You're Awesome - Steps 4 and 5

I am sleepy and sore this morning!!  Good sore, can't believe I am feeling like this after just WALKING!  I am not going on the walk at work today which is a little sad but it's okay in the end because I'm meeting a friend and doing more cardio shopping.  I've been shopping a ton lately, luckily not buying too much but I'm always really happy to be getting my walks in while also doing something fun :)
Here is how I did yesterday:
Burned 2778 calories
Consumed 1551 calories
Deficit of 1227 calories

Cannot wait to do the walk again tomorrow!!  Awesome calorie burn!!!  I love it.  I did better with my eating too, got some extra calories in at my after work snack and had a DELICIOUS New Recipe Tuesday salmon with blackberry sauce.  I am actually really excited to be eating the leftovers for lunch today - cannot wait.  It was made even better because Husbandcake made it for me and friends that were over.  How great is that?  I love being spoiled!  And we had a great time with our friends yesterday untill it was 9:45 and I completely fell asleep on the sofa out of sheer exhaustion!

So in my spreading of my confidence you actually already have the important points.  But there are two things that I am going to kind of go over anyway because I think they're important and they're both things I struggled with back before I realized how great I am.  I hope you all are still with me after yesterday, and not finding me too absurdly cheesy.  I mean I am good as long as I feel like one person comes out of reading this stuff feeling happier, it is enough for me.  So onward to the next two steps!

Accepting Faults...
We all know that nobody is perfect and we are no exceptions.  Every one of us has a ton of faults, some of which we totally beat ourselves up for, some of which we will keep forever with and some of which we desperately want to change.  So that's not what I want to talk about, I want to talk about accepting the ones we have and even embracing them.  My gut reaction to a ton of things is to make snarky bitchy comments.  When Husbandcake is out earning money to support us on a business trip I pick a fight with him the day before he comes home.  For no reason, I'm just stressed and I do it.  My house is a mess right now.  I dwell on horrible things people have done to me.  I could go on and on, I can't even list all of my faults but I own every single one.  And I am okay with them.

Sometimes I feel like one of those people who are quick to make a joke about being fat so that they're not being made fun of.  Except I'm not making a joke.  I state the things I'm bad at and the things that I do that are mean or wrong because I want to let people know that I'm aware of them.  Criticism used to completely cripple me but now it doesn't.  People don't say to me that I'm bad at listening on the phone because they hate me - they say it because they want me to pay more attention on the phone (this is really difficult for me but hey, I'm trying!).  Something like that used to be enough to make me cry and now I just know that the best way to go about things is to meet in person.  I guess the point is, that you'll be so much happier if you are aware and up front about your faults.  You'll feel better about them and you won't run from them - you can attack them head on and feel great about what you're doing!

Being Nice to Others...
I talked about this yesterday briefly...that being the best person in the world (which you ALL are by now right?? Even with your faults!!) is tough because in one sense it means you're better than everyone else.  But remembering that other people have every right to feel like they are the best person in the world is really uplifting.  Recently someone taught me a really valuable lesson.  Everyone wants to bring everyone else to their level.  Everyone.  So if I'm really happy, I'm not threatened by other people being happy, I am THRILLED by it.  And if I am angry and bitter, seeing someone cheerful will ruin my day and I will do what I can to bring them down.  It used to make me feel better if I was jealous of someone to see that there are dents in their perfect life. Even if I didn't say it I wanted them down at my level.  But now if someone has something I don't - it's not about jealousy, it's about having a new goal!

Everyone really truly is on the same level in life.  We all have the potential to be happy and the potential to be unhappy.  And I don't want to get into the choices that we feel aren't ours, the complete hopelessness about chemical imbalances, depression and worse.  I am not a therapist or a psychiatrist or any of those things, but I do know that it's a challenging life when your brain isn't wired quite right.  However I will say that it IS possible, really possible, to overcome those things and be as happy as I am.  Hint: I did it!  And I'm not even that special!! :)

Okay I am special but no more than the rest of you.  I hope that you go on with your days bringing other people up to your level!