Positive Thinking Changed My Life

There are some days where I feel so awesome, and I love life so much that I sort of just want to let everybody know about it! And you know what? I usually do. A few months ago I started saving pictures that I stumble upon on Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook and where ever else I may be on the web that inspire me to keep on thinking positive. On days where I need the extra inspiring motivation or on days I want to share my joy I'll go through this folder and post one up on Facebook to share with my friends, in hopes to brighten their day.

I know there are countless people out there who think positive thinking is a joke. People who can't understand how reading positive things, speaking positive things and trying your best to surround yourself with positives can possibility make things better if things are already so negative. That's okay, people can believe what they want, and not everything is for everybody. I however, believe in positive thinking 100% because to put it simply, it changed my life.

Flashback to age 11, last year of elementary school, good grades, great group of friends, loving family, enjoying my childhood year's as a child should.
Flash to age 12, first year in junior high, self esteem starts to drop, eating issues arise, self harm takes place, a cloud of sadness makes an unwelcome appearance.
Flash to age 15, the same demons that started at age 12 are still being fought.
Flash to age 17, my eating issues have more or less been figured out, still fighting the urge not to self harm, cloud of sadness still drifting in for visits
Flash to age 18, self harm free, attempting to maintain a healthy weight, about to graduate high school, trying to fight away the sadness. This is where my journey to obtaining a positive mental attitude towards life starts, also my journey on the road body positivity, and radical self love.

A lot of my time in spent on the internet. Probably too much, but we all have our vices, right? Now I've found a lot of great things thanks to the world wide web. Through the blogging world of Tumblr I started following some pretty inspiring people. Somewhere along the way I found Jetta Vegas and her awesome blog/zines/podcasts at The Radical Uprise. I started listening to Jetta's podcasts, reading her awesome weekly installments of "Seven ways to kick this week's ass" and I even went on to dish out a few well spent dollars on a few of her amazing zines. Through Jetta's YouTube videos and zines I realized there was this whole awesome world of having a positive mental attitude. Something as simple as "looking on the bright side" but it had never really sunk in before.

The summer after I finished high school I grew a lot as a person. I mean, who doesn't do some growing at that point of their life? I couldn't have asked for a better time for myself to discover the power of positive thinking. It's different for everyone, but surrounding myself with inspiring words and keeping an open mind about life with my a smile on my face works for me.

Now flashback to now, 2012, I'm twenty years old and although I may not be where I thought I would be (I don't think I really ever had much of any idea though to be honest). I can happily say that I am a happy person. I feel happiness towards myself, others and life in general. Each day I wake up and embrace whatever it is that day shall hold. I don't dread days, I embrace the rain, the wind, because it's all part of such beauty.

I encourage you to give positive thinking a try. Even try doing something small and simple, like putting together a vision board. I made a small one with a piece of cardboard, a few pieces of string, some staples and paper-clips! Go through some magazines, print out some pictures and put together a collection of things that inspire you. Positive messages to look at each day. I keep a few zines opened at some favorite pages hanging on mine (which I assure you, as you'll see is nothing fancy).
Sorry for the low quality of these photos, they're just snapped from my iPod!

If you take anything from this post I hope it's the notion that it's okay to be happy, and the power is in your hands to do so! Keep those positive vibes flowing!

DIY - Recycled Magazine Coasters

I found this idea while browsing Pinterest and I knew I had to try it, and my mom's birthday happens to be today so I even had an excuse to make them!

It's quite time consuming but if you're looking for something to spend a rainy afternoon doing (or if you don't sleep at normal hours like myself) this is a great project. It's probably best if you have a good television series playing or a movie, great music will work just as well!

Supplies

• Magazines
• Mod Podge (I used a DIY version of a half and half mix of white school glue and water)
• Small paint brush for applying glue (you can use your fingers if you really want to get messy, because your fingers are going to get sticky anyways!)

