Sharing is Caring.

Remember what I said in my last post about how I was being so optimistic and whatnot?  It’s harder than it seems, but I think everyone can be optimistic if they just try.  I’ve found that being optimistic is absolutely a choice.  To generalize, I’ll say that we all have two choices.  We can either be happy no matter what happens to us, or we can let our circumstances bring us down.  What is the most common circumstance that brings people down?  I’m no expert, but I think it is loneliness.  When I am lonely, I feel so many negative emotions: sadness. anger. bitterness. like I’m not worth anything. jealousy. inferiority.  The list could really go on forever.

Everyone suffers, okay?  You will be fine.  Loneliness and sorrow come at the worst times (when is it ever a good time to be lonely?), but here’s the thing: YOU AREN’T ALONE!  Can you believe that?  You have someone who cares about you.  He is with you all the time.  He knows the deepest, darkest corners of your heart and He suffered them for you.  He is the greatest example of empathy because He has truly felt every single emotion that you have felt.  Jesus Christ hears your pleas and was willing to take upon himself every single moment of your life.  He rejoices with you.  He cries with you.  He knows you.  Don’t forget that.  Maybe I’m just writing this for myself, but really my hope is that someone will come across this and be able to better control their outlook on life.

Nothing good comes of wallowing in your own self-pity, so I’ve made a few goals for myself that I will share in the hopes that this inspires someone somewhere to choose to be happy rather than seeing the world in a negative light.  I mean, honestly..would you rather be happy or sad?  I’m not expert here either, but my guess would be that everyone everywhere is searching for happiness.  I’ve never heard of anyone that was searching for sadness; that’s just crazy!  Okay, so I’ve never been a really goal-oriented person..which means I have never really made any goals for myself.  Of course I’ve made really long-term goals, like: get married, have a family, live happily ever after, etc. but I’ve made a few short-term goals to keep me on my toes this summer.

1. Exercise DAILY.  Exercise releases endorphins..yada yada yada..they make you happy.  Therefore, exercise makes you happy.

2. Say my prayers.  Heavenly Father wants to hear from me.  I want to hear from Him.  How does that work?  PRAYER.

3. Buy a planner.  I always do this in the hopes that it will somehow help me get my life together.  It never works.  BUT I think I can do it.  Optimism, right?

4. Believe in myself.  It’s about time that I start believing in my abilities and developing my God-given talents.  They’ve been sitting for too long.

5. Help other people.  SOMEHOW I am going to find at least one person every day that needs some kind of help.  It could be my mom, dad, sisters..dog..I don’t know who it will be, but I think it’s a manageable goal.  Even the smallest of smiles could make the biggest difference in someone’s day.

I didn’t want to make some novel list of unattainable goals that wouldn’t really help me, so I kept it short and sweet at five.  I would encourage anyone who wants to make some goals of their own (or use mine, I don’t care) to do so!  If you follow through..I promise you’ll see a difference.  I’m already seeing a difference and I just started this whole “goal” thing!  It will be rewarding.  Be happy, okay?  If you can’t do it on your own and you don’t want to turn to your Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ..come to me.  I’m not anywhere near as good as they are, but I want to make people happy.

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence on the future.  Not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient; for he that is so wants nothing.  The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach.  A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” -Lucas Seneca

Sharing is Caring.

I recently remembered that I have a blog..that was odd. I’m disappointed in the fact that I haven’t posted anything this entire year, but oh well! The reason I haven’t is because my roommates think blogs are dumb. Maybe they are. Who really wants to know what people are thinking about all the time anyway? Well..I do, but I’m kind of weird. Whatever.

This past semester was literally insane. I got all new roommates (whom I LOVE, in case you were wondering), made a lot of resolutions that I haven’t kept, found myself literally frozen to the bone after Christmas break from the freezing temperatures, ice skated on campus, started keeping a memory journal, found little pieces of myself that I had somehow lost in this journey into true, independent adulthood, and most importantly I decided that no matter what, I was going to be HAPPY. Happy with where I am in life, happy with my circumstances, happy with myself, happy with my friends (or the lack thereof), happy with my roommates..you get the picture.

Right before Christmas break, I went to the Cocoa Bean with a dear friend of mine. He had recently come out of the closet to me which I thought was a little bit strange because we hadn’t really been that good of friends before then..but it really brought us together. We were talking about life and such, me complaining about how hard life is and how I wanted a boyfriend yada yada yada. Well he just sat there for a second after I finished complaining and looked at me with one of those faces that says “what. are. you. thinking.” He went on to tell me that it’s not worth it to groan and wallow about those things because they aren’t worth losing sleep over. He said that I needed to focus more on being okay with where I am than always wishing I was at some other point in my life, which I realized was totally true. I was living too much for the future and missing out on things in my right now that were helping me become who I have the potential to be. Who knew that a cupcake and a hot chocolate would be so life-changing?

