Can You Have A midlife crisis In Your 20’s? Finding the Beauty in the Quarter-Life Crisis

Hello My Loves,

When I was really little, I would always look up to anyone that I was older than me. I had a severe case of the grass is greener on the other side. I couldn’t wait to be in my 20’s because I imagined that your twenties were as glamorous as they were on TV. I wasn’t wrong because my twenties have been glamorous in so many ways, and I am truly blessed to say that. I just didn’t have the whole picture. There are dark moments to balance out the glamour.

I guess that was part of the appeal of this blog. I want to be transparent about what your twenties could look like and what I’m doing to make the most out of this exciting decade. This time I want to talk about the quarter-life crisis which is the weird mix of booth glamour and gloom. Of course, my friends are all in their early to mid-twenties and one thing we all have in common is this strange feeling that we are simultaneously coming home to ourselves and completely lost.

Photo by Ana Tavares on Unsplash

12 Common Questions and feelings during the quarter-life crisis:

1. Is this all there is to life?
2. Am I sure that the experience of hanging out with my friends isn’t more important than my rent?
3. Oh shit, I have my degree in X, but I don’t think I like this work
4. Man, why do I have to work?
5. What am I really meant for?
6. Why can’t I eat out every night?
7. Who do I want to be? Who am I now?
8. I should just run away and live in a tent on a beach somewhere. You know, return back to nature.
9. Sure, why not have a fourth credit card? I love stuff
10. Damn, that fourth credit card was stupid
11. Where did all of my friends go?
12. I should be doing more with my life

Like I said, you have a lot of feelings right now. Life is a confusing jumble that leaves you both breathless and ready to hide in a forest somewhere. But, it’s an exciting time! Everything is about how you choose to see it, and I choose to see my quarter-life crisis as a chance for exploration. It's a chance to start again and again. I am asking myself the deep questions that need to be asked so that I can understand how I want to live my life.

During your quarter-life crisis, you can discover yourself. It is the time for you to take a stance, understand yourself better than you ever have, and decide your destiny. My quarter-life queen, please know that it is okay if the answers you get go against everything society tells you you should want. If you decide that you never want to work for someone else for the rest of your life, take comfort in the fact that you are an entrepreneur and you realized that now. Sometimes the things that ring true for ourselves and our desires are the things that will scare us the most. 

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

Remember, You are a goddess living on earth as a queen. Step into your power. 

Alignment Practice for the Overwhelmed and Stressed Out Queen

Hello, My loves!

I hope that you are all having a fabulous week thus far. I am having an incredible week and truly am so thankful that the spring weather has finally kicked in. You really learn to appreciate blue skies after a series of snowstorms.

In typical me fashion, I have been working on myself for as long as I have been writing this blog (and beyond). I can't lie. Being in your twenties is difficult, especially when you decide that you are a queen whose destiny is to run an empire. As Taylor Swift so beautifully put it, you are feeling a lot of fucking emotions at once.

No one said that building an empire was easy. I will be honest with you queens and tell you that working full-time and running several projects sometimes feels like you're running around 24/7. I often find myself lost in my to-do's and forgetting about myself. What makes it harder is that I love every single one of my projects. I love my empire and all that goes into it, but it's still work and my body, brain, and mind know this.

photo by Anthony Delanoix on unsplash 

So, I want to talk about alignment. It's too easy to get caught up in all of the moving pieces and forget why you are doing this. Living your life like you care isn't easy and can leave you feeling like you're stranded in the middle of the ocean. But, I want to tell you a little bit more about how I manage the side-hustle overwhelm, stay motivated and remind myself who I am. First, I started with the following questions.

1. Who do you want to be? What does her life look like? What does her ideal day look like?
2. How does your future self live her life once she is able to take more of a back seat?
3. What are the favorite parts of her day?
4. How does your future self show up? 
5. What habits has your future self dropped or picked up and in what ways has this improved her life?

