When was the last time you laid down on the grass, looked at the sky, and dreamed that anything was possible?
Last week I sat and listened to a wise woman talking about learning to fly. Only of course she wasn’t literally meaning we can sprout wings and soar. She was referring to letting go of our baggage, or the things that are burdening us. She spoke of how letting go of our burdens and sharing them with others makes us lighter, and how we can become a new person.
Sitting there and listening to her it took me back to a place I was in early 2014. It wasn’t a place I wanted to be, my burden was so heavy that I honestly felt it was a struggle to get out of bed each day. I was lost, completely overwhelmed and uncertain. I wasn’t sure how to face the future, and I wasn’t excited for it.
Everything around me felt so fragile, things where changing quicker than I was ready for.
I was resisting change.
I felt robbed of time, things were out of my control and I was fighting a loosing battle. Whether I liked it or not things were changing and would continue to change. Time and circumstance can not be stopped, so I had no choice but to accept what was happening.
My mind and body were fighting against accepting change and I was exhausted.
Not the exhausted I complain about now after a busy day, the exhausted that makes you want to crawl up and sleep until you can wake up and realise it’s all been a bad dream, and you can do it all over again, only better. Of course that was never going to happen, I can’t reverse time, I can’t slow it, I can not stop change, so I had to find a way to accept it.
The truth was that I was scared of change and yet if I had stayed in the status quo I would have stayed unhappy. It wasn’t change that I was so scared of, is was failure. I was scared that if I took up new challenges that I would fail at them. I was convinced that if change came it meant bad things, because deep down I didn’t believe in myself and I did not love myself.
I didn’t believe I deserved good things. (Now in hindsight this thought was totally irrational, because I was a good person who deserved good things, but at that time I can honestly tell you I didn’t believe that at all!) It saddens me that I thought so little of myself, and I am sharing this with you because I want you got know that you too deserve good things, and that change can bring amazing things into your life!
If you are living a life where you are resisting change, or holding yourself back, then you are never going to be happy. It really is that black and white.
Life is evolving, change is happening around us every day, it is an unstoppable force.
So the key to happiness is to grow with it, to evolve. But first you need to find acceptance. Accept things will change, and accept yourself. You need to accept it is time that you loved yourself, time you treated yourself with warmth and kindness. And time you accept that you deserve happiness. When you open your heart to change, when you open your heart to self love, then you will finally find out that you can fly.
When you love who you are you are giving yourself the freedom to explore what makes you unique and embrace all those qualities rather than seeing them as faults. When we live with a burden we carry it around like a weight on our shoulders. But when we start loving ourselves suddenly we realise it was not a burden, it is a gift. For example I used to see my sensitivity as one of my many faults, but it is part of what makes me a good writer, it is what makes me a caring friend and mother, now that I embrace that part of myself I can use it to help others, and than is truly a gift!
In early 2014 I wasn’t ready for change, I wasn’t ready to see what gifts I had to offer, but when you come so close to rock bottom you have a choice to make. You have to stay stuck or you have to embrace change. I chose to embrace change, I chose to see myself as worthy of love, I chose to see my burdens as gifts and to share those gifts with everyone. I chose to be a stronger woman, a role model to my children, I chose not to hide away, but instead to embrace what I had to offer and share it with the world.
I am not the person I was back then, I have embraced change, and I have evolved into who I was always meant to be, my authentic self.
If you are reading this and you are thinking in any way that you don’t deserve good things, or you aren’t good enough, then please know that those thoughts are not your truth. You do deserve great happiness, you do deserve to follow your passions and you do deserve great love.
Today is your day to start.
- Believe you are reading this post today for a reason. This is your day to start shedding your burdens and embrace your gifts.
- Write down your burdens, read each one aloud and then tear each one up, saying “goodbye, I know longer believe in you”.
- Tell yourself you deserve good things. And keep telling yourself until one day you can say it and know you mean it.
- If you catch yourself putting yourself down, or being nasty to yourself, say “No that was the old me, I don’t believe those things about myself anymore”.
- Write a list of things you loved doing when you were a child, (before you started to believe you weren’t good enough.) Draw with abandon, dance, sing, colour, skate board, write a book, start a new course, ride your bike, go back to study, or adopt a pet! It is about reconnecting with your true self and not worrying what others think. Find what you are passionate about and enjoy yourself.
- Start to acknowledge that you matter, it is not selfish to make time for yourself it is a must! The happier you become, the happier everyone around you will be too. You are doing yourself and others good by being kinder to yourself.
- Write a list of happiness goals, and then make that list a reality!
- Surround yourself with positive people who support and love you.
