November | 2015 | Be Free 2 Love

As I sit here on this joyous day before the Holiday, I find myself counting my blessings.

I am truly grateful that this year has been more “peaceful” for me. What I mean is that I do feel as though I have made significant improvements in my overall well-being. I think about the past when most days was a struggle. There were times when I was unhappy or finding something to become easily upset about. Now, I have been actively trying to just “relax”. I know that I am naturally a high strung person…or at least I have been in the past. Let me just tell you that this can be extremely time consuming, and simply not healthy.

Even in preparation for this upcoming Holiday, I was stressing about everything that I needed to do (laundry, pack, buy groceries for my contribution dish for Thanksgiving dinner). I was overwhelmed, and even considered rescheduling a date night that was planned a few days prior. But, thankfully I didn’t.

I told myself that I needed to keep prioritizing things that matter most. My relationship gracefully making that list of course. I would get to the other tasks that I needed to take care of. I needed that break from my jam-packed to do list. I felt refreshed! I needed to be selfish, and I was able to be just that.

So, my hope for all of you celebrating Thanksgiving, is that you take the time to enjoy those moments with your loved ones.

Last time this year, I was busy making sure everyone else had a great time, before I could “take a breather”. I’m sure no one even noticed how on the go I kept myself those few days. Before you know it, you’ll be back to work, and maybe you even missed out on some family time.

Don’t let this happen to you!

~~Sharece @befree2love

Images:http://mattshackelford.com/; http://teresacollins.typepad.com/

Hey All!

Let me just start by saying…I’ve missed the blog world. I won’t make excuses for being away for some time now. I wasn’t the greatest at balancing my new work schedule with everything else I had going on. I have some draft posts just waiting to be acknowledged, but haven’t been keeping up with writing. I’m really excited to shake the dust off.

Secondly, this topic was inspired by my home skillet Chanelle. She’s one of my besties, whose been in my life for over 10 years now. 🙂 She’s one of the same friends who I mentioned starting the GroupMe app with…where we can keep track of one another’s progress towards our fitness goals. That has picked up lately as well. I was talked into completing a 21 day clean eating challenge. No worries, because it will be ending right in time for Thanksgiving lol.

Any who, as my friends and I were chatting, Chanelle asked my friend Shana and I a series of questions. She wanted to know how we perceived her. Specifically, what were some things we may have noticed that she may not be aware of.

Talk about being caught off guard haha. I was happy that she felt that she could easily come to me with such a loaded question. Providing feedback to her wasn’t extremely challenging, because we have a healthy relationship.

How well do others know you? Are others comfortable enough to share openly and genuinely with you?

This may be a no brainer for some, and can be extremely important in assessing the quality of your relationships with others.

I was asked to share some of my personal thoughts about her as a person. This is something that I honestly don’t find myself doing enough of. Not that I have a laundry list of negative things about anyone that I keep to myself. But, I’ve realized that I probably don’t share those “personal” thoughts and feelings as often as I’d like to.

For me, I find having honest conversations about how I perceive the other person as a benefit. I’m honored that my perspective can mean so much to so many people. I hope that others feel the same way when considering me. I also understand how difficult having tough conversations with others can be. I still cringe a bit when having to “confront” the elephant in the room. But, how else can we move forward? What helps for me is to just come right out and say it. The more I wait and analyze exactly how I want to word things, the more nervous and uncomfortable I become.

I’ve also realized that I put so much thought into many of these conversations, when the other person doesn’t feel the same sense of awkwardness that I’ve been experiencing. It was mostly in my head…!

I truly appreciate the relationships I share with so many wonderful people. We inspire and challenge one another daily. I prefer to keep it real, and not just dance around the difficult issues.

If you don’t feel completely comfortable with sharing honestly with friends and family, then what is getting in the way of knocking down these barriers?

~FreeBryd

Images: http://arts.mq.edu.au/; http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/