a difference, take some time and start today to do something to find your fire again! Do something today to fill your tank to full and get out there! You have something inside of you, a dream you want to chase, people you want to help, things you want in life and running on an empty tank won’t get you there! Find your JOY today! Find your FIRE today! You will be unstoppable I know!

With love for you all,

Shauna

It did not even dawn on me until this morning that I am one year into my blogging. It seems so crazy to me that 365 days later, I am 50 blogs in. I started this blog in a time when in my life things were so indecisive and crazy and uncertain. I hoped that just maybe I would gain some clarity, and, just maybe help somebody else along the way. I never set out to be a weekly blogger, and told myself that I would only blog when the inspiration hit, I never set expectations on myself. I believe I have been true to that. I have only posted when I truly knew in the pit of my stomach that I had something to say.

I want to take this moment to say thank you to so many people. To my friends, family and my brother for pushing me to do this, and for faithfully reading every single thing I post. To all the people on social media who read each blog,  and to all the people who have gone a step forward and actually subscribed, thank you! Without all of you, there would be no voice to Shauna’s Sisters! Your support means the world to me. I wish I could say thank you to each one of you in person, but obviously, some of you I have never met in person.

I wish I could tell you that a year later life is in a much different place, but I’m not there yet. I will be at that right time, I am learning to trust the process and trust the timing! As I wrote not very long ago, life happens. People come and go from our lives, lessons are learned, mountains are climbed and life becomes what it is supposed to be! I trust God’s plan and I trust I am on the right road, it may just take me longer to get there, but I am headed forward!

I hope you stay on my journey with me, and I hope in the process that you gain something along the way. I hope something I post lights a fire! I hope something I post inspires somebody to keep going! I hope something I posts makes you stop and re-evaluate and know you can be and do anything you want! Stay with me! More to come and I am so excited to see where I end up one year from today!

With love for you all!

Shauna

I have horrible eye site, my prescription is -4.50 and -4.00.  I can’t see an alarm clock or see a face without my glasses! I am near-sighted and far-sited and have an astigmatism in both eyes.

Last night, I got out of the shower, no contacts in, no glasses on. I am standing before the mirror and I see sculpted shoulders, a tiny waist, the thigh gap, perfect hour glass figure. Okay for all you haters out there, take a deep breath, I started out by telling you how poor my eye site is, and that I had no glasses or contacts in! But in my blurry vision that’s what I saw. I put my glasses on, walk out of the bathroom naked, look down and all I can see is fat rolls, a stomach sticking out and thunder thighs! I mean it’s like the movie Shallow Hal!

These are just a few things I have had guys tell me over the years:

1. My legs are huge.
2. My nose is big.
3. My eyes are sunk back in my head so therefore I must never wear contacts, glasses hide that.
4. I look awful with straight hair, which might come to a shock to many people, is actually natural for me.
5. I’m stupid and must never open my mouth.

Those are just a sampling of the things I have been told.

Do you know the guy who called me stupid couldn’t pass the real estate exam…I passed the first try!

The guy who called me fat is overweight!

The guy who didn’t like me bigger than a size 4 with straight hair, his wife isn’t a 4 and wears her hair straight.

I don’t think I need to go on, you get the point.

Why is it that our self worth and self image is based upon other people’s opinions of us? Why do we let those voices in our head? What other people think of us is just their opinion, and most of the time, I believe it’s actually their feelings about themselves down deep! It actually has nothing to do with us at all! That person who picks on you, is actually very insecure down deep!

I know I am not stupid! I know all of those things that were said about me aren’t true, but for years they have been the voices in my head! For years they have been the way I see myself! For years they have driven me to feel like I have something I have to prove! For years I have felt like I didn’t measure up! For years I have tried every yo-yo diet and exercise plan known to man! I am exhausted just talking about it!

