Category: Self-Acceptance
Accepting the Consequences of Living Honestly
After years of struggling with perfectionism and people-pleasing, I'd made up my mind to live differently: to focus on living in alignment with my values, regardless of how people responded. I gave up trying to control how people reacted to me (which perfectionism and people-pleasing were attempts to do), focusing, instead, on the only thing ...
Overcoming Perfectionism: A Designer’s Mindset
Last week I spontaneously took a sample introductory course to UX & UI design, since both are increasingly becoming more and more relevant to my field of communications. I found it very stimulating, not just in terms of course content, but in terms of how designers approach failure. As the course progressed, I found myself ...
Top 3 Life Lessons from Partner Dancing
Last weekend I attended my first three-day congress for a partner dance style called Brazilian zouk, which consisted of back-to-back workshops and nightly dance parties known as "socials". Only since returning home have I begun to process the full weight and significance of this experience, which I'd like to share with you now. It sounds ...
More than My Mental Illness
If you have known me personally (or have been reading my blog), you'd probably know that I live with mental health challenges. Since I was very young, I've always been a neurotic and anxious child. It hasn't left me in adulthood. I suppose I am what most people would call "high-functioning": I experience seasons of depression and ...
The One Who Wants You Present
Have you ever wondered if anyone would notice if you fell off the grid? If your presence truly mattered? If your whole self -- your thoughts, your being -- was valued? Have you ever felt like a puff of smoke that people walked through rather than a human being standing in a room? Have you ...
The Fruits of Singlehood
There's a lot of emphasis on vocation as either 'married life' or 'religious/consecrated life', or an emphasis on vocation as being something off into the future -- which it is. But our vocation is also active here and now, and the one vocation that all people are required to go through first is singlehood. We tend to overlook ...
Dare to Be Different (Pt. 3): Unique by Necessity
Now I can't pretend to be an X-Men expert, but I saw the most recent movie X-Men: Days of Future Past and loved it. Weirdly enough, I actually cried during that movie -- more than I did with The Notebook.I cried because I was incredibly moved by its themes. In a strange way, I could relate to the challenges ...
Dare to be Different (Pt. 2): Burdens to Blessings
We humans are funny creatures. We know we should be seeing the glass as "half full" rather than "half empty," but we still gravitate towards the latter.We focus on how far we still have to go rather than acknowledging how far we've come. We count others' blessings rather than seriously dwelling on our own. We ...
Dare to Be Different (Pt. 1): Embrace Who You ARE
One of my biggest frustrations in life is being misunderstood -- and surprisingly, it happens OFTEN. I'm not just talking about "misunderstanding" in the lighter sense (such as being unable to articulate myself clearly). I'm talking about being misunderstood in the deeper sense -- with things related to the core of who I am and what ...
Celine Diaz: Real Talk 