1. The first step is to go through that magazine collection of yours. I have a cardboard box in my room full of them just waiting to be cut up for collages and projects such as this! The more colorful the page is, the better! I found going through pages of my Nylon magazines worked great because they have so many color ads and photo-spreads. You're going to want a decent amount of pages, so rip out all of your favorites (don't worry if you don't end up using any pages, you can put them away for the next time!)
2. Now to cut the magazine pages into strips. A width of an inch or a inch and a half is perfect! To make this easier cut through a pile of 10 or so pages at once!
   
3. Once you have all your strips cut it's time to get folding. Fold your strip in half, then unfold (we're just doing this to find the center of each strip). Fold each edge of the strip over towards the center point of the strip, then fold it again! 
4. Time to get messy now! With your water/glue mixture use your brush (or fingers) to cover your magazine strip. Once it's fully covered start rolling it up! Now repeat with your next strip, and keep repeating until they are the size you want. (I made mine smaller, to fit a glass or bottle, but it just takes a few extra strips to bring it up to mug size, or go crazy and make placemats!)
5. Once your magazine strips are all coiled up to the right size apply a few more layers of your glue/water mixture to make everything a bit more solid. They are pretty wet and sticky once you get to this point, so they will take time to dry. I left mine dry overnight and they were fine by morning. When mine were dried I covered them in some clear nailpolish to ensure they would be water proof, this part is optional.

♡ Jacket Appreciation ♡

We all have those few articles of clothing that we can't get enough of right? Shoes, dresses, pants, shirts, it can be anything. For me that extra special item is my jacket.

Last May I was at a local thrift store with my soul sister bff and I found this HUGE army jacket and I just fell in love. I knew instantly that I wanted to just cover it in amazing pins, patches and what not.

My first additions were to the back. I had been holding onto my Sparks t-shirt since the age of six and from time to time I was still squeezing myself into it. I cut up the front and sewed it on the back of the jacket, but that wasn't enough. I found an old Hello Kitty pajama top that was too small when I received it so out came the scissors and Hello Kitty soon joined the back and was quickly surrounded by some silver studs.

Since then I've added a few handful of pins and patches, with my most recent addition being a Ryan Gosling "hey girl" patch on one of the lower pockets.

I was so excited when the weather finally started looking up so I could break it out of my closet again since it's so thin. It's the perfect adventure coat. It's thin, and since it's so big it's easy to layer underneath, plus there's tons of pocket space, and well it's just awesome!

April Photo Dump!

I've made the switch back to red hair! I'll post these most recent (today!) to least recent :)

I got a shiny new pair of Keds, aren't they snazzy?

 

I'm in a big blogging rut. My brain can't string together words and sentences about anything, especially not anything worth of sharing. Hopefully the photos make up for it! I hope you are all enjoying your April so far!

A Little More Personal

In 2007 I was in the midst of a war of self-hate with myself that had started in 2004. I spent my time starving myself, limiting my intake of calories and obsessing over extremely thin celebrities and models. I was always looking at thinspo, I’m ashamed to say I even ran a thinspo blog for multiple years. That wasn’t the only hate I showed my body, I also self-harmed. Cutting, scratching, anything to release the pain. My teenage years were spent feeling guilt, shame, embarrassment and hate towards myself.

It didn’t happen overnight, but in time (during the spring of 2010 I believe) I learned my body was okay. I learned to cherish my body, not to harm it.

People always ask how I managed to get where I am today, and honestly I don’t know. Something inside of me just clicked. I realized all these awful feelings I had were only being caused by me. Because I didn’t like my body, not because anybody was giving it hate, it was all coming from within. Ever since I came to the realization I’ve stopped telling myself those ugly, hurtful words.

When I was struggling with my eating I would always hear from my friends and family, “You’re too skinny”, “eat a sandwich!”, “you look like you’re sick” and it sucked! Nobody likes being told they look ill. Now when I see my family they tell me how great I look, how I look healthy and happy. You know what? I feel happy and healthy too!

In the 2007 photo I was wearing a size one and weighed just under 100lbs, today I weigh around 130 (although I fluctuate from 145 and back often) and wear a size nine. Weight and clothing sizes are just numbers to me now. If clothing fits and looks good on me, I don’t care what the tag says. If I look in the mirror and like what I see and I feel good, then the number on the scale (which I don’t even own!) is just a silly number with nothing of importance.