Don't Let Self-Doubt Control You

Today I was talking to a friend and she shared her latest blog post with me (read it here). We talked about it and how far she has came and she looks amazing! It brought up some feelings from the past for me.

Growing up I was overweight and teased about it in school and that still echos in my head today. (Sidenote, I think it's really important that we teach our children to be kind to others.) Anyway, I've been up and down with my weight since high school, I've had three babies via c-section and seem to pack on the pounds just to have to turn around and lose the weight again. I feel like I'm in the right mindset now to keep going on this journey to health but I will always have to fight the urge to over eat and eat junk food.

Which brings me to today's blog post. I still struggle with self confidence and anxiety issues sometimes, like people are looking at me, judging. Or doubting myself, that I will fail or not be "good enough" whatever that means. And sometimes that leads to missed opportunities, making new friends, living LIFE! I talked to my doctor recently and he did suggest some anti-anxiety medicine. I took it for a couple weeks but, honestly, I hate taking medicine. It also made me really groggy, which is not good when you're still waking up with a baby in the middle of the night! I have to fight this on my own and do things to better myself and make me happy.

I have to work on changing this thought process. I've recently started listening to Chalene Johnson's podcasts and she has some episodes about just that. There is one point from her episode about anxiety that really stuck out to me.

Whenever you start feeling a negative thought pop into your head you have to stop it in its tracks. As soon as you start feeling anxious or nervous take a deep breath and remind yourself how awesome you are. Chalene talks about coming up with a mantra to say to yourself. Something like- I am enough, I'm not a failure, I'm a good person, I have a lot to offer people. Try to also remember that those people are probably nervous to talk to you, too!

The last thing is to surround yourself with positive people who lift you up. I get it, everybody has bad days and wants someone to vent to. But, if there's someone in your life who is constantly dragging you down, it's time to take a step back and re-evaluate that relationship.