The last two weeks have been really emotional. Our situation is not ideal. I am very stressed about supporting a family of six and finding us a house to live in that is big enough for all us and I can afford on my own. My world is heavy.

 

My 40^th birthday is in two days. I am trying to do so much work right now to keep so many balls in the air at some point every day I have tears because I am “doing the best I can” and I am not sure I am doing enough. I am doing my best to stay mentally strong.

 

May is mental health awareness month. In this moment that brings so many things to the surface for me.  With all the chaos going on I truly feel blessed. On chemo days Billy and I have gratitude for the medicine that will cure him. We choose to try to look at what is positive and what “is” in this moment.

 

Last night this idea came to the surface for me and what turning 40 means. I had the most amazing energy session with Lesha Krantz Nelson. I have been so blessed to have a community of people around me that are trying to help me every day. When we finished, I felt as I always do. I just don’t know how to show gratitude and thanks in a way that my heart truly feels to the people who are holding me up right now. I feel like I walk around in a haze and I wonder if I even say thank you at times. After our session, I experienced the most amazing gift.

 This is what I wrote:

I stand alone in my darkness.
I stand alone in my fear.

I will promise to hold you, so your light won’t dim.
I will dry your tears.

I will try to find the time to pause and release the pollution from my mind.
I will be there when my children need to cry.
 
As my mind settles and my energy clears.
I realize I was never alone.
Every single one of you was always here.

 

For my 40^th birthday, I am going to try to say thanks and show gratitude every day in the month of May. May, mental health month, I will shift my perspective from the stress and the chaos to gratitude to someone or something that is helping me juggle all these balls in the air. They are helping me keep my vibration in a place I need to keep everyone around me in a healthy state of mind. I may not post. I may not say every name I should, but I know I am strong because of the army I have around me. My perspective is positive because of the love and light everyone shares with me every day. I am blessed and I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

 

May 1^st, 2019 Gratitude + Thank-You:  FAMILY

Thank you to Billy for trying to put me first even when you feel so ill. Thank you to his three sons for coming into my life and showing me another layer of love and support. Thank you to my children for being beautiful, positive souls in this world. Thank you to my Aunt and my cousins for dropping everything to help my kids when I need them to. Thank you to the Murphy’s for offering us so much support and helping us in ways I can’t even express with the correct words.  Thank you to all of my family.

May 2^nd, 2019

Gratitude + Thank-you: William Murphy

Can I tell you something just between you and me?
When I hear your voice, I know I'm finally free
Every single word is perfect as it can be
And I need you here with me
When you lift me up, I know that I'll never fall
I can speak to you by saying nothing at all
Every single time, I find it harder to breathe
'Cause I need you here with me

- Lyrics by Marshmellow + Chvrches 

Mykla and I are obsessed with this song. As we were screaming it on the top of our lungs last night I started to cry. The words couldn’t ring truer. Gratitude and thank- you every day to him. He has taught me so many lessons. He is fighting so hard through the darkness. His heart is open, and he is doing everything he needs to in order to get stronger and heal.

I am completely in love will all of this man and I feel blessed every day that he came into my life.

 

 

May 3rd, 2019

Gratitude + Thank-you: FOR THE LOVE I HAVE FOR MYSELF

 How many of say we love ourselves? I didn’t for a very long time. It left me in a pattern of self-destruction and toxic relationships that were always emptying my cup and never filling it back up. I loved myself enough to finally make changes and stand up for my worth. I loved myself enough to get sober. I loved myself enough to put my mental health first.

One of the messages I received today was “move away from the pain and leave it behind.” I am trying so damn hard. I keep asking lately “what is the lesson in this?” Yesterday was messy. This week was messy. I broke down and lost it. My skin was crawling. I was yelling. I was so angry. I try so hard to carry the world on my shoulders and there are these outside forces that just keep this tornado swirling around us constantly and sometimes I lose my footing and I get swooped in.

But then there it is…. the lesson right in front of me. I am not alone in this. I have the most amazing support system. It is okay that I get overwhelmed and upset, I am only human. I am so thankful for the people who pick me up when I break. I am so thankful that our family has help from others.

When I break, it does not equal self-destruction anymore. It doesn’t equal me trying to ignore the problems in front of me. I don’t go on a bender to try to forget everything, only to go down a dark tunnel of disaster with no end. All it means to me now is I need to stop. I need to reassess everything I need.  I HAVE everything I need. That means I just need to take a little time to fill my cup back up.

As my best friend put it last month. I level up today. I start a new chapter. This is 40. At the beginning of the year, I had set a personal goal of being in the best shape of my life on my 40^th birthday. Well, chaos hit. I have barely gone to the gym in 3 months. I looked damn good at 39! (ha ha this pic was taken last fall).

