HELLO 2020

Whew 2019!  Chiiiiiile…so much to say about this year.  Each year usually comes with its fair share of highs and lows, but this one was a doozy.  It probably takes the cake for being one of my most challenging years to date.  But despite feeling like I was experiencing some of my darkest days, I close the year with a feeling of overwhelming gratitude. 

I questioned whether God existed, whether I was a good mother, daughter, sister, friend, lawyer, you name it.  My confidence at times felt like it had taken a permanent vacation and I felt depleted of the optimism I once had.  I continued to endure the struggles of co-parenting; I spent almost a year dating someone who, in the end, didn’t truly value me or hold the values that were most important to me.  My communication with many of my family and friends was inconsistent and spotty at best.  I could go on and on writing a list a mile long of all of the “struggles” I faced in 2019, but it’s not important because in the end, what felt like anxiety and heartache turned into remarkable life lessons.

As my four-year-old says, I would be “telling a Donald Trump” if I said I got to the other side of the 2019 mountain on my own.  During my toughest and darkest moments, God stepped in sending his angels to remind me that weeping may come at night but joy cometh in the morning!  I gave myself grace in accepting that I wasn’t my best self.  I leaned on my family and friends without humiliation, instead of trying to maintain an unsteady balance.  They showed me the true meaning of family/friendship/love, believing in me at times when I stopped believing in myself.  My favorite directive remains, “go in the bathroom, cry then buck up; you’re a black woman, we were built for this!” 

I leave 2019 behind filled with more gratitude, love, empathy, purpose and self-assurance.  To say that I’m absolutely proud of myself and thankful to God for using this final year of the decade to teach me to be more faithful and patient, and for reminding me that I am WAY stronger than I could have ever imagined I could be, is an understatement.

I’m entering the new decade and embarking on my 40^th trip around the sun with a renewed sense of confidence that I haven’t worn in a long time.  You know that feeling when you’ve studied really hard for an exam and you can’t wait for exam day to come because you know you’re gonna crush it?  Well that’s how I’m stepping into 2020. 

Grounded in my belief, and steadfast in knowing my worth, I’m aiming high in 2020 and taking along a few sage reminders:

1. Shoot your shot but know when it’s better to pass the ball.

2. Not everyone who is with you is for you.  Accept when your journey and season with someone has come to an end and be thankful for the role they played in your life.

3. God (or whatever you call your higher power) is in control and your steps are ordered.

4. Begin and end your days with gratitude, recounting and appreciating your blessings no matter how small.

5. Fake it until you make it.  Sometimes you have to pretend that you’re better than you feel until one day you realize you’re no longer pretending.

6. Trust your instincts.  Know when, and don’t be afraid, to say yes and no.

7. Be thankful for those who play a role in your joys, pains, highs and lows.

8. Don’t sweat the small things.

9. Laugh.

10. Pray.

11. Love.

2019, I owe you a debt of gratitude because you did your job, but I’m ready to crush the SH*T out of 2020!  Wishing you the best in making this next year and decade your greatest and most memorable one yet!

P.S. the blog is back! 

Awareness of Self: The Death of My Ego

Most of the time my brain feels like it’s a room covered in thousands of post-it notes filled with my thoughts. I’ve started to increase my awareness of the words written on those sticky notes and how they negatively impact my daily thoughts.

Okay, that sounded very philosophical. Let me break it down for you….

How It Started:

So there was this guy (yeah matters of the heart can always enlighten you) who I dated briefly. Having a keen sense of the type of guy that fits my personality and vision of life, I realized fairly quickly that he wasn’t my type. Nevertheless, I carried on ignoring the voice in my head that told me he wasn’t the one. The voice in my head told me that he checked all of my boxes and I was simply being my typical selective self. Despite the rational side of me trying to convince myself that he was a perfectly suitable guy, I just couldn’t feel the chemistry. Needless to say, my interactions with said guy unraveled and I was left feeling somewhat saddened, while my friends looked at me in complete confusion knowing what I failed to acknowledge until that point—I never liked the guy in the first place. But, how was I unable to see in myself what my friends were easily able to recognize? If you ask some of my friends, I just need to start smoking weed and be more chill.  Since that isn’t happening I searched for a more lasting solution, which I’ll expound on in a second. But first, let me explain further how my mind works.

The rational and academic side of my brain recognizes how blessed I am and how “accomplished” I appear to be by most standards. Yet, oftentimes I silently struggle with knowing what I think I need to feel happy, worthwhile and fulfilled. Sometimes, I think it’s having a successful career that feeds my passion, and other times I think it’s acquiring more wealth. Then there are moments when the need manifests itself in believing that my happiness and fulfillment will be achieved once I am married with children—until I speak to my friends who are married with kids. Although logically, I know that these desires will likely not cause me to reach the apex of happiness, it doesn’t stop the needs from creeping into my mind and lodging itself onto a permanent sticky note. This misperception was what precluded me from accepting that this guy was simply neither what I needed nor wanted.

