One of the ways to really start living a more free life is to dump negativity. Spread kindness.

It’s not easy to do – especially when you are so wrapped up in it that you don’t even realize it is such a huge part of your life!

I remember who I used to be. I held onto things. Negative things. Unfortunately, positive remarks were here and then gone, but a negative remark about me stuck. It was as if I was fly paper and those remarks were all a bunch of annoying flies – once they stuck – they were there for the long haul. It ate me up inside! Even things from back in Junior High still stuck to me when I was in my 20’s causing for a lot of low self-esteem, lowered levels of self worth, and extremely low levels of expectations for myself. I was going through the motions. I was quiet. I didn’t want to cause any sort of ripple (positive or negative!) What I was great a doing during this time was self-sabotaging pretty much ANYTHING good that came into my life – I thought I didn’t deserve it!

I’m not sure what clicked – or rather snapped – inside of me that made me wake up and decide that I was meant for more. I’d love to tell you an inspiring story of climbing a mountain and looking out over the crest, seeing an eagle soaring and knowing in that

moment – that I was destined for greatness. But that didn’t happen! It was more like I got woken up by my dog licking my face and had an epiphany as I stumbled into the bathroom to..you know..

What I have found, though, is that a little bit of kindness to yourself is serious magic in other areas of your life. When you learn to be kind to yourself, trust yourself, believe in yourself (I’m aware how corny this all sounds – but just go with it for the moment), and be your biggest fan – your entire outlook can change on many different levels. You learn to take ownership – and you learn that taking ownership is DIFFERENT from taking blame when you shouldn’t. You learn that anything really is possible with a little bit of hard work – and you actually begin to enjoy the hard work because you start to watch how it pays off. You start to see the greater good rather than the nasty negativity in the world around you.

Look, I’m aware that it may sound like I now live in a bubble and the truth is – maybe I do. But I like it here so much more than where I was. I like being responsible for my success. I like going after goals. I like working towards making dreams happen – even if I KNOW it’s going to take a while! Life is so much better on the positive side of the fence! Hell, I even try and spread the magic now with blog posts like this HOPING and PRAYING that SOMEONE will stumble upon it in a moment of feeling lost, and have their own lackluster epiphany and start to make their life better. Kindness…pass it along.

I guess what I am trying to say through all of this is that your life is yours to live – and you can do that however you choose to do it. Why not do it with a little kindness and make some magic?