I hope this post helps to inspire you to release yourself of some of those negative thoughts you have about who you are. Let your burdens truly become your gifts, and you will fly.
Thanks for joining me, love Mackenzie xx
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44 comments
Oh my God, Mackenzie, right at this moment I’m in between projects at work and I need to clear a certification to be on-boarded. I’m learning something which is completely new to me and I’m scared. I have no confidence and I have this uneasy feeling in the stomach. I don’t know what to do. I feel I’m not good enough and then I think am I not doing more than my share of work already at work and at home, why can’t I have it easy? So many doubts in my mind. I guess I need some reaffirmation and this post was perfect for that. Thanks so much 🙂
Embrace the new challenges and believe that you can do it, with more self belief you will find you are capable of more than you believe. Good Luck xx
What an amazing post! This will inspire and help a lot of people. It is so easy to be down on ourselves – far easier than bigging ourselves up! As parents I think we often feel that no-one is bigging us up and so I think that we have to do that ourselves. We have to be selfish, tell ourselves that we are worth it and of course embrace and love everything we have. Thank you for such an uplifting message this morning. Alison x #mg
Oh thank you for such a kind comment, I truly hope it does help people and I am glad you felt uplifted xoxoxo
I always love your posts Mac, they are very uplifting. I found myself, yet again, feeling bad as I went out for an evening with some old work colleagues. It was my 3rd time out this year but I tend to feel I should be indoors looking after my children. I really need to take some more time for myself. Sarah #mg
Lovely sometimes I think you can see inside my head, so much change going on in my life now and gosh change is so scary – isn’t it? Great post xx #mg
I love this post Mac and I totally get that it isn’t change that we fear but failure. Also, I love that picture of you, it is lovely, you look so young and carefree. Thank you for hosting and have a great day xx
Oh thank you so much xo
Oh wow, this post touched me so much, I’m in floods of tears because I feel this way all of the time, always so down on myself or afraid that I’m not good enough. Every week your posts inspire me to be a better person and I think today is the first day that I will spread my wings and really believe that I can fly. #mg
Oh Laura, you are so amazing I truly hope you can begin to believe in yourself more, you deserve so much happiness!
Such a brilliant post hun. Your writing is fabulous, I always feel like you are speaking directly to me. This is the post I needed to read today as I have been allowing the negativity to creep in!
Thank you so much, sending hugs xx
How lovely and encouraging! I have such a hard time embracing change (as I think most people do) but I do find the quicker I realize I can’t change it and just breathe through it the quicker I am able to move through it.
This is beautiful, Mac. So inspirational. I have found peace and acceptance with myself, but I still struggle with failure. I often hold myself back from things for fear of failing or not being ‘the best’ #mg
That’s a very inspiring post. I read it in the context of our children and how they are constantly growing and changing and needing us in so many different ways. As a parent how hard it is to adapt constantly to what they want from us – to let go of the unimportant things. And amongst all of this I need to make time for myself and keep me happy too!
Wow, I really believe I was reading this post for a reason. You have given me the push I needed to get cracking in certain areas that have need work for some time. An amazing post, thankyou so much for sharing.
#MarvMondays
Mackenzie this is such an inspirational post! I’ve grappled with confidence issues my whole life since I’m dyslexic and technically challenged. It’s particularly difficult when you do something in the public eye like work as a TV broadcaster or as a blogger when down deep you fear failure. But you are so right that you give yourself the wings to fly if you find something you are passionate about and I have with my blog.
What a lovely post and those pointers are so simple yet impactful. Only when we are willing to accept a change, we can be the best version of ourselves. Thanks for the reminder.
This is lovely and positive. Thanks for joining us for #marvmondays
Such an inspiring post Mackenzie. Life continually throws curve balls at us and sometimes it can be just too hard. This year has been very hard for us personally so thank you for your uplifting post. Have a beautiful day. Xx
I’m going to read this several more times as it’s really helpful for me at the moment. I don’t accept myself at all, I’m borderline depressed because of tiredness and stress and I really just need to breath. Thanks for the wonderful words x #mg
Thank you for this inspiration. Just what I need at the start of a New Year and new changes! #globalblogging
This is such a wonderful and inspiring post that will really stay with me. I love the idea of writing down the negative and tearing it up – wow. Also, I can’t remember the last time I laid on the grass and looked up at the sky but you set the scene perfectly – that feeling has to be one of the absolute best out there. Thank you for this post lovely #DreamTeam
Lovely and inspiring post. Ill be over to check out the linky later. Thanks for linking up to #globalblogging
Glad I found this linky! Thanks for hosting lovely!
