dreams

February 3, 2020 by Elle

ELLE’S EVERY WEEK (pt. 4)

Hi!!!

It’s time for the weekly update, y’all. 🙂

So, where to begin?!

I’m a lil’ over few weeks back into school and semester 2 has got me soooo pumped up, y’all. I am SO excited for this semester and feel so ready for all the adventures & laughs & amazing moments & tough moments & just everything that’s in store. I’m realizing more and more that life is to be lived NOW, not at a moment in the future, and I want to soak up each and every day.
I’ve been forcing myself to include an episode of TV here & there into my weekly routine. I know, that sounds really silly. But when you’re very much a go, go, go/never sit down type of person, watching an episode of TV is one of the few things that really gets me calm. I put my phone away, lay down in my PJs, and watch an episode of Sex and the City (it’s not all about a bunch of sex, don’t stress!) for 30 min and I just feel calmer. So yes, I’ve been forcing myself to watch a lil’ TV and it’s doing good for me.
Stillness/meditation. Two things I have really been wanting to learn more about and get more into. I downloaded a meditation app a few days ago and have yet to use it (oopsies!) but am planning to integrate meditation into my daily schedule. My dilemma is that every time I try to meditate–whether it be during yoga or elsewhere–my brain does not shut off. It’s like every little thought that had even remotely crossed my mind for the last 100485985980 days come swirling in like a tornado. Does anyone else understand what I’m saying? Like, I’m trying to “still” my mind and then I start thinking about going scuba diving with great white sharks in a cage & my future wedding floral arrangements & what I am going to eat for dinner next Thursday night. That all being said, I NEED TO MEDITATE AND PRACTICE MEDITATION. I will update you guys as I start this & hopefully get better at it.
On the topic of stillness, I listened to an incredible podcast with Tom Bilyeu and Ryan Holiday all about using stillness to become the best version of yourself and improve your outlook on life. Link here.
The holidays and Christmas and New Years and all of it made me SO HAPPY. But I also was so ready for the new year and 2020 and to get going with a routine again and I just have this feeling that 2020 is going to be so good. When I choose to put my focus on what is good, I see just how much good there is around me. I trust that even though it won’t be perfect, God still has so many good things in store. & I so strongly believe that He does for you, too!
Below I put in a bunch of pics from my girls’ trip to Austin & other fun random things!!! 🙂

Have the best week! Maybe we can all try meditating together?! LOL but for real, let’s do it. xo

Always,

Elle

January 30, 2020 by Elle

Like many of you, I read the news about Kobe Bryant, his sweet daughter, and the other passengers who died this past Sunday with a broken heart. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking & praying & reflecting… just trying to understand how life could be so fleeting; gone in the blink of an eye. These people were so loved and cherished and have made such impact on this world.

I’m writing this post at my dorm room desk with tears streaming down my face… my heart so badly hoping that someone reads this and it changes his or her life. Today I’m writing about “one day”.

I used to be an extremely guarded person. If I’m being honest, it is my natural inclination to put walls up and show people all the good & seemingly perfect things going on and keep the hard things to myself. I’ll work and work and work on something until I can nearly perfect it, and only then will I share it with the world. Everyday, I have to fight this natural inclination of mine and choose the path of bravery and vulnerability. Maybe you, like me, feel sometimes like you’re walking through life in a “safety” zone; in a place that is comfortable and doesn’t risk hurt or failure or any of the hard things. But you guys, this path of always doing what’s comfortable and safe is not fully living. Coming from the once queen of guarded, I’m preaching to both myself and you that life is so much sweeter and full when we take the walls down.

When I heard the news earlier this week, I had a moment of tremendous clarity. I had a moment where I realized that my life is happening right in front of me and if I don’t consciously choose the path of bravery and courage, I may get to a day that’s my last and wonder what could have been. Could I have fulfilled that dream of mine if I wasn’t so scared of what those people thought of me? Could I have taken a leap of faith in that area of my life and risked it all? The “coulds” continued on & on until I decided to sit down and write this post.

