Ah, Sandro Paris. A brand that has been catching my eye with some of its pieces recently. Now, to be honest, I had sticker shock when I first viewed their collection; but, in my recent learnings, sometimes you pay for those extra little details or that fabric that just feels, well, of a better quality. I’ve also had my fair share of clothing that starts to deteriorate after a second or third wash and I want a long-term relationship with my clothing these days. So, it was no surprise that when purchasing this Sandro dress (my first!), I had my mother at the back of my mind saying, “Loren, invest in your clothing.” Whether it meant this dress or not, I decided to give it a shot. Continue reading for more behind this simple outfit and a Savannah, GA must-eat!
I’ll admit, sweater shopping is a little difficult for me sometimes; there are certain, er, assets that just don’t make the process easy at all. For example, due to curvy hips, it’s difficult to find a pull-over sweater that won’t stretch to infinity at the hips and then bulk me up at the waist (extra space for boxes of munchkins on each side, I feel!). So, you can only image my happiness when I found this super cozy “curved” sweater!
If you haven’t already, I suggest reading my first post about this and how my fear developed, which can be found here.
Bringing Me Closer to Flying:
Now, I just need to start off by saying how proud I am of myself. If anyone who has a fear of flying and still gets on a plane and is reading this, you should be proud of yourself. And for those that are not yet ready, but want to one day be ready, you are also included in this ‘proud’ category.
When I suddenly became afraid of flying, I didn’t know what to think. But what I did know was that one day I would go back to soaring in the air.
As I mentioned in my prior post about this, my grandfather passed away and I missed his funeral because it involved me traveling down to the Caribbean and I just couldn’t bring myself to fly. Ever since that day, I became pretty sad and beat myself up. However, I knew that my family would all go down there after one year and have a special memorial ceremony for him and visit his tomb. And for this, I knew I just had to go.
So within the year leading up, I did my homework and I learned that my personal fear of flying could be overcome with just two things: listening to yourself and confidence.
Happy New Year, Everyone! I’m back in the blogosphere!
2014 came to a nice close filled with lots of family & events. I apologize for not posting about it, but no fear, I will in the upcoming weeks! For today, though, I just wanted to share my 2015 vision: continue to live by being happy and accepting what comes my way.
Learning to Live Today:
With every passing year, it’s becoming clearer to me that no two days will ever have the same environment nor experience. And, with each passing year, I see clearer that life around me (not only mine, but my family/friends’, too) is changing. There are weddings, babies, losing loved ones, moving to a new neighborhood, sickness, etc. etc. Which is natural, because it’s all part of life, right? Right.
So with all of this change and the opportunity to live in the moment, why shouldn’t we just live in the moment? We all may have a vision of the perfect way things should go in our heads, but when they don’t go as we have planned them to, we get frustrated and it’s at that moment that we don’t truly live and enjoy ourselves; we aren’t allowing ourselves to be happy.
We shouldn’t try to just live when things are up to our ‘perfect’ standards. Why should we wait for the stars to align to finally let go and be happy? Will I really finally enjoy myself at the pool when I’m 15 lbs. lighter? Will I really wait years to finally host a dinner because I can’t afford that big house I’ve been dreaming of right now? Or will I just take what I’m given, live in that moment and make amazing memories today that will last a lifetime?
Every year in January,
Yes, you read that title right: yoga certification. Friends, I’m doing yoga teacher training! Me!
Now, I haven’t been practicing yoga for that long -just short of one year to be exact- but the thought of getting my yoga certification was something that crossed my mind every now and then. I always dismissed it, though, because I didn’t think I could make that time & energy commitment. Not only that, but I didn’t really believe myself to be disciplined enough.
Interestingly, though, I have had quite a few friends, family members, and even strangers come up to me and tell me that I should become certified and teach. Their faith in me made me really take another look inside myself and try to see what it was that they saw: passion and bravery. A couple of months ago I laughed the idea off, but today, I’ve actually decided to embrace it!
Yoga has been a big part of my anxiety recovery. Okay, okay, let me count the ways 🙂
I was riding the train home the other day when I noticed a pretty, young girl get on board and sit diagonally from me. She was surrounded by people and I was looking at her because I loved her haircut. She seemed nervous, but I went on to look at my phone and listen to my music. It was about three minutes later that this pretty girl started to shake and gasp loudly. Yes, she was having a panic attack.
Being on the other side:
I don’t think I’ve ever been on the other side of it, seeing someone else have a panic attack, because they always just used to happen to me and me alone. I have to say, it was an uncomfortable situation. Forget the fact that I had to be strong for this girl, but it caused such worry to everyone around to see her like this. And she was a total stranger. Imagine if it was someone you knew. And that’s when I realized what perhaps my family and close friends have been feeling towards me or others they have in their lives- extreme worry.
Upon asking the girl what was wrong she confirmed that she was having a panic attack. The others around her were telling her to calm down and relax. But I, I stood quiet for just a little bit; I had to think, even for just a hot second and reflect on what would it be that I want to hear.
How to help/cope:
Truth is, when you’re in that mindset of the world just being one big scary place, it’s very difficult to ‘shoo’ it away. You actually have to accept what’s going on before it can go away. Otherwise, you are just running away.