So I decided to dig a little deeper. What was causing my unsettling feelings of dissatisfaction and uncertainty? I took the time to go into my head and consciously observe my daily thoughts. I focused on the sentences that replay in my mind while feeding my consciousness about who I am, what I want and how I approach the world. These were the subliminal reflections that penetrated my mind but were oftentimes not verbalized. I quickly realized that these thoughts were distinct from who I outwardly believed myself to be.

I perceive myself as a confident, self-assured woman; a person who not only knows what she wants out of life, but is well on her way to accomplishing it. I am smart, talented and sociable…I am blessed. So what is the problem? Why were my subconscious thoughts not always reflecting the Superwoman I felt I projected to the world? How could I rewire my mind to align itself with my outward beliefs?

The Realization:

I was determined to find the root of the problem. And after some reflection, I landed on three distinct letters that summed it up: E-G-O.

Our ego doesn’t only cause us to have an inflated sense of self. It can also cause us to create positive and negative mental distortions. Our emotions such as sadness, fear, anger, anxiety impatience and frustrations stem from our egos (I’m not that brilliant, this fact came from an Eckhart Tolle book I read).  I started to notice that my Ego (it’s capitalize because it has a life of its own) manifested itself in almost all of my thoughts. For example, sometimes I think exclusively about my shortcomings and overlook my positive qualities; this is a negative distortion caused by my Ego. Other times I disregard positive facts when they don’t align with my negative thought. For instance, when someone pays me a compliment—while I thank the person, I think to myself that he is only saying it to spit game. Or when I blame myself for something going wrong and ruminate on what I could have done better, while never fully recognizing that the real shortcoming was in the other person–like the guy I mentioned above.

So I finally recognize what needed to be done. It was time to rewrite some of those sticky notes in my head! But first I had to learn to separate my Ego from my true self.

Goodbye Ego:

I’m not going to profess that I have overcome the challenge of clearing the negative sticky notes from my mind, but at the very least, I am learning the importance of standing in my truth. I am becoming more cognizant of my feelings because most of them stem from my Ego, which is the driving force behind most of my perceptions.  It’s still a work in progress, and I haven’t conquered it, but I know that I am in complete control of my thoughts. Therefore, I am now able to decipher when my Ego is playing a role in how I am feeling at any given moment.

So the feeling of sadness for said guy lasted very briefly when I thought about why I was sad.  It wasn’t because I actually liked him; my sadness was really driven by a deeper fear of being alone.  When I acknowledged that truth, I was able to rewire that distorted sticky note in my head and momentarily kill the Ego.  I am not alone. I have an amazing support system of special people in my life.  Therefore, the notion of loneliness was merely a negative distortion and not my reality.

My Ego also tried to emerge one day while teaching a law school class. During the beginning of my lecture, the 30 blank faces staring at me caused my mind to start racing.  It was as if I was speaking to them in Arabic or some other foreign language they didn’t understand.  My (Ego’s) immediate thought was, this is my fault, I made this lecture too complicated for them.  I quickly retracted the distorted thought, took a deep breath and asked, “why am I seeing blank faces?”  A student quickly responded that the syllabus had stated that I was covering a different topic that day.  Crisis averted and Ego eliminated—my lecture wasn’t the problem!

Lesson:

What I’ve learned from killing my Ego is your thoughts are way more powerful than what we verbalize.  They are like post-it notes permanently stuck to your mind.  When we allow our ego to manipulate and distort our thoughts, we give life to things unnecessarily.  Saying farewell to my Ego has been difficult–it was such an integral part of who I was.  It initially left me wondering how to fill its void.  But as I’ve cleared some of the distorted post-it notes from my mind, I’ve  acquired a sense of peace and comfort in learning who I really am and I’ve learned to stop taking myself and life so seriously.

 

 

 

Happy Anniversary!

Four years ago (as of yesterday) I entered the blogosphere. What started as a challenge to be less guarded thereby blogging my thoughts and opinions, have turned into four years of free therapy. Blogging about the things that are on my mind and using my readers as a sounding board has been truly rewarding and special. I’ve been able to share my thoughts and accept criticism in the process. The blog has also functioned as a time capsule capturing great memories and angsts in my life.

