I know several ladies right now that need to hear this message in this picture. I truly share this with every ounce of love I have to give you and from a place of having been there.

This post is a personal one and “scary” to post, but if I truly want to give you strength and courage, and ask you to be brave then I need to be brave and honest enough to tell you my story. I had to jump in the dark off a deep cliff once and I was surprised to find a soft landing. Fear can be crippling but the relief that comes after the first steps and jump are made is so indescribable.

One of the lessons I am still working on is if you don’t make yourself a priority and love yourself first – no one else will. A very wise person recently told me “you have to take the flight attendant’s instructions – ‘put your oxygen mask on first and then help others.'” I had to learn to save myself first. I had to overcome my thought process that saving myself first was selfish – but what good am I to my beautiful little girls if I am falling apart at the seams from the inside out? I am not. It is a falsity. I am not teaching them strength and independence that way.

I have laid in bed sobbing thinking how did life get like this? Where did I go wrong? What did I do wrong? Why am I not good enough? Telling myself over and over that I am not strong enough for this.

I made it through. It wasn’t easy, but it was way less harder then I had thought it would be. I had to learn to ask for help and learn also that it wasn’t a weakness to do so. I had to learn how to remove the voice in my head telling me I was worthless and stop it from repeating every negative name I had been called. I learned to breathe again. I learned to give myself permission to live my life the way I wanted.

I will always be here to listen 💗 XOXO