image: Shandi-lee Cox

Wow! Well thank you, because I’m feeling the love after sharing about the self confidence challenges I’ve been working through. It seems like something that you’ve all been through at one time in your life and I’m so thankful for you sharing your stories, encouragement & notes from the trenches of what you’re working through in your life right this moment. If you haven’t weighed in, I’d love to hear the challenges that you’ve had and what’s helped you through. You can share over here if you’d like to get in a tiny act of bravery for today :)

The thing that struck me as I read through the comments was that there are times when we all forget that what other people do is only about them. I’ve actually made that saying into my desktop wallpaper to make sure that I remember! But when any of us start internalizing the tension between who we are and who we want to be or to who we think we should be or to (hold on to your chair for this one!) who we think that other people think we should want to be, we’re setting ourselves up distress. Whenever I’ve been caught up in this cycle, not only am I hyper aware of myself but I stop being able to appreciate the amazing things that are going on around me & the people in my life.

One of the best ways I’ve found to get break out of my head is getting active and working out, but because it’s 35° C (95° F) outside,  I’m going to focus on the second best instead: taking stock of some of the things that are working really well in my life & that I’m feeling really grateful for…

• Cilantro and lime! These are my favourite summer taste pair and I’ve been making simple salad dressings with them that bring so much brightness and energy to anything I toss with it. Amazing!

• Making time for rest & relationships – Balance is not my strong suit and I’ve had the tendency to let my relationships slide down the priority list when my client load picks up. To get away from that I’ve been scheduling my time more carefully, being realistic (conservative even!) about the number of projects I can work on at once, and I’m not working on the weekends at all any more. I have so much more energy during the week now that I’m not wearing myself down, I’m bringing my best game to my clients and I can go to the movies again- which is one of my favourite summer breaks.

• Summer Reality TV – The Bachelorette is almost done and Big Brother is starting soon! In the mean time, I’m shamelessly on Team Jef and will be avoiding looking at the magazines at the grocery store until the finale so I don’t catch any spoilers.

• Stretching my skills – I love designing, but I also love working one on one with clients to help them tackle challenges in their blogs, creative projects and businesses through consulting sessions. It’s something that I (not so) secretly want to offer, so this summer I finally took all the possibility and butterflies that I had about the idea and started pitching them to a few potential Freckled Nest Design clients who I thought could be a match… and I got clients! I just finished my first two- one helping a blogger plan a new direction for her blog, and one where I helped a new business owner develop a brand that marries her sophisticated style together with eclectic service offerings. The feedback I’ve received from the clients has been incredible, and the process has been exhilarating and an amazing growing experience. I’m so glad I took the plunge!

• Enjoying the best daily breakfast I’ve found yet – I recently went to the health food store with Angela’s recipe for Easy Vegan Overnight Oats printed out and bought the ingredients I needed to try it out. It’s official, I’m addicted. Don’t be intimidated by the word vegan- this is basically a hearty, healthy, big breakfast that you mix together quickly the night before and get to enjoy the next morning. It’s also full of the best kind of fibre, and the chia seeds in it have more omgea fatty acids in them than salmon! If you’re vegetarian or vegan, or if you have any challenges with anxiety or depression, this is a breakfast with healing ingredients in it- and you can make them into amazing breakfast parfaits that look like this!! /swoon

What are you grateful for today?

To everyone who shared their experiences of wavering confidence already and anyone who dives in now, please remember that you don’t get any awards in life for developing emotional teflon so nothing effects you. But if you don’t want to be as rocked by what’s going on around you, anytime you get into that uncomfortable zone is an opportunity to work on being a little closer to that.

When something triggers you to head into a place of negativity, low self confidence, or low self esteem, you can work on having a different reaction, and you can work through the feelings that it brings up. The best part is that as you do that work and keep on being yourself you’ll start to grow, and more than that, you’ll start to trust that nothing and no one will be able to derail you from living the big, happy, beautiful life you want to live because you’ll just keep going.

Actually, that sounds like something to be grateful for all on its own :)