For me, I realized that my future self cares a lot about her network, her relationships, her health and being outside. My future self shows up for herself and does the things that make her happy. This means hanging out with friends, working out, going on walks and limiting the number of hours that she works. Future me isn't afraid of enjoying herself and doesn't feel shame in getting what she wants. 

So, I started to live like her. I made time for friends and the gym. I stopped spending all day at the office. I mindfully engaged in my self-care time. I am working on not shaming myself for buying something that I really want and give thanks for being able to do so. That's really the trick. It's not just about how your future self shows up for others and her work, it's also about how she shows up for herself. 

Working 60-80 hours a week is absolutely exhausting, and overwhelming. At times it has spiked my anxiety to unbelievable levels. But ultimately, I love what I do. I just learned to tune into future me and treat myself better.

I am definitely one to overwork myself (again, because I love what I do). The above tips truly helped me learn how to take a break and not feel guilty about doing so. Remember, my queen. You are a queen for the rest of your life. Please, don't burn yourself out now.

Saying Goodbye

Hi Everyone,

It's Shar's selfish time again. I have a lot of feelings right now about a major transition in my life. I needed a place to write this all down. But I also want to be vulnerable with you all. Part of being an adult for many adults is moving. If there is one message that I hope you get from this, it is that it is okay to be heartbroken to leave. You can be sad and excited at the same time. Sometimes you have no idea what's next, but you just keep moving forward.

It's one thing to know that everything is going to change and it's another to actually have it happen. I am sitting in my apartment now, in the middle of cleaning. It is Wednesday and I have the day off work. I've always known that my positions would end (because they are temporary positions). I just haven't allowed myself to think in concrete ways about what that means.

I know that it is in my plan to move to Los Angeles. I've been saying it for months, and although I have nothing solidified, I have endless faith that things will work out. As stupid as this is, I look around my beautiful apartment and I feel like I'm breaking up with someone. Heartbreak is the word that I am looking for.

I put so much of myself into my homes. My goal is always to make it clear that someone lives here and that every piece of furniture or decor says something about me. As such, my apartments have always felt like home. They have always felt like extensions of me. You don't need me to tell you that leaving a home that you created isn't easy.

But, it's time to move and move forward. I don't know what is waiting for me in the future, but I want to take the time to thank my home for everything that it has done for me. A source of refuge, inspiration, creativity, pride and comfort. We have been through so much together, and without a doubt this is the home where I grew the most. This is the home where I got my master's degree, decided on my future, decided on my new future, learned about myself, learned to fight for what I wanted, gained confidence, suffered through pain and became who I am today. This is the home where I decided that I am a queen. This home was the birth of Quarter-Life Queen.

In many ways this home is a part of me, but it is time to move on to new things. Thinking about leaving makes my chest hurt and my eyes water. I will cherish our last few weeks together. I love you and someone else will love you just as much. Thank you for everything.

All of my love Always,

Sharlene

You Don’t Have to Know Who You Are: On Feeling Lost in Life

My Quarter-Life Queen!

I am about to change your life with this little tidbit of knowledge. Ready? Your brain has something called neuroplasticity and it is the most malleable in your twenties. That's right, your brain is still developing, and will continue to do so into your late twenties, so you can decide who it is that you want to be. 

Photo by Dardan Mu on Unsplash

At times this is incredibly liberating. Every single day is a chance to start again and I can always decide who it is that I went to be because it is not set in stone. Other times, this can feel intimidating because who the f am I? Who do I want to be? How do I be her? Am I sure that I really want to be her? 

All of these questions swirl around, but I choose to go with positivity. It is one hundred percent okay for you to have no idea who you want to be. You don't have to know, because you can decide. Learning this was the greatest gift I ever received because it put me back in power. I decided who I can be, and I get to decide every single day. 

So, for my unsure or uncertain queen who feels lost or out of place. Embrace those feelings. That oh shit feeling is your inner queen letting you know that you decide who you are and you get to shape that person now. That is your inner queen giving you your throne. Have a seat, babe. 