Life is not guaranteed. I try to be the most uplifting and positive person possible but today I had a moment of this reality. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. If you knew you wouldn’t have tomorrow, what would you do today? Who would you call, what would you share with the world? Who would you tell you love them? How would you talk to yourself when you look in the mirror at your body that you’ve always critiqued? What leap of faith would you take?

We all have answers to those questions. But if I’m honest, sometimes I take for granted that I don’t have unlimited time to fulfill the things God has put on my heart to do in this world. I don’t have unlimited time to tell my people I love them, to hug them tight, to write & create and hopefully encourage people through how I live my life.

If you, like me, catch yourself thinking or saying “one day” to anything in your life, I want to encourage you to choose TODAY. Right now is all that is guaranteed. Start the blog, write the first chapter of the book, tell that person you love them, create something new, wear what you want, love your body and love yourself. Your life is worth far too much to let fear keep you from living in a state of waiting and wishing the time to go by so you can get to that “one day” where it finally all clicks and somehow you start living.

To whoever is reading this: you are SO IMPORTANT. Your life is so valuable. Let’s all choose the brave thing, the hard thing, the courageous thing. Let’s live– not tomorrow, but today.

Today is the “one day”. Let’s live, sweet friend.

Always,

Elle

January 28, 2020 by Elle

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE NEW SEMESTER

I’m back, y’all!!! After a little break to dream/pray about the direction I want to take the blog, I’m back! <3 I missed being on here so, so much, but I knew I needed a short season to be intentional about taking time to create a vision for what this blog could be. Writing/communicating are my outlets and I love being able to hopefully just encourage one person through my posts. (And to all the people who sent me the sweetest texts & DMs about missing my posts and hoping to read from me soon, I love you guys! Those messages meant the world to me.)

Now, today is January 27th… a lil’ over three weeks since January 1st & allllll the motivation to start the new year strong. So often I get to January 1st, am so excited to for all my new goals and then a few weeks pass and I feel like I need an extra push of motivation to keep on going. Today, I hope I can bring you that extra encouragement I, too, need! It’s 2020 & time is flying by & I don’t know about you, but I wanna soak up each and every moment of this year and make it the best one yet. Let’s do this thing!

Regardless of any goals or resolutions you may have set this year, I want you to remember that what you do does not define you. You are loved & chosen & worthy just as you are, regardless of how often you follow through with what you set out to do in the new year.

Now, I do believe that we as human beings are made with innate gifts & strengths that we can use to bring light & good to this world. I can be grateful where I am & recognize my worth comes from nothing but God (still need to remind myself of this daily) & still choose to strive for more in my life, whether that be better grades or better health or growing my blog or being a better friend/sister/daughter, etc. Complacency with where I am, if I’m being honest, makes me sad & tired. In my goal-setting and prayers about how God can use me this year, I find hope & excitement for what is to come.

This semester, I want to encourage you to dream big. I know so often we hear that, but truly, I want to encourage you to step fully into who you were made to be. Your dreams don’t have to look like mine or hers or his or anyone else’s; your dreams are yours and whatever dreaming big looks like to you is what I want to encourage you to do. Dreaming big could look like wanting to write a book or deciding you want to start taking art classes or deciding on a career path or maybe just deciding that this is the semester you are going to love your body. You were made with so much purpose & your big dreams are needed in this world!

This semester, let’s work to ELIMINATE fear. I intentionally made that word big because I have to remind myself to choose the brave & bold path every.single.day. Fear might look like the voice in your head that says “but what if they don’t like me?” or the voice that says “what if something goes wrong?”. When I started taking inventory of the voices of fear in my head, I noticed something they almost all shared in common: the “what if”. When I became aware of this, I was able to stop myself in my tracks and say “okay, yes, this could go wrong… but what if it goes RIGHT?!” What if it goes right, friends?! How amazing that could be! And even if it does go wrong, we get to learn & grow from it. Do not be afraid of what could go wrong when there is so much that could go right (preaching to myself here)!