So, I didn’t reach my physical goal (yet!). But ­I can tell you this, I am in the best mental shape of my entire life. I still break but I am mentally stronger than I have ever been. For that I have gratitude. My whole life has been preparing me for this moment. I will get up tomorrow and fight harder than today. He will be okay. When he wins this battle, my cup will be overflowing.

May 4th, 2019
Gratitude + Thank-you: Friends + Supportive Parent Network

The saying it takes an army is an understatement. Lately, my life has been so overwhelming trying to juggle medical appointments, being the head of the household, two small children and work for myself, without my friends and the other parents helping me, I couldn’t make it all work. I appreciate every one of you who takes the time to support me and my children. I need you and I could not do it without you.
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May 5th, 2019
Gratitude + Thank you: For this moment

Those close to me know what transpired this week. If I wrote it all out most of you wouldn’t believe me. I somehow was cast as a lead character in a soap opera I do not want to be a part of. It has been chaos from all angles. As my aunt put it earlier “I am clearing a lot of shit right now”. …. Little did she know I am currently reading a book called “Clear your Shit”.

I am showing up universe. I am listening. I am thankful for this moment as I sit outside this coffee shop reflecting. I am a survivor. I always have and I always will.

 

May 6th, 2019
Gratitude + Thank-you: For today we are here.

I give thanks in that.

 

May 7^th, 2019
Gratitude + Thank-you: For my patience.

 

As I get older, I am able to stop, slow down and process the situations I am in. This tool alone can save so much self-destruction and grief. I allow people to steal my power. No matter how manipulative or emotionally abusive, I can slow down, process and not react.

 

May 8^th, 2019
Gratitude + Thank-you: For my Aunt

 

I have written before about our journey of growth and forgiveness. We have been through a lot together. Some of the hardest years of my life, I was not talking to her. We grew. We forgave. We support each other and our dreams. Little did we know but we were supporting each other even when we were not talking. They were lessons we both needed to learn. We are now business partners in a company that I know is going to do great things, Crystalline Tribe.

 

I love watching her help people realize their true gifts and giving them a different perspective. Her classes are more than self-love, forgiveness and learning about your intuition. They are all filled with tools to empower yourself so you can live your authentic life. I love being one of her students. She has come into her authentic self and she is teaching a community to as well.

( I missed a few days! I jotted words down in my journal but I decided to be authentic and not post just the words. Life gets busy! Time to start again. Nothing is perfect.)

 

May 13th, 2019

Chemo Day #4 - Gratitude and Thank you to everyone who has helped us financially over the last few months. This is an overbearing and unexpected situation. Without our family, support system and the wonderful businesses donating their time and helping us, we would not have made it. Thank you @bigdeluxetattoo @regalbarberco and now this Saturday @xoxo_hats_for_strength 
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Our family is blessed and I don’t have enough thank you’s in the world. 
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You can still register for the event this Saturday. Go to @xoxo_hats_for_strength to learn more. ❤️

May 14^th, 2019

Gratitude + Thank-you: My fitness community.

@saltlakepoweryoga, @mamaloves23, @rise_boxing, and @otfparkcity …. You have all supported me in a time that self-care unfortunately for me is the last thing on my list. Thank you for reaching out and giving me the push and support I need to keep myself strong. When I work out, I feel better mentally. When I work out, I can keep the anxiety at bay a little bit more. I can breathe a little bit easier. When I work out, I am a little bit stronger to take on the world around me.

 

July 10th, 2019

 

- Amanda ( @missdjlux ❤️)

 

I saw this alarming statistic on my social media feed this morning: 5.3 million women in the US with Alcohol Use Disorder. When I researched it, I realized that statistic is from 2015! Imagine what the number is today? Yet, here we are in 2019 and alcohol is still glorified everywhere around us, and we are taught that it is okay to be a part of our everyday life.

 

 

Alcohol is a depressant. It is not for everyone. If you are one of those people, you should not be ashamed to choose sobriety. As I stand here today, going through the most trying time of my life, I feel so blessed to have realized 500 days ago that to be the mom that I wanted to be I did not want alcohol in my life anymore.

 

 

Five hundred days sober today. I am proud to say those words. I am mentally strong. I almost lost the love of my life a few months back and now he has begun the journey of healing through chemotherapy this week. I feel all the emotions. The gratitude, the fear, the stress of how I will make it all work and the depression at night when I feel alone. Feeling all the emotions allows me to work through them. I can validate them; I can be gentle with myself and I can find solutions to the problems that can be fixed.

 

 

If I was drinking, I would be just trying to escape all the emotions. Then it would turn into this downward spiral of trying to escape but in reality, not being able to. Then it would lead to my own illness and falling apart in a time that I can’t. No more escaping. I choose to feel.

