This Is For Every 20-Something Girl Who’s Struggling Through Life

I finally feel like I have made amends with a lot of the things that had once been the root of my self-destruction. I am finally conquering an eating disorder that set the rules for my living and ultimately, my death, if I chose to continue neglecting myself.

I have finally ridden myself of the people who had encouraged negative thinking and have turned to a tribe of beautiful souls who are helping me learn and grow towards the sunshine.

And I have finally embraced learning over perfectionism, to let go of my desire for total control and cultivate a love for my imperfections and struggles.

Learn to look at life as seasons.

I’ve found a lot of solace in nature and the shifting and changing of life through the passage of time. We all have good days and we all have bad days. Some days, we feel like we have climbed mountains and other days, we feel small and insurmountable. Like the moon, learn to love yourself in whatever phase of your life you are in. A flower isn’t always in bloom–it shifts through the season–and so too must we in the knowledge that this will pass.

Nurture your body and your soul.

This means choosing self­-compassion over comparison. It means cultivating a deep love for yourself and your passions. It means feeding your body the fuel that it needs to survive and moving in ways that make you feel strong. It means letting your mind and body rest and recharge. It means taking care of your soul from the inside out so that your light shines bright and in turn, that light may guide others in the right direction.

Develop an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

Continue consuming information. It is what helps you make better
decisions. It will help you understand and comprehend the things
you are not clear about in this world, making the “unknown” a little less daunting. In my own journey, facts became the reason for putting my trust in the professionals during my early stages of recovery. And in my later stages of recovery, information is what allowed me to rationalize my irrational fears. Knowledge is powerful. Never forget that.

Practice the art of mindfulness and acceptance.

Mindfulness and acceptance are skills that, in my opinion, do not seem to come naturally to humans. I have realized that we can either channel our energy into falling into negativity and darkness or channel it into practicing mindfulness and acceptance. So let me tell you why you should choose the latter over the former. Being mindful allows you to slow down, to appreciate the small moments that make life worth living, and better understand what self­-love and compassion means to you.

Acceptance, although often a quiet room, allows you to stand strong and not collapse under the weight of perceived failure. To move through uncomfortable thoughts and emotions, you must be still. As Deepak Chopra so gracefully stated, “In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” Mindfulness and acceptance leave you unshakable to the core and leave you able to deal with the constant change that defines the human condition.

So this is for the beautiful girls in their early twenties who are breaking themselves down, tearing up the old, and building the new. This is for the girls who are trying their best to move through the difficult seasons with grace and cherishing the seasons that move with ease. It is time to make amends with the unknown, with hate, with loneliness, with fear and anger, and with expectation.

It is time to live each day, month, and year with purpose and love. Because we not only grow older with age, but newer every day.