Preparing for College + Self Love
Hello lovelies! As college is right around the corner, I wanted to share a few of the things I’ve been doing to get my body and brain in the right headspace. Self love is the root of everything so obviously I had to highlight that in todays blog post.
I could not be more excited for college however, with a new schedule, new environment, new people it can be hard to feel at peace. I wanted to make sure that I was in a good place with myself before school started. So, here’s what I’m doing:
Moving my body and doing my favorite workouts. I’ve been trying to get everything in!! I also am experimenting; I am trying to determine what workouts I like when and if I need to eat before, after, or both.
Eating healthy and adding lots of protein while still letting myself enjoy when I want. I know that my meals are going to look a little different in college, and that’s ok. I want to be able to eat healthy because it makes me feel good, but not stray away from the fun memories that come along with food. Since I have been working out so much, I have been needing to eat a lot and a lot more protein to keep me full. We all need to know how much we need to eat because toxic diet culture does surround us.
Reminding myself that beauty lies in the now, but will also in the future. Every part of your journey has a purpose. It’s hard to let go, but there is so much good to come. We have to change up our experiences and way of life to be able to grow and change.
Becoming so secure in myself that it doesn’t matter (to some extent) what other people are doing. Love yourself so much. Trust yourself and believe in yourself. Know that you know what is best for you and something else might be better for someone else. Comparison will not help anything. So, focus on you. What do you need? The answer lies within.
Finding routine. Like I said, it will probably take awhile to find my new routine so I want to have a secure routine now to make the transition as seamless as possible.
Knowing and excepting that the transition will be a challenge. It is something I have never gone through. I am letting myself feel all the feels. Complete and utter happiness contrasted by deep sadness in leaving what is.
Keeping busy and working. I have been teaching, tutoring, and blogging. I have been trying to get my brain back into the swing of things. Whether it be using my brain creatively through my workouts and yoga, math and grammar skills from tutoring, writing from blogging, or Spanish from Duolingo, I have been getting ready for what is to come!
Making tons of lists. Since I have been so busy, lists are what keep me together. Lists of my day, lists of what I need, whatever could be a list is in fact a list. Writing things down allows all of the crazy jumbled up thoughts to be organized on a piece of paper.
Ordering things for my dorm. I’ve been coming up with lists to determine what I need and then ordering it. Once the packages are delivered I have been putting them in my guest room so everything can be in one place.
Self love:
Self love is one heck of a journey. The peaks and valleys are so extreme and so random. You have to be willing to put in the work. I find that positive affirmations help like no other. I used to do them everyday and then I stopped during the summer. Let me tell you, I can see and feel the difference. Positive affirmations help me speak kinder to myself throughout the day. The more kind thoughts we think, the more self love the radiates through our bones and swirls through our soul. Breathe and slow down. To find peace within yourself you have to hear the thoughts going through your brain. Relax your anxiety with thoughts of trust. Be confident in who you are. You are a bad a**, now start believing it. Do what you need to do to find self love. Do things for yourself because you want to. Find real and true confidence by romanticizing yourself. What I earn by this is look back on all the incredible things you have done or what you have survived. Hype yourself up and never stop. Once you love yourself, you will love others and look to lift them up. You won’t compare so much. The negative thoughts will drift away. Of course they will come back, but you will find ways to quiet them.
To be completely honest, I am trying really really hard at self love at the moment. Sometimes it will be easy to love yourself and other times hard. I also think I have been taking the preparation a bit too hard. I have been so go go go and I really don’t want to get back into the burnout cycle. Part of breaking the cycle is recognizing it and taking action. To protect my peace I have stopped taking on more jobs and tasks, taken specific time to relax and nap, and started back up with positive affirmations all throughout the day. We are also about to head on one last little summer trip to Park City, Utah. I am looking forward to taking time off from teaching (even though I love love love it), and being outdoors with my family. I have to remember that sometimes less is more! Know yourself and listen. Sometimes the answer is so obvious but we try to dismiss it. Let the truth come out and trust that your soul knows the answer.