I Changed My Mind About Life | Ivy LaArtista’s Birthday Post

It’s my personal New Year! I am blessed to have made it another year. My birthdays always put me in a reflective mood, causing me to look back on how I have evolved over the past 365 days mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  One thing I have learned is that I definitely change my mind about life over time.  As I go through out  the journey of life there are somethings that I release and some that I embrace, bringing about true evolution in me as a person.  So, since I vowed, to be naked with you here on this blog site, I decided that I would share a list of the things I learned this year.  If any of them resonate with you or cause you to reflect on your own journey, please feel free to leave a comment or share your feedback me.

1. Imperfection is beautiful and deserving of Love.  I used to always pride myself on being a “perfectionist” as if it were a merit badge.  To me it meant that I did not embrace mediocrity and only accepted the “best” from myself and others.  However, I have learned that there is healing in embracing imperfection, because it makes room for us to “love and be loved exactly as we are”. Perfection is not a correlation to how much we should love or deserve to be loved.  Yes, we can put in our efforts to do our best and be our best, but while we are in the process of becoming and evolving, Love is still an inherent right of us all.
2. Vulnerability is strength.  I grew up being taught not to cry and to be strong. Any sign of vulnerability was equated to weakness and deserved of shame.  I am so happy to be free from the burden of those belief systems now.  I know that being vulnerable takes courage and in my vulnerability I show my strength to others.  When we experience moments of vulnerability with those who are sacred in our lives, we increase the bond amongst us and the strength within us, exponentially.
3. The forgotten past can potentially lead us to our future. There are so many opinions and cliches about “leaving the past in the past” that you could almost believe it is religious truth.  I personally felt that the life story of my past should be forgotten and dismissed.  So, I abandoned the past and even disconnected from it. However, what I have come to understand is that our life journey in the past holds some very powerful tools that we need, in order to move into our future educated, equipped, and empowered.  Nothing in our life happened by mistake.  It can all be useful to us given the right mindset and approach.  Even our biggest pain points can lay the foundation for our strongest platforms.
4. Silence is golden.  How cliche’ is that, huh? Not all noise, and busy work is actually productive to our lives.  There have times where I felt that “the early bird gets the worm”, “the best things come to those who grind”, “work now, play later” were all phrases to apply to practice in my own life.  I was sure that resting would just put me behind schedule and overworking would get me ahead of the game.  Now I know that is not the truth for my life.  In prioritizing my health, rest is at the top of the list.  It strengthens my mind, body, and soul enabling me to be most productive.  There are so many ideas and moments of clarity that come to me in my times of rest, that I wish I had been doing this sooner.  The silent, quiet, pensive moments are the golden tools in my life. 
5. “No” is a complete sentence. If only we could say “yes” to everything and everyone, we would never make anyone unhappy or disappointed.  Luckily for us, we do have to say “no” and that is how we learn to put our selves and our needs first.  As much as I have struggled with the need to explain things to people, I have come to learn that “No” is enough.
6. My body loves me, when I love it authentically and unconditionally.  For the past few years I have struggled with the health challenges and side effects of Insulin Resistance, Leptin Resistance, and PCOS.  The side effects showed up in my body in so many ways that felt negative, ugly, annoying, and painful for me.  I associated the negative feelings about the side effects with my own body and I HATED my body.  The body hate wasn’t necessarily because of how I looked, but more about how much I had to endure with my illness.  I was disgusted at the fact that I had incurable challenges and I didn’t think it was “fair”.  As I evolved on my body journey and began to embrace and love myself, I have learned that love heals! Maybe it sounds too optimistic and easy to you, but I know it to be true.  When I began to love my body through patience, understanding, forgiveness, and nurture I began to see tremendous healing.  Several of the side effects went away while others greatly diminished.  I accepted that my body is not a separate entity from me, it is a part of who I am and loving my body is part of loving myself.  Once I ceased the war within, my body was no longer a casualty.
7. Infinite Love is the Source of everything. This has been my greatest lesson.  There are so many religious and social ways that we try to define God in the world.  I grew up in church and was heavily involved in formal denominations for a great deal of my life.  But I now believe that God is so much bigger than the human labels people try to place.  I embrace the fact that “God” is Infinite Love.  To me that means and immeasurable, undefined, omnipotent, omniscient Source of Love that is the alpha and omega of all life.  The more I embrace the purity of Love, the closer I draw to Source of Love: The Creator.  I understand that in every situation I am given the choice to choose Pride or Love.  Choosing Love is always the journey to higher self.  I have not perfected it, of course, but it is this knowledge that helps me to become a better person and fulfill my life calling.

I am thankful for Infinite Love in my life and glad that I have evolved during this year.

I look forward to the lessons, blessings, and evolution that lie in the year ahead.

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Ivy LaArtista