Explore, decide, change, grow. Who do you want to be? You are on the journey of creating yourself. Enjoy the ride and embrace that power. 

Until next times my loves,

I can't wait to meet the badass queen you are and the badass queen you will become. 

P.S. if you haven't read The Defining Decade by Meg Jay, I would suggest that you do. Truly life changing. 

How To Grocery Shop Like an Adult

Hi My Empire Building Badasses,

Listen, I don't need to tell you that so much of my adult life has been thinking about food in numbers. Nutritional value, IDGAF. As long as it was low in calories or low in sugar, then we were good to go. Food would either make me fat or it wouldn't. And where was health in this equation? I don't know.

It wasn't until I started seriously thinking about my health that I realized there was so much more to food than that. Your body has this amazing ability to heal and balance itself, but if all you're going to do is eat pizza, chicken wings, and pasta up to 1300 calories, then you ain't doing shit for yourself. Trust me girl, I'm still heavy even thought I kept my calorie count so low.

So, I went out and did some research about food. I wanted to know the nutritional value of my food, so that I could change my relationship with my body, and with my food. I knew that certain imbalances were the cause of somethings that were going on in my mood, so I wanted to learn how to fix it with my diet. Imagine my frustration whenever I would type in healthy eating staples and not find a single thing that was easy to understand, printable, or just all in one place. Like girl, I just wanted to have some healthy food in my house. Why I gotta click through a million websites though?

Now to be clear, I'm not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. I just wanted to have an easy place to find out the content of my food. You know, something I could just take with me to the grocery store. And, I wanted all of my queens to have access to it too. I hope that you find this helpful, and please do feel free to screenshot or download. This is as much for you as it is for me. Please always consult your doctor before you make any drastic changes to your diet or up your intake of anything. There is such thing as too much of a good thing.

I hope that you enjoy my queens!

Until next time.

Dealing with Regret: When Your Empathic Abilities Get In Your Way

Hello My Loves,

You ever just tell someone that you're an empath and they just look at you like, bitch what?

Yup, this is just one struggle of being an empath. Being an empath is a gift and a curse. On one hand, you always know what someone else is feeling and can adjust your approach to that. This makes you an excellent communicator and an amazing friend.

On the other, you not only know what other people are feeling, you can feel it as if they were your own emotions. If someone is happy, you feed off that energy and become happy too, and if they are miserable, then you also pick up on that negativity and take it on.

If you're not an empath, you're probably like that sounds awful, and if you are, then you know that it is. It sucks to feel everything so strongly and to pick up on everyone's emotions. Like I could be in an amazing mood, but if I get around people that aren't, then that goes to shit. For empaths especially, it is so important to surround yourself with positive people.

But, I am here to talk about when your empathic abilities changes your entire personality. For me, this happens most often when I am around someone who is very happy. Like if someone is out and having a lit time, then I want to have a lit time. Another round of shots? Absolutely. Should we stay out all night? Of course. Let's go to Japan? Hell yes!

I am so overwhelmed by the other persons emotions, that my rational brains shuts down, and I just start acting impulsively. Thankfully, I don't live by the policy of regeat, but I can imagine for other empaths that this can be a problem. Remember that you did the best that you could with the information that you had.

Photo by Erik Eastman on Unsplash

Being overwhelmed by someone else's emotion is an out of body experience, which can be highly disorienting. At times it can feel like you have become the other person, which can make you feel lost in your own identity. Especially for those of us who are still trying to develop a sense of self.

My queen, here is some advice for you that has changed my life, and the way I handle being an empath. Before I learned to do this, I would feel like an imposter, I would beat myself up and I would feel like I must not know who I am if I am so easily influenced. Thankfully, the following approach has allowed me to better understand what is happening and love myself more fully.