 

 

Billy and I talk every day (even before he was sick) about gratitude. Through his path of healing, we choose to focus on that. Gratitude for my support system. Gratitude for my family and friends. Gratitude for Billy fighting as hard as he can and doing everything in his power to heal. Today I have gratitude for my sobriety.

 

 

When I began my sobriety journey, I wasn’t completely sure why. When I continued, I wasn’t sure it would be forever. Today I know why. It was the beginning of my healing journey. I have gratitude for my life and where this path is leading me.

- Amanda (@missdjlux ❤️)

I know this is heavy right now especially before the Holidays, but there is truly only NOW. This moment is the only moment that really is, the past is gone, the future is completely unknown and this moment, in my NOW, I’m holding space that this can change and we can save a society of people that have been almost discarded. 

 

Do you wonder why we have so many drug addicts in our country, why so many people die from overdoses? The system is broken! Over the past couple of years, I have sat back and watched and shed tears as my son goes in and out of detox, back and forth with rehab. Every time it didn’t work out I would be heartbroken and think why doesn’t he want to get healthy? Why doesn’t he just stick with it?

 

Well, he is on the rollercoaster ride once again trying to do everything right and this time I’m trying to follow him every step of the way. Before Thanksgiving, he checked himself into detox. From the first phone call, I knew that he was pretty sick. His cough sounded horrible, he barely had a voice and he had a rash on his hand that was turning into ulcer sores. When he asked for medical treatment he was basically denied. He was told to sign up for the nurse that came in only on Mondays, 5 days away. He did that and was at the end of the list so was not seen on Monday. He was then told that he could check himself out of detox and go to the Clinic and then try to get back into detox the next day if there was a bed. HUH???? First of all, how many addicts do you know in the middle of detoxing can check themselves out, go to a clinic, spend the night on the streets and not use again sending themselves into another 7-10 day at least drug spiral? Simple medical care should be given to everyone.

 

Let’s think about this for just a moment, this is a sickness, period. No one understands this better than I. It affects some people and doesn’t others. Just like diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, cancer… It is a disease. Now, I have heard some people say that it isn’t the same because you have a choice whether or not you TRY alcohol, cocaine or even drugs prescribed by your DR. Well, all it takes is one time and if this disease is in your make up then you go down the rabbit hole and before you even realize you have the disease it is too late.

 

I’m one of the lucky ones that this disease did not get its deadly grip on, not because I didn’t TRY. When I was in my teens I drank alcohol, smoked pot, did cocaine and acid morning, noon and night. From the age of 15 to 20 I don’t think I lived 1 “sober” hour. I did more drugs than any one person should do in 20 lifetimes. But then I found out I was pregnant, and I stopped everything without even thinking twice about it. It was easy for me. The father of my baby, the man I got started on hardcore drugs, couldn’t quit and I didn’t understand why he couldn’t. Fast forward to 5 years ago when I had both of my knees replaced. I was on so many strong narcotics for over a year that the Dr. I saw a couple years ago was amazed that I didn’t have an opioid addiction. Some people don’t get diabetes or cancer even if they eat sweets every day or smoke 5 packs of cigarettes. Because it’s not in their make-up.

 

Imagine with me for just a moment, that a man is told he has lung cancer. We don’t look at cancer patients and say, and we never should say, well that’s too bad, you should have never tried cigarettes. Or, maybe you should have stayed out of the sun. When they relapse, and cancer comes back, we don’t turn them away and say too bad that didn’t work for you. We treat them, as we should, with empathy and compassion. We have fundraisers to try and help with their medical and daily living expenses.

 

Addicts are looked down upon, treated worse than criminals many times unless you have a lot of money. At a time when they need sympathy, compassion, and understanding we tend to attack them and put them down. When they get clean and are finally on a good path, they are many times sent out with no good tools to stay that way. Many of them, if they can get work, can only do so in jobs that are infested with drug usurers and addicts, making their struggle to remain clean and sober almost unbearable.

 

The system is broken and until it gets fixed and some changes are made, this problem is only going to grow. No one yet has been able to convince me that the pharmaceutical industry has a hand in this. It’s not like diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer, where they can rape the patients with the outrageous cost of prescription drugs. The only money that is made on addicts is treatment, so let’s fix them just enough so that they fall off and come back in another 6 months.

 

 

CBS did an article last year; drug overdose is now the leading cause of death in those under 50. It’s not getting better, it’s getting worse. It is below if you would like to read it….

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/overdoses-are-leading-cause-of-death-americans-under-50/

 

I know there are some good programs out there but there have to be more. The system needs to change, or this disease is about to wipe out a whole generation. I buy lottery tickets, not because I want a big house, fancy car or crazy jewelry and clothes, I buy lottery tickets because I want to BE that change! Will you BE the change with me?

 

- Celeste (@motherhealing 💖🙏🏻💗) 

Sober. The New Curse Word.

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