Anyway, I decided I would take his advice because I had nothing to lose (except a negative outlook on life) and I came back to school in January a completely different person. I was more confident, less worried about impressing guys all the time, and overall I was just a much happier person. I would look in the mirror in the morning and just ask myself: what happened to that girl who hated life before? Well the truth is, she is probably still here somewhere, she’s just being covered by a much more rewarding perspective called optimism..and let me tell you, optimism is TRULY rewarding. It makes every aspect of your life that much more enjoyable. It makes your trials seem less trying. It makes the eternal perspective of things so much easier to see. And most importantly, it helps you help others see things in a new light as well.

Thank goodness for the people in my life who truly care about me enough to help me see past the minute negative details and look instead toward the blossoming future that lies ahead.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Sharing is Caring.

Okay I LOVE CLARK POSTON. Now that I’ve said that, let me tell you why. He just sent me two songs to listen to, and one of them inspired this blog post. Hooray for friends who know just what you need to hear!

The song is called The Living Proof by Mary J. Blige. SO inspirational. I highly recommend it. The words really inspired me to write this post. (you have to listen to the song either before or after you continue reading.)

First of all, it is simply amazing what one song can do to your mind..filling it with thoughts and feelings that have been covered by our daily routines and smothered by to-do lists that never seem to get done. It just leaves me in awe every time.

NOW on to the real good stuff. I’m not sure why I’m posting this but I really hope that it’s because someone who is going to read this really needs to know what I am about to say. Everyone goes through hard things. Life is a huge uphill journey..it seems like we never get a break, huh? Well I just want to say this: YOU WILL BE OKAY. Look at all the things that you have overcome in your life. All your experiences? AMAZING. And they have taught you so so SO much. Would you take any of that back? I would be willing to bet that you wouldn’t, if only for the lessons that those experiences taught you. You were going to have to learn them eventually anyway, right?

BECOME the living proof that people live through hard times and come out stronger than they went in. YOU WILL BE OKAY. Let me say that one more time: YOU WILL BE OKAY. I promise. And there is always someone out there to lend an ear, a hand, a conversation..anything. If you can’t find anyone, I’m here. I love you.

“I can start living now, I feel like I can do anything.”

Sharing is Caring.

I keep having these moments where I’m thinking and then I’m like oh that would be a great topic for a blog post! And then I forget to blog about it..so I am going to write a few of these thoughts and then expound on them.

Why am I so quick to complain about my trials and pain when Christ VOLUNTEERED to take all of those things upon himself for me?
How selfish do I have to be to just sit and complain all the time when my Savior Jesus Christ willingly took every trial and pain and complaint that I have upon himself? How much love does He have to have for me in order to be willing to do that? Would I be willing to do that for someone else? Probably not. Why? Because I am selfish. How can I fix that? By serving others.

I was recently called to be on the Compassionate Service Committee (again, might I add, since this was my calling last year, too) and I am honestly so excited because now I will be less likely to find excuses not to serve. Service is the beginning of a long chain that ultimately leads to pure, unconditional, Christlike love. The love we should all feel for each other. How awesome is that?!

“You can see hope in your smiles” -Henry B. Eyring
Okay, so I have to admit this one wasn’t mine. But this quote really did get me to think. How many different kinds of smiles are there? A LOT. There are genuine smiles, flirty smiles, fake smiles, smiles that come because of laughter, familiar smiles, innocent smiles, devilish smiles, friendly smiles, sad smiles..the list goes on and on. Okay, so now..what can normally be seen in a smile? Happiness. Friendship. Love. Sadness. Pain. Joy. Can you really tell all of this from just a smile? YES! Secrets are given away in smiles.

What really struck me about this quote is that apparently you can also see hope in smiles. What secret does a hopeful smile give away? In my opinion, a hopeful smile tells people a few things.

1. This person has felt pain.
2. This person has overcome pain.
3. This person knows that there is a plan for their life.
4. This person is confident.

Okay, those are assumptions, and there may be more to it than that..but still. There is something about a hopeful smile that exudes more happiness than any other kind of smile. Why? Because hope instills a certain kind of happiness and peace that can’t be found in other feelings. It’s great!

I am DETERMINED to smile at a new person every day. I think that you can also give someone else hope through a smile..and that makes everything worth it. You should try this too.

Sometimes life gets you down. Get back up.
I think that anyone who reads my blog even semi-regularly knows that I am just downright negative and pitiful sometimes. This is something that I have really been working on lately, and I think that I’m doing a pretty good job of being less down on myself (minus Friday when the only person who would text me back was Clark who I’m really glad is back from his mission and who also asked for a mention in my blog and is really awesome and handsome and lovable and the best person ever). Anyway, life is rough. I know. BUT the best part about life is that no matter how many times it gets you down, you can ALWAYS get back up. ALWAYS. Anyone who tells you differently is crazy and you need to tell them to have a little chat with me. I don’t know who has said this before and I’m too lazy to look it up right now but I think it was in General Conference or something..God doesn’t count the times you were knocked down..He only counts the times you got back up. So get up and be happy! Life is easy when you don’t let anything get you down. I promise!

Sharing is Caring.

