Beaming with Positivity

Do you know what can be a real wet blanket on a good day? When someone radiates negativity. Nothing brings my mood down faster than a complainer or a pessimist, someone who sees only the empty half of the glass.

Sure, it's hard and sometimes downright impossible to see the good in everything. I'm not suggesting you be blind to the world or it's problems. But here's the thing; the way the world sees us is based a lot on our attitude, so as a follower of Christ, it's very important we exude life and joy. Here's a few ways we can be a little more positive!

1. Stop complaining. This is a hard one and I struggle with this sooo much. As a teenager, a guy told me "I've never met someone who complains as much as you." Ouch! That was a wake-up call. Who wants to hang out with that girl? What an easy question to answer: nobody. Be more mindful of your words. You don't like this song? Ok, understood, but you don't have to tell someone who does enjoy it. Hate your job? Maybe instead of telling everybody about how much it sucks, look for something else.

“What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.” -Maya Angelou

Doing the Daniel Plan

It's gonna get real today, guys. Why? Because I'm talking honestly and candidly about weight.

Weight has never been a struggle for me. Around age 12, I was "chubby",  had my share of baby fat but shortly after I got braces, I lost a lot of weight. Since then, I've always been healthy-appearing. I've never had remarkable physical strength or cardiovascular strength when it comes to working out. I've always tired easily and been one to give up when it got too hard. Last year, my doctor started me on anxiety medication for my severe social anxiety. (I'm talking vomiting every morning before work.) As I took this medication, my weight rapidly increased. I noticed I felt hungry all the time. I started eating junk food multiple times a day. I gained around 40 pounds in just a few short months. It's been about 6 months since I quit taking the medication, yet the weight is hanging on. And I'm miserable.

I'm so distant from God. I never talk to Him, never take my concerns to Him. I don't go to church regularly, and rarely read my Bible.

I'm so distant from myself and others. I have a very negative self perception because I'm very unhappy with how I look and how I feel. This translates into me staying home almost every night, rarely going out, and rarely having a desire to go out.

I eat horribly and have no energy to exercise. These probably go hand in hand. But I rarely eat healthily and I have been walking this week, but before this week, I've been fairly sedentary.

All of these are points addressed in the Daniel Plan. 

So, starting today, I'm participating. If you wanna know more about it, check out the website by clicking here.

So what is the Daniel Plan? Well, I'm not a good paraphraser, so here's an excerpt from the official website for ya:

The Daniel Plan is a groundbreaking healthy lifestyle program founded on biblical principles and focused on The Essentials: Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus and Friends. The program offers an innovative approach to achieving a healthy lifestyle where people get better together by optimizing their health in each of these life areas. Each essential supports and influences the others, offering a practical step-by-step approach for anyone to follow. 

I bought the book about a year ago, read it, but put no action to it. Thought, Wow, those verses ARE in the Bible and they are totally relevant! Nobody ever teaches this in the church. Yet, nothing changed for me. 

No Shame.

I like some pretty embarrassing things and I used to be ashamed of them but now I realize they are the things that make me "ME". So I am now embracing the nerdiness that is me and I'm going to share a few embarrassing things I like or that I do. By the way, who decides this is embarrassing?! Ugh, society is lame.

And here we go.

Soundtrack music.

One of my favorite Pandora stations is the Pride & Prejudice Film Score station. Ain't gonna lie, I get super pumped when it plays songs from The Chronicles of Narnia movies. It is like creativity fuel for me. If you don't have it on your's, you best be adding it to your shuffle right now. The song there, Dawn, is so beautiful. I want it played at my wedding (lolz). Do yourself a favor and listen to it.

Disney music.
Okay, well, apparently most of my embarrassing things are music related. Interesting. I love some Disney movie music. I'm not talking about like Hannah Montana, I'm talking classic Disney. Like The Bare Necessities or You Can Fly! I love so many Disney ballads, it's hard to pick a favorite. What's your's? I know I'm not the only one secretly listening to them.

The moment of absolute perfection when it's a beautiful film score but also Disney.

Cheesy Christian romance fiction.
Okay, okay. Many women like these but I doubt many my age. I really enjoy books by Deanne Gist and Janette Oke...ahem...Plus I just discovered When Calls the Heart on Netflix and I'm already addicted. Although it's really different from the book.

History channel and historical documentaries.
I love me some history and learning about it. I just finished The Ultimate Guide to the Presidents and I highly recommend it. I learned some really interesting facts that I'm sure will be useful in everyday conversations. Instead of "How about that weather?" I'll say "How about that Teddy Roosevelt being shot but instead of being rushed to the hospital, he delivered his 90 minute speech?" Sure to be an ice breaker.

