Have you noticed how often confidence is incorrectly labeled as arrogance or cockiness? As if your hard work, research, sleepless nights and failures didn’t exist and your accomplishments were all dumb luck. All that you’ve poured into your area of expertise gives you the right to speak with confidence and conviction. Don’t allow bystanders and nosebleed seat fillers to dim your light because there’s a reason they have time to be so critical – they’re WATCHING, not working. T

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I’m not running. I’m standing with my face to the sun. On days when the sun doesn’t shine, I stand toe to toe with my fears. I question my attachments because what got me here won’t get me where I want to go. Laying on the beach. Solo. The wind’s blowing wild, the birds are singing and the waves are crushing my insecurities. My toe’s fucked up, but the X-ray said it’s not broken so I sip my nasty beer and eat my delicious ham s

I am safe. I am protected. I am loving. I am loved. I create peace. I speak sunrays. I smile gratitude. I rise with affirmations and gratitude. On those mornings when my anxiety’s attempting to Geppetto me into doing nothing or screaming statistics in my ear, I quiet the noise with gratitude. When I feel like I have nothing, I wiggle my toes and fingers, rub my hands together, blink and smile. That’s how I remind myself that if I don’t do anything more in the day, I’ve alread

One time for the anxious. The amazing people who get so hyped that they run and hide from their greatness. The brilliant mind. Imprisoned by the troubled soul. A condescending warden of a brain who proclaimed that the genius had to settle for average. Mundane. Don’t stand out. Maintain. I wrote this for you. Just for you. My pen moves in sync with your racing heart. Erratic, quite manic, slightly breathless. For you I breathe. For you I share my pen’s sweet release in hopes t

For a while, “trust the process” was my motto. I was saying it for every situation as a means of reminding myself that God’s plan is perfect and that everything will work out in due time. I had been repeating the phrase during meditation, in the shower, as I exhaled in a difficult yoga pose-all that. I felt so strongly about the phrase that I was telling other people to keep calm and trust the process, too. It all seemed so simple and so soothing until one day when it wasn’t.

Whether you give up on all your goals or pursue them with everything you have, the world around you keeps going. It seems like everyone is doing everything everywhere. It seems like everywhere I turn someone is getting married, having children, or reaching their career goals. It’s so easy to get lost in what everyone else is doing because it looks so…nice. In March, I fell off track. I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted from exercise, writing or anything else so I dropp

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” “What’s your five-year plan?” “What is your ideal career?” *Insert blankest of all blank stares here* I remember when those questions used to excite me. I could easily answer with “I’ll be in college” or “I’ll be graduating from college and moving out of Alabama to work for a large corporation”, but now those same questions result in anxiety and a slight panic. Five years?! I’m still in Alabama, that Financial Analyst career still ha

Instagram. Facebook. Twitter. Snapchat. We log onto social media and see other people’s lives. We follow celebrities and people we don’t know and get caught up in what their lives look like. Society tells us how we should dress or live so unconsciously, we live lives of comparison. “I want that body”, “I need to make that much money so that I can buy that car”, “I need my significant other to look like that, say those things, buy me these things to show me love”, etc. Let’s