In the moment, it is almost impossible to get in touch with yourself when the other persons emotion is so overwhelming. But, afterwards is a golden opportunity. First, give genuine thanks to the experience, regardless of how you feel about it. This will help ease any guilt or embarrassment and allow you to reflect clearly. You did the best that you could with the information that you had (to paraphrase Jenna Marbles).

Second, now that you are alone, what are you feeling?  If it is positive, then some part of the experience resonates with your desires, and if it is negative, then you now know that the personality you took on was not one that you should incorporate into your developing self. It is that simple my queen. While being an empath can suck, it can also bring you the best understanding of yourself. Remember my queen:

Single Shaming: Dealing with Judgment from others

Hello My Darlings,

How are you all doing today? I apologize now as this rapidly evolves into a rant because I have a lot of strong feelings about this topic.

Something has been on my mind a lot, and I have a lot of conflicted feelings. To preface, aside from my fear of ghosts, I am terrified of romantic commitment. Like REALLY. It's nice to have you around for a bit, but more than a few hours and all of my alarm systems go off and they're warning me to get the fuck out. The longest I've ever spoken to a guy romantically is two weeks.

Now,  I'll stick to my honesty and vulnerability policy and say that I've never been on a real date. I've also never had a relationship.

Unsurprisingly, it is not me that has the biggest problem with this, but rather other people. They kind of look at me like something is wrong with me. WHAT DO I MEAN I DON'T WANT A RELATIONSHIP? Is the question that I never get tired of hearing. Then we fall into the therapist session about who hurt me, and don't I know that I'm beautiful, and I should really be looking for a relationship because that's where I'll find happiness.

First of all, no one said I was unhappy. Second of all, you're not my therapist. I'm not just going to sit here and unpack all of the reasons why I don't want want a relationship. THIRD OF ALL, I know how fucking old I am, and I'm still not ready to be in a committed relationship.

I always feel really embarrassed admitting this fact to other people because they react like I'm a freak, which makes me feel like a freak. Even as I write this, I'm hiding in my shirt. But this is why I'm writing this. I'm so tired of feeling like I'm alone in this, and being shamed. I know that there are other women out there who are also dealing with this but feel like they have to hide this part of their lives because people make them feel like shit about it.

So, how do you deal with this? I wish I could tell you that you stop getting embarrassed or that you stop feeling like a late bloomer, but that would be a lie. I wish I could tell you that you won't think about just entering a relationship so you can say that you had one and use the excuse of bad relationship to not date (because it feels like people understand that a lot more than never having had a relationship). Please know that it is okay for you to choose to enter a relationship when you are ready to love someone else fully and not because you feel like you have to.

But, here are some things you can do and will get more comfortable doing. You can tell them to fuck off. You have the right to refuse to answer and to walk away. Your choices are not up for debate or negotiation. In high school people always tell you that you don't have to do anything you're not ready to do, but why does this change when you enter your twenties? You don't have to explain to ANYONE why you're not ready to enter a relationship.

My queen, you are still a queen regardless of what your relationship status is. Don't let anyone single shame you (and trust me girl, you know they do)! Your life is your journey and you take those steps when you are ready. So, while others may judge you and make you feel embarrassed, know that there is nothing wrong with you. Honor your own desires, not anyone else's.

Syd Mills:https://www.redbubble.com/people/vetyr?asc=u#_=_

Alaina Ferguson: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LainyArt?ref=l2-shopheader-name

*I usually find it so hard to find the artists for images I found on google, but this time I was able to find them through some deep searching. I have also linked their websites if you are interested in their amazing work.

10 Facts about me: Who the F**k is writing this blog?

Hello!

I am buzzing off of coffee right now, and I have decided that it is Sharlene selfish time. I'm going to write a post that I think is super fun. I love all of my readers so much, and I think that my blog posts really reveal a lot about me. However, I want you all to know a bit more about my personality and random bits, not just me when I want to inspire or share my pains and worries. So, I am writing this post, which, as the title suggests is 10 completely random facts about me.