We need to get to a place where we love ourselves so much that hearing those things has no effect on us, and we realize it’s laughable, and not care what the haters say! We are perfectly made! If you’re not as healthy as you would like then change that, but do it because YOU love yourself enough to want to be around longer! Not because someone else thinks you’re fat or ugly! You won’t have the results or the satisfaction or stick with a healthy lifestyle if you’re only doing it for other people! Trust me! Been there!! I have been known to work out crazy amounts in the gym, then sneak an entire box of donuts in the car! Stop letting celebrities and models dictate your views too! First of all those images are often photoshopped and secondly those people get paid to look like that! They are paid to have trainers and chefs. We could all look like that if we’re getting paid and had all day to work out! Plus, they’re always under a microscope! That would get old!

We don’t have to be the prettiest person in the room to be amazing! We don’t have to be the smartest person in the room to make a difference and change people’s lives! We all have gifts! We all have a life to live that is lived with a purpose! Let’s stop feeling like we don’t measure up, and get out there and be all we’re called to be! Let’s start lifting each other up instead of sizing each other up! You have something I need! I have something you need and this world needs us all! On a side note, stop chasing your self worth with other people too, and getting into relationships that are unhealthy because we’re so insecure and crave attention. We all matter! Realize yourself how great you are, and then the right relationship where you both lift each other up, will come along!

I am going to the beach in a few weeks and I am going to rock a bathing suit, thunder thighs, surgery scars and all! I feel healthy right now, although I haven’t had much time in the gym lately, I am eating healthy and I feel good! Let’s get out there and rock it!! Have I challenged you?! I hope I have! Can you start exchanging the negative voices in your head with positive ones? I dare you to start trying and see how your life and those around you start changing! LOVE yourself!!! It has to start with loving ourselves!

With love for you all,
Shauna

 

As I thought about this subject this morning over my coffee, I just kept thinking of that saying that has floated around social media for some time that says “Everything happens for a reason. But sometimes the reason is that you’re stupid and you make bad decisions.” That made me laugh thinking about it. Yes, everything happens for a reason, and I have most certainly been the one making bad decisions, and that being the reason something happened. I’m pretty sure we can all admit to being stupid and making bad decisions throughout our life. For me, I think it’s when I try to control things and make things happen versus trusting the process. I have done that too many times to count and even at my age, I still do it. I might have a slight tendency to control things. Okay, I have more than a slight, let’s be honest here, but I need to slow down more and just let life happen for me and not get in such a hurry!

You might disagree with me that life just has a way of happening but think about this with me. Can you control the seasons changing? No! They just happen. Can you control what family you were born into? Nope, again, just happens. Trust me, if I could control that, I would have been born on an estate in Napa Valley, California growing grapes and making wine, but I was born in Bloomington, Indiana to a middle class family. If you want to be honest, my family was low income at the time of my birth. Life just happens! The seasons change, the weather changes, you were born to the parents you were, it just happens!

I know you’re thinking there is so much that we do control and it’s not just life. You’re right about that. You can change where you live, you can change your career, you can change your health, sometimes, you can’t always change your health, but you can make changes to improve it, you can change your friends, you can change any relationship you’re in! We were all given free will, and yes, that does effect our lives, but there are so many things that we cannot control and instead of realizing that, and going with the flow and trusting the process, we try to fight against it and too often, we mess up our lives terribly! That’s where I am going with this! I have found myself losing hope lately, not trusting the process, and believing that life isn’t going to work itself out and be everything I want or deserve. What naturally comes after a good hard rain? A rainbow. Rainbows are a sign of hope. You survived the storm, now here’s this beautiful thing to behold that says you weathered the storm. It just happens!

I had a change in my job last year, and I fought it, kicked and screamed and cried, ask why this was happening to me, etc. You get the picture. I had settled into this life that had been created quite nicely and I wasn’t ready for that to change. I was able to work from home, work out 2 hours every day, travel to CA 2-3 times each year. What was there not to like? But then, life happened. It’s caused me to totally re-evaluate my life and where I am at and where I am going. I don’t have the answers yet, but I am trying to trust that something is coming and things are being worked out the way they are supposed to! I was totally handed a job that I didn’t search out, which in turn has allowed me to gain a new set of skills and meet so many amazing people. I don’t think that was a coincidence. I actually don’t believe in coincidences! I have met some people who have changed my life and who will forever be a part of my life. I never would have met them without my job changing.