This blog started off with only a handful of people knowing who was behind each post. I posted fairly infrequently due to my demanding schedule and shared just a tidbit of how I really felt about certain topics. It has since morphed into more than 1500 followers, many of whom send me kind words irrespective of their position on what I have posted. I’ve even posted pictures showing you the face behind the words (that’s huge!!!). I took the time to go back and read every post since day 1 and enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

I made resolution to try to post more often and I’ve posted more in the past year than I have in previous years, so I’m on track to keeping my promise. Thank you to all the readers who have made the past 4 years of airing my issues feel as if I was always talking to close friends. I hope you all continue to read and send me your thoughts (preferably by commenting below versus via e-mail) or topics you’d like to see me write about.

Cheers to 4 years!

A Letter to My 21-Year-Old Self

Dear 21-Year-Old Self:

I remember you like it was yesterday.  You were fresh out of college and ready to take on the world.  I must say, looking back, you have done a good great job!  I know at times it didn’t seem easy as you were growing into becoming your own, but knowing what I know now, there is so much I wish I could have said to you.  Before I start, let me just say that I’m still learning and the one thing I know for sure is that I’ve only reached the tip of the iceberg in what I have uncovered about life.  I have lots more to learn and will continue to share it along the way.  For now, here goes…

Life

Never live life as if you’re watching it from the sidelines—it will pass you by.  Don’t lose your passion and continue to chase your dreams—they will sustain you in times of uncertainty.  Trust what has helped to get you this far.  Remain vicariously happy and don’t worry about feeling like you must have it all together because you still won’t have life figured out in your thirties.  Yes, it’s possible for you to gain weight so continue to exercise and eat better.  Stop manipulating the texture of your hair–embrace every coily strand of it.  Make sure your graduate degree is worth it because those loans will be with you for a very loooong time.  Continue to feed your desire to see the world and all the beauty that it possess.  You’re a little uncertain right now, but your confidence will grow.  There will be additional moments of uncertainty but never let it rattle your confidence—you. are. smart. So far, you have lived your life like a textbook doing all the right things to become “successful” by your parents’ standards.  Let your hair down and become more of a risk-taker.   The moment you care less about what others think and stop worrying about missteps, the happier you’ll be.  Step out of your comfort zone.  What’s the worse that can happen?  It’s never too late to start over.  Every day you wake up gives you an opportunity to create a better you.  The more you practice being patient, uncomfortable and alone, the happier you will feel.  Stop thinking too much, the answers will come when you least expect it.  Your instinct will improve with age so never forget to trust your gut.  Surround yourself with people who enable you to laugh more; your demeanor will always be serious, but sometimes laughter will be the best way for you to get through.  Make peace with your past and when you feel lost, return to your center–meditate and pray.  Life is a beautiful challenge.

Family/Friends

Cherish your family, especially your parents—one day, you will look up and realize they are aging.  Remember that the aren’t going to be around forever.  You’ll start to sound more and more like your mother as you get older.  Don’t let it scare you because you will also have a greater appreciation for her wisdom.  At some point, you’ll stop saying that you do things to make your parents happy and will start to say you do it to make yourself happy.  It will be difficult at times for your parents and siblings to not view you as the baby–be patient with them and accept that in their hearts, you will always be the baby.  Never stop telling your loved ones that you love them.  Sometimes the lines between networking and creating genuine friendships become blurred.  As you grow and change you may lose a few friends—don’t be confused or disappointed. You will eventually learn that there’s a big difference between friends and people you merely know.   Don’t pay attention to the friends who mock you for not liking hard liquor, they will soon appreciate that your palate was built for wine.  It’s okay to not care about what everyone thinks of you—accept that you won’t be liked by everyone, but will be very loved by some.  Your family will always be your friends and some of your friends will feel like family.

Love

I don’t have this love and marriage thing all figured out yet, but what I’ve learned thus far is: love is durable but trust is fragile.  Learn to trust others and live your life in a manner that others are always willing to trust you.  Most importantly, always love and trust yourself, especially when facing adversity—you will only attract the love you think you deserve.  Don’t expect to be married by 30–you simply aren’t ready.  Use these years to experience all that life has to offer and don’t hesitate in kissing a few frogs.  I know you wish you dated more and spent less of your years with the same guy, but I’m here to tell you there’s not much to look forward to dating in your thirties.  Bu at the very least, you’ll have a few more stories to laugh about.  When you meet “the one” your relationship will feel easy and almost effortless—relationship drama is for the birds.  Your heart is more resilient than you think, don’t be so afraid to give it to someone who seems willing to appreciate and respect it.  Don’t worry, he will love what you think are flaws in yourself.  When it happens—and it will happen—try to ignore the voices around you that ask you how you’re going to balance a successful legal career and a marriage. It will simply scare you into feeling like you have to choose.  Love is not what’s complicated, people are.

 

What advice do you have for your 21-year-old self?