1. I'm hyper sensitive to caffeine. Like I can feel euphoric and high as hell if my coffee is strong enough. The flip side of that is I can "have a bad trip" and get a shit ton of anxiety if I have too much or if the coffee was too strong. Always a no for espresso.
2. Sticking to the theme of phobias, I also mildly have spectrophobia and Trypophobia. I describe spectrophobia as the fear of ghosts to extent that you are also afraid of mirrors. However, the formal definition is simply a fear of mirrors. Girl, I'm scared of what's inside of the mirror, or like what if my fucking soul gets stuck in it?
   

Look at these pictures and tell me that shit ain't scary. Now, in the day time I'm mostly okay, but at night it's an oh hell no from me. That is also why mirrors do not exist outside of the bathroom for me. The holes things just makes me want to throw up because it reminds me of maggots. 

3. Once when I was studying abroad in London, a monk said that I had a very peaceful energy and that is the best compliment that I have ever received. 

4. I'm naturally a really happy person (most of the time, because I am a human). So much so that I randomly burst into fits of laughter at absolutely nothing or something that happened years ago which makes me feel like a lunatic. 

5. I'm really into crystals and totally believe in their energy and ability to heal. 

This is me at any crystal shop. I want an entire room made out of them.

6. I love listening to recorded live music. Concerts are great and all, but I love hearing the artist sing live and the energy of the crowd from the comfort of my home.

7. I call every animal baby. I could see a full grown cow and I will still say, aww, cow baby. 

8. I make lots of random noises but my favorite is bagh which I grunt when I am excited or anxious. 

9. I am an introverted extrovert. Like I am reluctant to go out, but once I do, I stay out 'till the sun comes up and never want the party to end. I get so hyped, but I then need to recover from the experience for a bit. 

10. Although I am afraid of ghosts, I am also very fascinated by them. I love ghost movies, ghost shows, ghost podcasts. But, I can't watch or listen more than a handful of times a year because it heightens my spectrophobia. 

The Other Side of Visualization: When Your Current Reality is Catching Up With Your New One

Hello My lovelies,

I hope that you are all doing well. I wanted to come on here, to do what I always do, which is brain dump everything that is on my mind. In today's post, I want to talk about what I am experiencing as the flip side to visualization. Let me first be clear by saying that I absolutely love visualizing. It has undoubtedly made my life better, made me feel more self-assured and motivated me to work towards my dream. What I am struggling with is when your reality is still catching up to your new reality.

So, I have been envisioning my dream life and getting very clear about what I want for the past several months. I have gotten so good at it, that in my heart and soul, I feel like it's already mine. Now, before you think I'm a lunatic, let me also say that this feeling is being fueled not only by my endless faith in myself and the universe, but by the actions that I have taken to make my dream life my reality.

The one thing that is still a part of my waking life and not my dream life is the fact that I still work full-time in an office that is not my own.

While I absolutely love my jobs, and am unbelievably grateful that I get to do the very things that I have been working towards, I feel like being a worker is not my destiny. What I wanted then and what I want now have changed, as I have embraced my inner power. That feels weird to say, but it's true for me and so many others. I'm working towards running my own empire and I love it so much that I just want to throw all of my time into doing it.

However, I'm still in the phase where I am developing product and building my beautiful audience, so there is no profit yet. While I want to throw myself into my dreams full time, my current reality is that I'm not at the place where I can do that quite yet (although I will be very soon).

This is where the issue lies, because while I love my jobs, I don't love them as much as I love my empire. I worry that my bosses and co-workers can feel that. I mean, I put in the same amount of hard-work and take pride in what I do, but I don't take my work home with me because my empire is home with me. I leave work and then I work on me, and I don't feel like I have to give that up. In my mind, I have already moved on.

I consider myself somewhat of an empath, and I worry that others can feel that I am starting to view my day job as a nice means to an end, but just a temporary situation. I would hate for my bosses to think that of me, because I do care about the work and put a lot of effort into it, just not on my own time.