Let me talk about people for a minute. I think every single person that crosses our path was for a reason! They may have been brought into our life to teach us love, to point out our strengths, to point out our weaknesses, to teach us a skill, to show us who we can be, to show us who we don’t want to be. Maybe they needed me or you for a time and only we could give them what they needed. I honestly don’t know why people were brought into our lives to abuse us, other than to make us stronger and give us a voice to help others. Think about this for a minute, we are all given free will, and sometimes the people that come into our lives are not meant for the purpose that we bring them in for and that causes us pain. We have red flags with people but we choose to ignore them and have a relationship with them when that was never meant to be their purpose in our life. We can bring hurt and pain on ourselves that shouldn’t have been there. That’s not life dumping on us, that’s us making the wrong choice.

I say all of that to say take a look at your life and the people in your life. Your life is what it is for right now, but that’s not the forever picture of how it’s going to be. If you find yourself lost right now, start searching for what you want, start educating yourself, read, meditate, pray, find out what the lesson is and trust that something beautiful is about to happen. So often we give up just before the breakthrough comes. Just don’t lose hope! Yes life happens, but we also have to do our part. If you’re not fulfilled in any area of your life, and you find a stirring in the pit of our stomach, start making the necessary changes right now. If you don’t, then the life that is going to happen is you sitting around, no hope, bitter, unfulfilled, broke, unhealthy and alone. You still have to do your part. We all do! So today, let yourself dream! Let yourself have joy and hope and trust and believe that good things in life can and will happen to you!

With love for you all,

Shauna

 

Have you ever found yourself going through life and it just feels completely hopeless? Like everything is falling apart. Everything you touch and every direction you take is the wrong direction? Everything you try, you feel like you’re hitting a brick wall. Every now and again life tricks you and gives you a hint of hope, just a glimmer, and you think this is it! Things are going to change! Things are shifting, only to be knocked right back down, and you feel tricked, almost like you’re being made fun of for believing in something changing and life getting better! Have you ever been there? I feel like I have been for over a year now!

Loss of a job, loss of relationships, loss of life as you knew it, loss of stability, loss of what your life was supposed to look like. It’s so easy to feel defeated and like life has dumped on you, over and over and over again. You may have a few years of good and then comes that season that is not so much fun rearing it’s ugly head! It’s so easy in these times to let life totally defeat you, to feel like this is my life, it’s never going to be any better. I’m never going to have that baby, I’m never going to have that dream job, I’m never going to have that relationship I crave with my best friend, I’m never going to feel love like I crave, I’m never….never…never! We get so consumed with never. We settle, we begin to think we don’t deserve all those wonderful things and for some reason, this is all we believe we deserve. When we let our mind go there and feel like this is all we deserve, we start to settle and almost admit defeat. In those moments we make bad decisions that could literally alter the course of our lives forever.

We have to change our thinking because we do have hope. There really is light at the end of the tunnel if we just simply choose to believe to see it. Even if we don’t see it right now, make believe we see it until we actually do see it. It’s there, I promise you. How bad do we want it though? How bad do we want that amazing job? How bad do we want to find our best friend who becomes our soul mate? How bad do we want that family? How bad do we want peace and stability? If we don’t want it bad enough, we will never ever have it. Trust me, I understand how easy it is to fall into that trap of depression and that trap of defeat and to feel like there are days this life would just be better without me in it. I have been there trust me! I have had many days where life didn’t feel like it was worth living any longer, but life is worth living and I know there are so many people who would be hurt without me in their life. There are so many people who would hurt if you weren’t in their life.

So listen to me today! I promise you, I promise me, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it could be closer than we even know! Strive to see it! Strive to find it. Strive to go discover what life is calling you for and how far you can go! Life is a gift! We were given a gift! So what shall we do with that gift? You can have anything you want! I can have anything I want! We just have to believe that, have hope, and go get it!

With love for you all,

Shauna

I heard this today and it pretty much yelled at me. Think about it. Some days never come. Some people didn’t wake up today. Some people won’t wake up tomorrow. Some days just never come. Have you ever been one to say I will do that tomorrow? I will do that next week, next month or next year? What if those days don’t come for us? Eventually that time is going to come for all of us at some point. Can you say you’ve lived? Can you say you lived life or that life lived you? Think about that for a minute.

