Stories of sorts

2. We cannot always meet others or be met by others how we want or as our best selves. But keep working on ourself and apologise, and every step we take towards building this experience of life for our first time will be okay.

3. There are few missteps in life where shaming someone else or yourself is the appropriate response. (Shame: a personal belief that you as a person are wrong to exist, worthless, etc. making you feel a whole range of uncomfortable emotions often spiraling into harmful behavior or thoughts bc you did something "wrong" )

4. Guilt is a compass. It tells you where your violated your own love. (Unlike shame, guilt is redeemable.) It is okay to know you've made a mistake. Know you can always apologise and change your behavior to show you have learned for yourself and others.

5. There are no bad emotions. Labelling them as such adds meaning to them that may not be there. The more I let a cry be a cry my body needed to let out, and an anxiety attack a gathering of too much tension and energy that needs to be let out and depression a cue that I'm not doing what I need to be actively happy - I keep in touch with my ever changing self, and I know what must happen to feel something different in the future.

6. There is always a narrative. Pick it apart until you see it. I learned this with the example of fortress conservation and luxury brand marketing. Fortress conservation is conservation where people are not allowed to use the area established as conserved. It is usually praised as a "win for the environment" but it oftenmost takes place in a) areas far from my land, B) pushing small communities or families reliant on it for survival, out of the area. It is in the big picture an injustice often done against indigenous people or minorities to make western countries feel better about the state of our world (that we caused!) For fashion: all garments holds a web of stories. Advertisement tells you you'll be chill or mysterious or attractive if you wear x brand or line, that x is classy, that this is what you'll represent if you wear something they sell. This is flawed as you contain all your values at any time. Insta tell you looks gain attraction. Fashion can still be a way to express it and belonging to groups in society, but as much as fashion is a statement, the creation of a garment represents the reality of our world across the globe. It represents people, children, families, natural resource use, animals, pollution, power dynamics, waste. It represents humanity in so many ways - the good and the bad - while most of us just see ourselves and what it can do for us before we discard it and buy a new one. Who does this narrative benefit? Who are not allowed space at the table at this level of dialogue?

7. Our ideas of ourselves die a hundred times during our lifetime as we are shaped into different human beings. It is okay to let go of the sides of yourself you loved, and heal the ones that struggled. Do not grasp for anything that was not meant to stay. It will cause unnecessary internal conflict. Yet, grieve the loss and celebrate the wins. Be brave in the exploration of who you are and want to be!

8. Who they think you are is not as important as who you feel you are, and coming to like yourself. Most people will never know you in any depth and they will meet you with the lense of a society that dislikes anything out of a slim idea of normal. They will meet you with their personal preferance and stories and IT IS OKAY TO NOT BE LIKED BY EVERYONE. You don't even like everyone, yet you do not hate them or wish them ill. It's okay to know something is not your taste and leave it at that. Everyone contributed towards different values in our society.

9. Discipline is showing up and doing it no matter the result. The result is not that important. Don't stay attached to a specific outcome preventing you from practicing in the first place.

10. Do that thing you always postponed. Do the thing you're waiting to do that feels like YOU even when you have to do it alone and everyone else doubts you.

11. There is no true competition but the one against your current self shaping into a new self of who you want to be.

12. Don't value consumption. Value the purpose a tool fills in your day, and know it can be filled in many ways looking very differently. One need not be more right than the other. Give this same thought of space to everyone around you.

13. Ask yourself frequently: is this thought mine or is it one parroting the voice and/or believes of other people? If it is not mine, why do I believe it? Do I want to believe it? Do I have to keep believing in it? - > Find an alternative healthy thought to swap it out with if no. Fx. "doing x is bad for my health and I will die" - > "I trust in my body's ability to heal itself"

14. Ask yourself when online: is this opinion actually about me or does it just feel like it because I perceive their content as 'spoken to me'? If I feel under attack and unsafe, why? What are the arguments I use to defend myself against these uncomfortable feelings. Are they productive? Are they my personal opinions or someone I heard? Am I seeing things more clearly now that I have taken a step back?

15. Unconditional love is the highest self.

16. You staying small is not goodness. Step into your own power. Live your life and not what someone else wanted for you.

17. That story you retell in your head about your own suffering and who you are - it's not always correct. We create stories to fill gaps and make sense of events we do not understand. We jump to conclusions without all the facts.

18. Color outside the box. Experiment with different things until you figure what resonates.

19. Collect FREE trinkets if you have a inner hoarder goblin. But make them memories, like a pressed flower, a stone from a vacation spot, a photo you print out, the plushie from your childhood. A feather. The empty container of your favorite product. Evey one carries a happy memory and transports you right back when you see it.

20. Often we do not react to something we fear in the present with a clear mind. We react to it with our last worst experience with it. We're remembering the way it made us feel then, making us confuse it with how we feel now.

21. Our perception of abundance is not in our power of consumption, but in our mindsets about what we need versus have access to in a way we deem acceptable.

22. We live in a society that actively breeds illness, no step towards better health is shameful or wrong because it is "alternative" or different than mainstream values. Just keep in mind who's believes or cultures you touch while doing so and staying respectful. Always.

23. The more you know your own truth, the less other people's affect you.

24. Sit back. Take a deep breath. Marvel at where you're at. No matter where it is, being alive is our biggest adventure yet.

25. Deal with the issue or task at hand now. Don't wait for later if you have a choice.

26. Being friends with people with different opinions is good. It helps you clarify your own, and you get to learn more about different worldviews.