Ugh, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm in this weird transition phase and it just gets harder to be at work, because I don't see it as a part of my future reality and I am so in love with my empire. Is it arrogant to say that my time is no longer for sale if it doesn't go towards my goals and dream life?

There's no helpful advice in this post; no tips and tricks. I just wanted to share with you this aspect of my life and let any of my readers know who are also feeling this that they are not alone. It is hard, but it is temporary. Until then push forward and in the words of Kanye West "Get down girl, go 'head get down."

And to my beautiful Queens, It's okay for you to feel like you're a boss, not a worker. Take your throne, babe.

Diet, Mood and Your Metabolism

My Lovely Readers,

Irony is the fact that I am writing a blog post about health while eating a bag of cheez-its. You know, it's about balance, not restriction.

Grab thyself a snack, because this is one long ass (but important) story.

My mood has been absolute shit, and I get the strong feeling that it is (partially) because my diet and exercise is shit.

Four years ago now, I lost fifty pounds. And you know what the crazy part was? I wasn't actively trying to do so. I was a freshman in college, and looking to get into new hobbies that would allow me to be around people (living so far from home was a tough transition at first). My new hobby became going to the gym (mostly because there was free cable, but also because there was always several people there.) Thankfully, I am also one of those people who feels the immediate high from working out.

I worked out for two hours every night and it wasn't difficult, because I geniuenly enjoyed doing it. I became a happier person, and loved my new body. I felt confident in who I was, comfortable going out and really came into myself.

Of course, once I noticed how much weight I had lost (I only began to weigh myself when I realized that my clothes were now twice my size), I became obsessed with results. This is where things started to go wrong. I eventually hit a plateau, when it felt like I couldn't lose any more weight regardless of what I did. So, I got comfortable in my body and focused more on building relationships. This essentially meant that my diet went to shit and I stopped exercising as frequently (hello eating out, lots of drinks and late night parties and pizza stops).

Last year, I decided that I would recommit to my health, as my mental health began to suffer. But, surprise, I still couldn't lose weight (but of course there was no difficulty in gaining it). What was going on? I was eating healthy, I was counting my calories and my macros, and I was incorporating variety into my workouts (no more cardio monkey for me), but lo and behold, my weight wouldn't move.

This is when I learned about your metabolism. Although I had stopped consciously eating healthy, I still strived to keep my calories in the 1300-1500 range (closer to 1300) and to work out at least twice a week. As it turns out, your body is very efficient, and can adjust itself to functioning at a lower caloric intake.

What does that mean? It means that even though I was eating low calorie, my body was still like fuck you, bitch because it adapted. So, I gave up, but this time with intention. I knew that I needed to break my bad habits with food, and to develop a new relationship with the idea of a healthy lifestyle. This could no longer be about looks or size. I sought out to teach myself a lesson and to rebalance my body.

So, I INTENTIONALLY let my diet go to absolute shit. I stopped working out, I let myself eat whatever I wanted, I stopped counting calories and macros, and I essentially let my body know that we were not in starvation mode. I did this for about five months or so. Before you ask, yes, I did gain some weight. But, I also gained clarity and new motivation.

Now, it is a lot easier to stay motivated to work out and to incorporate healthier options into my life. I stopped stuffing my face with ice cream and soda and candy because I no longer crave it.

And here is why I think that happened. I let myself eat like shit, and started to feel like shit. My mood sucked, my clothes didn't fit, my face felt full and I was just sad and angry. If I had a day where I ate healthy and worked out, then I instantly felt better. This is where I learned what moods and exercises boosted my mood.

I'm the kind of person that is really affected by a poor diet and lifestyle. It's like my body and my mind just can't work optimally if my exercise and diet isn't where it needs to be. I feel sad, angry, lethargic, unmotivated, moody and just like a big pile of garbage.