Okay so I’m supposed to be doing homework right now..but that obviously isn’t happening so I’ll just write a blog post. A lot has been on my mind lately, that’s for sure.

Sometimes I sit at my computer not exactly sure what’s going to end up typed in this little box and I just really hope it ends up good. Anyway, today I went to the devotional. It was by Jeffrey Wilkes, and let me just say that tender mercies are all around us. They are literally EVERYWHERE. This is something that I have been thinking about ever since my last post, and it was definitely reaffirmed this morning. I just can’t believe how amazing life is.

Okay, I know I sound like a crazy bipolar lunatic right now between my last post and this one but bear with me. I use my blog to vent. A lot. I use it to let my frustrations out because normally I would use my piano..but since it’s kind of hard to do that now that there isn’t really a piano at my disposal anymore, I just complain about my problems here. Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll get to the point.

Today’s devo topic was basically all about being positive. We always hear about the negative things in the world and overlook the good things. Even in the short period of time that I can remember of my life it seems that the world has gotten increasingly worse. Granted, that could simply be because I am less naive now and I can actually understand the bad things that are going on, but I think it’s a combination of the two. The point of today’s devotional was to show that the world really is a good place with good people and good things really do happen here. Personally, I struggle with seeing this because I don’t look for it all the time. It’s really hard to always see the positive around you when you feel like you have so much other negative stuff clouding your view, but today I realized I’ve been doing it all backwards (hence the title of the post). I seem to constantly be on this roller coaster of SUPER HAPPY and then SUPER down on myself. Why this is, I have no idea. I just know that it’s time for me to start over (for real this time) to only see the good, and Brother Wilkes had the perfect suggestion! (he got it from someone else, but oh well.)

Every night before you go to bed, write down just a few sentences on how you saw the Lord in your life or in the lives of those around you. Apparently, if you do this long enough, it will become easier and easier to remember them! How cool is that? I’m going to put it to the test, and I’ll write later if it really worked. I’m so excited!

Back to the point of this post; tender mercies. That devotional was literally JUST what I needed to hear today. I could not believe how perfectly it was laying out exactly what I needed to change about my life in order to be happy.

“Forget not to be happy NOW.” -Dieter F. Uchtdorf
(who knows, maybe later will be too late.)

Sharing is Caring.

I just wanted to write a quick post tonight about my day. I’m going to try to get back in the swing of posting more regularly (fingers crossed). Anyway, I have been having a pretty rough time lately..it might be stress, or lack of sleep, or any number of other things. Here’s the problem. I am insecure.

In Relief Society today, we were asked one question at the beginning of the lesson, and we were supposed to write down our answer. The question was this: if you could change one thing that is in your life, or one thing that is happening in your life, what would that be? I decided to add ‘one thing that is missing from your life’ to that list to make it more personal to me. What follows sounds very depressing and is very uncharacteristic of me, so anyone new to my blog reading this post..just realize that I have internal conflicts (which I sometimes vent about in my posts). This is what I wrote down.

“Ideally, I would have more friends. I have a lot of acquaintances and I know a lot of people, but I don’t feel like I have anyone that I can really talk to about my feelings or things that are bothering me. Everyone I tell about these feelings tells me just to try harder or be more outgoing or to do this or that..well (how shocking) none of it works. I, in the past, have just hoped that friends would come to me and I wouldn’t have to make an effort. When that wasn’t working, I tried to be more outspoken and outgoing and I tried to tell people more about how I felt like I had no friends, hoping that they would sort of offer to be friends with me. Well, people I talk to about it are always saying things like ‘but we ARE friends!’ Well–earth to you guys–friends actually do things together. I never do anything with anyone..why? Because I don’t have friends. I am more outgoing than most people I meet. I am not rude to people. I am friendly. I am generally a happy person. So why can’t I find any friends? I am alone. I have a lot to offer, but it isn’t working. Maybe there is more I can do, but I can’t figure it out.”

Okay, I realize that was a little melodramatic and childish..but aren’t we all like that sometimes? I wrote down some of my feelings from this morning after i finished writing my answer to the question: “I am bitter. I am lonely. I don’t know what to do. I am lost. I am falling apart. I am calling for help. I am freaking out. I am waiting for a miracle.” (I know, dramatic.)

This brings me to something else I had written down while I was taking notes during Sacrament Meeting. I wrote “I am seeking peace.” SO TRUE. The only question is where do I find this peace? Which leads me to this hymn. It’s been one of my favorites for a long time. Honestly, I still feel like I have no friends. I am still lonely. I am still waiting for some small miracle to make me feel differently. But I know that I always have someone I can turn to and someone I can always rely on, someone who is just WAITING for me to talk to Him. I can’t see Him..but He can see me. Always.

So sometimes life gets you down. Get over it. Everyone has bad days, but (I found this quote on facebook):

“Don’t let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.”

Talk about a slap in the face. EARTH TO WHITLEY; your life isn’t that hard. It’s not bad, it’s not ruined, and you have potential.
Whatever that potential is, I hope to find it this year. I will be strong.