And finally, this semester I want to encourage you to love yourself fully. Take time to take care of yourself. Rest, play, laugh, smile, dance. Journal & reflect on how far you’ve come and how strong you are. Find something you love about yourself every time you look in the mirror and acknowledge it. Has anyone ever told you how BEAUTIFUL you are?! Ultimately, life is to be lived & how sweet it would be if we could live fully this semester.

I’m cheering you on <3

Always,

Elle

August 30, 2019 by Elle

STARTING THE SCHOOL YEAR STRONG

Happy almost September, y’all! This time of year always brings about a lot of bittersweet emotions for me… the sweet being the loads of happiness and excitement for the new school year ahead and a bit of sadness that the summer is ending. Truly though, I do believe that the bittersweet moments of life are some of the most meaningful and impactful. They grow us and shape us and help us recognize that a great life includes a whole lotta good with some bitter in between, and that’s just part of what makes it so special. Just like we use bittersweet chocolate to bake something delicious (like choco chip cookies), the bittersweet moments of life, I believe, are a part of what’s shaping us into something beautiful.

Okay, now that I got my deep philosophical thought off my chest, let’s get down to business. How do we start the school year strong & make it the best one yet?!

For me– and I would assume most of us– each year brings about a new set of goals & challenges. This means that it is so, so important to take time to reflect on our strengths and weaknesses of the last school year and make adjustments for the year ahead. This process can take five minutes, or it can take a couple hours. However long you need! The key is to just take a bit of time to think & write out where you shined last school year and where there is room for improvement.

Next up is taking the strengths & weaknesses you just reflected on and turning them into intentional goals. Get some hot tea, your journal, and begin. When I sat down to reflect on my strengths and weakness from my freshman year of college, I recognized quite a few areas I shined in and some areas that weren’t too hot. For example… I really put myself out there!!! I met tons of new people, let go of a lot of fear of what other people thought of me, grew a lot in my faith, and developed an even stronger passion for helping people feel loved & connected & motivated to pursue passions of their own. Now, alongside the craziness of freshman year, I also had some areas that I definitely want to improve upon this year. One of these areas includes creating a bit more of a routine (I love to schedule just about everything in my life–including TV time– on my Google calendar) so that I feel more of a sense of stability throughout the week, all while still being able to have some flexibility and spontaneity. Another area I definitely want to improve upon is having a more consistent sleep/reading/downtime/rest/do absolutely nothing schedule. I want to journal more & just be still more… even watch a bit more TV (which I know for some people sounds like such a strange goal but I NEVER watch TV and it forces me to lay down and not be working on things for just a bit). A third area I want to improve upon is dedicating time in my schedule to more things I love to do (like writing & blogging) and upholding my commitment to myself as much as I uphold my commitments to others. I have about 100 more goals for this year but I’ll keep it short & sweet for ya & leave it at that. 😉

Now, once you have your strengths that you want to hold onto for the upcoming year and your areas that you want to grow and improve upon, it’s time to get those tools in place to make it happen! For me, scheduling everything in my Google Calendar, my Day Designer planner (link here), having a clean desk and living space, having my workout clothes set out, having my bible/journal/pen ready to go for my mornings, and having a playlist that gets me fired up are some of the essentials that I’m using this year to help me stay on track. For you, the tools might be completely different, and that’s SO okay! The key is to make sure you have your tools in place to keep you going strong.

I truly believe that if I’m not growing, I’m moving backwards, and if I’m not actively working on my goals, they aren’t gonna happen. This life takes work but oh, how grateful I am that we get the opportunity to use our unique gifts & talents to keep making each day better than the next. Being intentional about setting goals & dreams periodically throughout the year and reminding yourself of them daily is so, so important! Whether school has started for you or not, I want to encourage you to take a bit of time and plan for the year ahead. Write it all out or say it to a friend. You’re worth the work of becoming the best version of you & making this year AWESOME.

Always,

Elle

dreams

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