You keep losing your phone, locking your keys in the car, you’re constantly late and feel emotionally overwhelmed. You feel you can never pay attention, you start a lot of projects which you never end up finishing, and you are constantly feeling burnt out. Maybe someone in your life has told you “you might have ADHD” or maybe you’ve been hearing more about the signs and symptoms on Instagram or TikTok and something resonates in you. Whatever the reason, educating yourself is the first step in getting treatment for the symptoms that may be wreaking havoc in your life.

Today we will be talking all about ADHD and women, why it goes unnoticed, common symptoms, if a diagnosis matters, and resources to help you gain control of your life.

While it’s not always obvious, sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. We do things like procrastinate, push people away, drink excessively, set unrealistic goals, and break our own boundaries. We don’t do these things because we’re broken or crazy, and we don’t do them because we lack willpower or discipline. Self-sabotage isn’t about being lazy, it’s about you doing your best to cope. Sabotaging yourself, or being in control of certain areas in your life might give you a false sense of control. This might feel safer rather than allowing yourself to be vulnerable to being hurt by something or someone. Give yourself some compassion for trying to cope, and survive, however that has looked like. And remember, who you are and who you have been is not who you will always be. You are always allowed to start new and change old patterns and we’re here to help along the way.

What happens when we intentionally and consistently use affirmations? Big things start to shift! Affirmations help to deprogram harmful thought patterns. You know the ones. The ones that tell you you aren’t worthy, you aren’t enough, you don’t belong. It’s time for those thoughts to go! They aren’t yours.

When we practice using affirmations a shift in our emotions, habits, and thought patterns begin to happen, leading us to live in closer alignment to our true, compassionate selves.

You deserve to feel empowered, worthy, and authentic, and you don’t have to wait around for someone to give it to you! Empower yourself today by using these affirmations. As always, take what you need, leave the rest.

Most of us have heard of the body positivity movement, and while its intentions are good, unconditionally loving one’s body and appearance can seem unrealistic to a lot of people, especially when we consider that 80% of women and 34% of men reported being dissatisfied with their bodies That’s why we want to share a middle ground with you, body neutrality, a place where liking your body isn’t a prerequisite for feeling good about yourself.

According to philosopher Khen Lampert, radical compassion is a specific kind of empathy directed towards the distress of others. This type of empathy is called radical because it includes the inner imperative to change reality in order to alleviate the pain of others. According to Lampert, this state of mind is universal and stands at the root of the historical cry for social change. Radical compassion means total compassion with nothing excluded. Radical self-compassion applies this empathy to the self. Here are 3 practices for exercising radical self-compassion for the wellbeing of yourself and all living things.

We lie to ourselves for a few different reasons: to maintain comfort, to not disturb our self-image, to protect ourselves; and ultimately, to avoid suffering. As much as we try whether it be subconscious or not, our truth will come out. Holding in our truth can eventually cause symptoms like insomnia, eye twitches, nightmares, constant exhaustion, and overwhelming depressive episodes. When we deny our truth by lying to ourselves, we miss opportunities for growth and learning, and we all owe it to ourselves to be true and live our authentic lives.

Committing to living your truth isn’t easy, and you aren’t alone in your journey. We’re right here with you. Here are 5 common lies we tell ourselves and ways to combat them to live in alignment with your authentic self.

WHY CARDS?

We’ve talked before about how powerful positive affirmations are in our blog post You Are Not Your Appearance. They are used to help us decrease negative self-talk and improve self-esteem. There is even MRI evidence that suggests certain neural pathways are positively activated during self-affirmative tasks. (Cascio et al., 2016) The benefits of affirmations are abundant but how can we use them in our day-to-day life? 

It’s recommended to be consistent when practicing positive affirmations. It’s important to recite them often and biggest of all: believe them! A great way to use affirmations is by creating your own affirmation deck of cards. Conveniently sized, the cards can serve as pocket-book sized reminders of your worth wherever you are. Gift them to friends, leave them on a stranger’s car, or use your whole deck by shuffling them and choosing one card to focus on each day, week, or month. 

GROWING INTO OURSELVES IS A JOURNEY.

It can be painful, tricky, misleading, and complicated. It’s only natural to look to others to determine our place in the world. Many of us have grown used to defining our worth through our job title, the amount of likes we receive, grades, age, etc. And oftentimes we find ourselves looking to our appearance and comparing it to that of other people in order to place ourselves.

Self worth is how we view ourselves and the value that we believe we have. How we measure our worth is the important part.