"nothing more and nothing less, the goal is to stay close to anything that makes you glad you're alive" -unknown

When I was in treatment, we had a rule that we had to do one thing for ourselves every day. A “self-soothe” they called it. Being in program 10 hours a day often led to me going straight home in tears and then crying myself to sleep at night. It was so taxing on my body and mind! Sometimes, though, I would follow the rules and “self-soothe”. Usually for me this meant driving straight to the beach just in time to watch the sunset.

August 26, 2013

The more I distanced myself from my disorder, the easier it was for me to notice things that made me glad to be alive. One thing I try to remember is that every time we spend even one minute doing anything that makes us feel good, there’s one minute less to be taken by something that makes us feel bad.

Sometimes, when I'm feeling down, I really don't feel like doing anything at all.  But on days like that, I do know this- I've yet to regret the decision to choose something on my "glad to be alive" list anyway.

List of things that make me glad I’m alive:

• the beach
• sunsets
• the smell of the ocean
• my baby/husband/family
• pancakes for brunch
• flowers on my table & flowers outside