I had a very dear friend have a heart to heart with me yesterday. They asked me point blank, Shauna, what are you doing?! Really, what are you doing!? Are you settling? I had to honestly answer that most of my life has been settling because it was comfortable and it was safe and I did what everybody expected of me always.  They looked me right in the eyes and told me I was meant for so much more and I could have whatever it was that I wanted. They said it with such love and conviction that it shook me to the core of my being. Side note here, if you don’t have somebody like that in your life who loves you, and believes in you, and wants you to be everything almost more than you want it for yourself, then you need to surround yourself with different people!

Back to my original thought, the fact of the matter is that some days never come. Period. Let me ask you this, if tomorrow doesn’t come for you, can you say that you had a full life with everything you wanted?

If some days never come, would you let yourself fall in love?

If some days never come, would you take a chance on relationships when the right people are literally dropped in your life?

If some days never come, would you chase that dream, whatever it is for you?

If some days never come, would you care less about what other people think and care more about what you think?

If some days never come, would you become all you were meant to be?

If some days never come, would you take more chances and risks?

If some days never come, would you be happier and less stressed.

If some days never come, would you treat people different?

If some days never come, would you travel more? Enjoy life more? Spend more time sitting around talking to people you care about, and whose conversations mean the world to you more?

What do you want? Honestly, I know some things I want, but can’t totally put into words what I want. What I do know is that I must stop waiting for the right time or I will never get what I want. What I know is that my friend yesterday stirred something up inside of me that I think was so deeply pushed down that it has almost paralyzed me.

Are you going after what you want? Are you going after what you deserve? If not, I hope you start before your tomorrow never comes and it’s too late!

With love for you all,

Shauna

Have you ever gone through life feeling less than or feeling like you have been everything to everybody else, but never what you really need in life? Have you been the perfect friend, perfect mother, perfect wife, perfect employee but life still leaves you yearning for more and you wonder why when you give so much, why does it seem life gives you so little? Maybe like me, you have been living for everybody else, living the life everybody else wants you to live, but not truly living your life! What do you want?? You are allowed to ask that! Who do you really want in your life? Why does it always seem everybody else always gets what they want and it’s a struggle for you?

What do you want in life? Where do you want to go life? It’s okay to ask that. It’s okay not to know but to be searching! It’s okay to wonder why certain people only come in your life for a reason or a season, no matter how bad it hurts when they leave. I truly believe some day we will understand this, no matter how bad we want them to stay, not everybody is meant to stay in our life. This is tough for somebody like me who cares so deeply and wants everybody in their life and believes the good in every situation.  That is not always the case though, and no matter how bad you want a situation to be different, sometimes it can’t be. This could be a parent, a spouse, child, somebody you’re in a relationship with or even a close friend.

One thing I have learned in my life is that people are always brought into our lives for reason. For a test, for a season only, to teach us something, to love us when we most need to be loved, to be an ear, to be a shoulder, to have our heart, but then when their season is over, it’s time for them to move on and boy does it hurt! But we have to trust the season we are in and where these people belong in our lives, and when they are to leave.

People can tell me I am special all day long, but why did I need them to validate that I am special in the first place? We need to get to a place in our lives where we know what we bring, where we know what have to offer to anybody lucky enough to be in our lives and we don’t need validation from anyone else. Know your worth and it doesn’t belong in another person! Know that some people don’t belong in your life forever!

My wish for everybody is that all your dreams come true! That you know how special you truly are! That you don’t need validation from anyone else to know that and when life is ready, that it truly becomes all that you want it to be, and some day all the right people are aligned in your life! I am one who wants to run, but that’s not always the best answer. Maybe stand still for a second and see where the road is leading you. Maybe stop and see that some people shouldn’t be in your life for you to be great! Maybe you are heading somewhere different, maybe it’s to stay where you are, but you get to decide, YOU get to decide! Nobody else gets to decide that for you!

Make the decision that makes your heart sing and happy!

With love for you all,

Shauna