If you, like me, are extremely affected by your diet and lifestyle and found yourself hitting a wall, I would ask you to think about these areas of your life. Find fun ways to change this, take it easy on yourself, and re-evaluate your motivation. The experience could be truly life-changing. Of course, please do seek help if you feel like you need it. Diet and exercise made a huge difference in my life, but some people are dealing with deeper issues that require professional support.

That is all my queens. I just wanted to talk about this for anyone else who is struggling with this issue and feeling trapped and or lost when it comes to their health and mood. It's hard to be a queen if you feel like the dirt on her shoes. Let's all take this journey together, and know that I am rooting for you.

P.S. How cool is this globe?

Spring Wardrobe Revamp Inspiration

Cozy Corners and Spring Cleaning

Hello Loves,

I hope that you are all doing well and that it is getting warmer (for those of us entering Spring and Summer). So, I am about 5 hours deep into spring cleaning and the funny part that's not what I meant to do. I just looked around the house and realized how fucking dirty and cluttered it was.

No wonder that I couldn't get my thoughts together, lacked the motivation to do anything and had difficulty understanding the most basic things. Once I had a friend over, and I said: "My room is a mess cause my life is a mess." No apologies necessary and just blunt AF.

LOL and that is still true today. Except now, I can see that this is also true in the reverse. If your home is a mess and you feel scattered and out of place, you might be surprised by how cleaning can help. Of course, I'm not saying that this a cure all, but I am saying that stepping over dirty laundry, having your counters covered in a questionable substance and your closet looking like the dump probably isn't helping. P.S. that actually is what my house looked like. Yes, I can be a slob. No judgement!

I feel so much more centered after getting rid of a third of my wardrobe and throwing out all of the makeup that I didn't like and were well past the expiration date (yes, your makeup does expire!). Even my home has a different energy because while it is usually clean, it hasn't ever truly been organized.

Anyway, I also want to show you my freshly organized office and library! I want you to see more of my life and who I am outside of my writing, so I really hope that you enjoy this post. 

Clearly, I love Halloween, because it is nearly Easter, and I still have this out. I just feel that it's important to put elements of things that I love into my life. This bookshelf used to be the place where I just threw everything and it made me sad to look at it. Now it's just full of things that I love and is a much more accurate representation of my life. As you can tell, I love Harry Potter, Supernatural (although I have long stopped watching for moral reasons), shoes and scents. 

I'm not going to explain this shelf by shelf because it will bore both you and me to tears. Instead, I will select bits and pieces. The book on top is World Vegetarian, for fun veggie based meals. The little pink jar with the heart is filled with images of things that I want to manifest and motivational quotes. I have the shot glasses, but I no longer keep alcohol in my house, although I love the art of making a cocktail. And the shelf with all of the cards are beautiful things that people have given me, my graduation cap from undergrad and two cards I wrote myself to remind myself where I am going in life and to always be grateful. 

Now on to my office! First, is my crown because I always have to remind myself of who I am. On my desk are the things that I use the most. This includes my two journals and my planner. I also have my aloe vera plant, some pretty pink and white roses and my crystal alter (for good intention and positive energy). And, I wouldn't be me without a touch of halloween. I also keep my vitamins next to my desk because the vitamins I take are all meant to help me center myself. Like Rhodiola for calmness, Ginkgo for focus and B12 for mood. 

What you can't really see is what is inside my desk which is all of my art supplies and cards that I use to send people handwritten notes. Always important to show love and remind people that they are appreciated. 

My desk is the place I go to both unwind and to make moves. This may seem counterintuitive, but I am all about balance, and I like having everything in my office because once I am done working, I can just pull out my paints, or my clay or my oils and unwind. I also sometimes get the biggest inspiration from my creative downtime.

I just wanted to show you these spaces because I feel like they are a deep reflection of who I am. Plus I am really proud of the fact that both spaces are cleaned and organized. Thank you so much for reading this blog. I love you all, and I will see you in my next post.