Running to epic soundtrack music.
Namely the Walking Dead or Doctor Who. Yep. TWD music is eerie and creepy, so it makes you run because you're scared. And try not running when you hear "I'm the Doctor". It's nearly impossible. Check it out if you haven't heard it...ah. I love it so.

It's only embarrassing if your headphones come unplugged and someone else hears it. This happened to me during a 5k. I got a little stare but who cares? Haha.

What embarrassing things do you like or do? Please share so I know I'm not alone. :)

Solo Trip to Nashville

So I'm not sticking to the Blogtember Challenge prompt for today, but my goal for September is just to blog every day this month, so I will definitely continue using some of the prompts but I also want to give you guys some updates on my life.

In August I went on my first ever trip by myself. I felt like quite the adult. I had purchased myself a VIP ticket to Needtobreathe's Tour de Compadres show at the Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville, Tennessee. Now you may be wondering why I chose to go alone. There is a simple explanation: none of my friends really care for my music taste. I always feel guilty and constantly have to check and ensure they are having fun when they go to shows with me. Meh, I just wanted to have the ultimate carefree experience.

And I did. It was amazing. The show was comprised of Colony House, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, Switchfoot, and Needtobreathe (my favorite band ever).

I wasn't really sure what to expect with the VIP thing. So, I waited in line for what felt like hours. They finally call us back and explained how this experience would work: All the bands would come out, they would sing a special song together, and then we would form a single file line, and one by one get our photos with all the bands. No selfies allowed and no one-on-one interaction with the bands. I was really disappointed with that because I've been waiting for 4 years and 5 concerts to meet Needtobreathe, but anyway. They whole thing was over in what felt like 3 minutes. I did get to sit between Jon Foreman (Switchfoot's lead singer) and Bear Rinehart (Needtobreathe's lead singer) which was pretty amazing. I literally only spoke to Bear. I was so disappointed because I'm a huge fan of all the bands playing and I really would have loved to have spoken to Drew Holcomb or Jon Foreman or Seth Bolt...or either Chapman from Colony House. Sigh. But Bear was really friendly. And as I walked away Jon Foreman said thanks and hoped I enjoyed the show. Tear.

 So there ^^ is the most expensive photo I own. Haha.

I met some pretty great people to talk to while waiting. There was a guy, who also came alone, that I talked to a lot. They were streaming the show live online, so the crew actually came up to me and Patrick (the guy alone) and interviewed us together so they could have some feedback from the fans. The interview was painfully awkward so needless to say, it wasn't aired. 

That aside, the show was incredible. There was this amazing sense of freedom being there by myself. I didn't have to care about embarrassing my friends by acting a fool, so I did just that. I was in an area with a lot of fogies who sat through Drew Holcomb. He's one of my favorites so I ain't about to sit through his show. I stood and I was literally the ONLY one standing in the entire area between the pit and the lawn seating. Pretty sure Drew and I made eye contact. Haha. I loved everything about the concert.

I even happened to run into a couple of celebs along the way. Steven Curtis Chapman was there supporting his sons' performance and Ben Rector was there supporting his compadres, as he was on the first leg of the tour. 

I've been a longtime fan of SCC and he was SO genuine and kind. In fact, he helped me steady the phone for our selfie, as you can see in the Ben photo...I was so shaky. I hate that it turned out so blurry but I am seeing him in November so here's hoping for a redo.

At the end of the show, all bands came out and performed Needtobreathe's Brother. I was excited to see Ben Rector was accompanying them on stage as well, and if you look you can see him in the light pink shirt and shorts in the picture below. If you like to creep, like I do. 

Day one of my trip was AMAZING. I explored a little Nashville and then had a fabulous time at the show. 

Day two was a little less incredible. 

As I hit the interstate to head home, I make it about 2 exits from my hotel and then notice the car in front of me swerving. Then I see what looks like a big metal pipe right in my lane. Guess what? I'm going 70mph and there are cars on either side of me. So, what do I do? Hit the pipe. Immediately my car starts shaking and my little caution light appears beside my odometer. Yup, I got a flat tire.

I had to call a tow truck and be towed because I'm a typical, helpless girl who doesn't know how to change a flat. That's an exasperated selfie, waiting on the tow truck. They took me to Firestone at Cool Springs and I got my tire changed and they made sure there was no other damage to the car. They were so nice there, so I have to give them a shout out. 

Anyways, I'm beyond thankful that the flat happened on day two and not day one! So that's a nice little recap of my trip. Sorry it was so wordy and kudos if you made it this far in the post.

Have you ever done a trip by yourself or is that something you'd like to do?