If you were to ask me a few years ago who I was, I would have answered: I am a mother, daughter, sister, friend, education worker, pet companion and so on. Now I know that those identities are not who I am but rather roles that I hold in my life. So who am I then? After a lot of soul searching and self discovery I have come to realize who I am at my core. I am peace. I am love. I am joy. I am flawed. I am vulnerable. I am perfectly imperfect. All of these parts make up the whole that is me. The me that I have come to love.
In 2009 I lost someone close to me to suicide. This person was someone I had always looked up to. Someone who I felt truly knew the real me and loved me anyway. This event sent my life on a whole new trajectory. I grieved for a year and survived for the two years following that. One day I woke up and it was like a light bulb had gone off. I had my aha moment as Oprah would say. It was then that I started my journey first to find peace and self love and ultimately joy. I allowed myself the bad days without judgement and celebrated the good days. At times it felt like I was moving backwards instead of forwards but I always reminded myself to just take things one step at a time.
I read and listened to as many self help books and podcasts as I could. I attended webinars, watched videos and journaled. I spent many hours in self reflection, finally my tendency of overthinking came in handy. Over the years I have been able to find that peace I sought and even experienced joy. While I am by no means an expert I would like to share my journey with all of you and hope that it inspires someone to embark on their own path to peace, love and joy.