#mgreflectionsofme
Lovely post MG, I seem to be in midst of work for the past month. This makes me grumpy sometimes. I am now going to use your write down and tear off method. Isn’t that wonderful. #mg
Menaka Bharathi has recently published http://simpleindianmom.in/fun-facts-parenting-love-know/
Back again from #DreamTeam – still feeling inspired by this 🙂 xx
Society seems set up to criticise so much that we struggle to cheer ourselves on sometimes. Another great post from the wonder woman of words. x #mg
This is such a lovely post, and so very true. I’m glad you’ve found some peace and happiness with yourself, it’s not an easy thing to do. The tips at the end are great, and something we should all live by. Thanks for linking up with #DreamTeam 🙂
I really struggle with self doubt, I wish I had more faith in myself and my abilities all the time and I know it’s held me back so much in my life. I’ve started telling Seb he is awesome every day before school and to believe in himself because I want him to grow up with strong positive affirmations around him. A fabulous post as always darling. #twinklytuesday xxx
Mac, You are such an inspiration. I always feel I can breath better after I read your posts (if that makes sense) As I get older I’m getting better at accepting that one just needs to take things as they come which for me is hard because I am a bit of a perfectionist and question myself and everything I do all the time.
Very inspiring, and that picture of you — honey, you can feel the warmth of your smile! Change is hard, but it looks like you made out a-okay! Keep it up dear Mac! <3 #mg
Mac, You’ve done it again. Your posts always make me stop and think about my life and how I am approaching it. They make me stop and think about the positives and more importantly the bigger picture. Thanks. Pen x (PS, turning my computer off to reflect now). #TwinklyTuesday
Really nice post and hopefully inspirational too. #sharingthebloglove
Very moving and motivating. A list of happiness goals is a wonderful thought and even though I wont write them down, I have started to think about them and mentally think about what and who makes me happy. Its good to have some time to think about ourselves and this post does just thank, it allows us that time. Thanks, Mainy xx
What a fabulous post, you’re such an inspiring writer. I think holding ourselves back is such a common problem for people and it’s something I know that I can be guilty of. Interesting that I’d definitely list one of my faults as (over?) sensitivity, but yes, there is a clear flip side to that that holds a lot of positives. Thanks for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
I think re-reading this a few times will help anybody who is in a position that they are not happy with. I can relate to this post as I was that person about 9 or 10 years ago. When you are not feeling right about yourself & the world, you are simply not thinking straight and you certainly are not enjoying yourself. You can’t see the wood for the trees so to speak. Your points at the end can be a great ‘go to’ actionable plan to help re-discover your true self. They really are spot on. Great thought provoking post MacKenzie. 5 stars.
This post is amazing, feeling really inspired after reading this. I’ve been doubting myself a lot recently and not really been taking enough time to for myself (I guess that’s what happens when you have a baby and a 3 year old to look after). Definitely need to start valuing myself more and doing things I love sometimes instead of just trying to please the rest of my family all the time. I never have time to blog anymore which is a real shame because I love blogging. Feeling more positive after reading this so thank you xx #mg
This is a brilliant inspiring post. I hold myself back all the time, in fact I did it last week over something quite big and now I regret it. I am so over sensitive and I think this has a lot to do with it. Thank you for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove x
Change is what makes life interesting Mackenzie! I have always believed this in life, without change we would remain in a plateau with nothing to look up too or worry about. Good or bad, change is what makes ones life better.
This is a great read and these are awesome points! I can’t remember when last I sat down and thought about my dreams and aspirations! I generally love the challenge of change, it makes me feel “alive”, no matter how big or small the change is. Thanks for sharing! #globalblogging
I particularly love that last line. It completely resonates with me because I firmly believe that we have to rid ourselves of toxic people. I’m not a massive fan of change because I prefer to just get there, without the turmoil! But I’m getting better at it! #MarvMondays
This is such a fantastic post. You are so right. I think believing we aren’t good enough to deserve the things we want in life is something we’re all guilty of at times. I know I certainly am. Your post has really struck a chord with me though and I’m going to take your advice onboard and see today as a whole new beginning of believing in me. After all believing is the first step to making things happen right? Thank you so much for bringing such a brilliant post (and attitude) to share with us at #PostsFromTheHeart
Gosh , i am reading all these posts today and i am thinking ‘this is me’. Im far away from rock bottom but the last few weeks have been challenging and i am physically exhausted. I wrote myself a detailed plan for 2017 and i think i forgot to factor in my day job , 2 children and running a house so i am burning myslef out . the good thing is i can recongise this but yes , maybe i was suppose to read this post today and maybe i am the person your post will help. Thank you 🙂 #PostsFromTheHeart
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