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On Depression: Overcoming Low Self Esteem
[Guest Post by Tara Burke] – I struggled with depression during my teenage years — I felt that I had nothing to show for my life; nothing to offer anyone. While recently at a seminar for performing arts and missions, one seminar attendee asked the question of how to check one’s pride when receiving accolades and attention. This question stirred another one in me–what about when someone’s pride isn’t the issue? What about when the issue is whether they are any good at all? While I kept a happy face, I never told anyone how I really felt. I felt like a failure–a Christian wasn’t supposed to be depressed! All…
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On Anxiety: Why I Overeat
As long as I can remember I’ve had anxiety, which is why I overeat. In Junior High, my parents took me to doctor after doctor and they all agreed–I had hypoglycemia. The solution was to carry around extra snacks or protein with me to stabilize my blood sugar when it dipped. The problem was it dipped often. No matter how much food I ate I was always hungry. Day after day, I prayed to God and asked him to stop my hunger. When eating higher amounts of food didn’t work–I became even more anxious. I was afraid to eat because I didn’t want to get fat. Even as a young…
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How to Start Journaling
Here are a few tips on how to start journaling daily. First, watch the video and then read the tips! 1. Start with, “Dear God” instead of “Dear Journal” or “Dear Diary.” As I said in the video, life is busy and there isn’t a lot of time to write fluffy things or draw hearts and rainbows in your journal. Use your journal instead to be intentional during your quiet time or devotional time with God. 2. Journaling Brings Healing I didn’t start out to be a writer or published author. In fact, I wanted to be a high school math teacher (algebra). It’s kind of cool to look back…
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10 Tips Surviving Singleness
10 Tips :: Surviving Singleness Through The Holiday Season. Before I met my husband, December was the most depressing month of the year for me. That’s why I’ve decided to host this series. If that weren’t enough–I decided to bravely share what surviving singleness really looks like. I’ve never shared these before. They’re pieces of me. Pieces from my journal from the month before I met my husband. Although I was “content” I was more lonely than ever. Here goes nothing! “Having a really hard time waiting. Lord, I’m really struggling. Nobody to hide behind. No crushes. [No] internet crap. Like I am done. No more chasing boys. I can…
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I Love My Body – Fat Girls
I once thought I had this really great idea for one of my next books. I wanted to call it: For All The Fat Girls: Who Never Thought Their Dreams Could Come True. Whew. Long title. It took me even longer to realize it was kind-of-offensive. Whoops. Maybe that’s because I was used to carrying around the label that: I Was Fat. One thing I know: labels might lie, but clothing labels sure don’t! Just try putting on a size 9 when you’re a ballooned sized 24. Yep. That was me in high school. Last week, I mentioned in more detail about my health issues related to eczema, and how…
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I Love My Body – Stretch Marks
[Guest Post by Alice Sullivan] – Because of my stretch marks, I have struggled with body image for as long as I can remember. I started puberty early, had a woman’s figure by the age of twelve, and never felt comfortable in my own skin. I was always active with sports, but by the 8th grade, my soccer coach pulled me aside during a practice and said I was putting on too much weight. I might have weighed 150. At 5’4” I wasn’t rail thin, but I wasn’t that heavy. Still, I knew I needed to lose weight or I would get benched. So at age 13, I dieted for…
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I Love My Body – Anorexia
[Guest Post by Emily Wierenga] – I don’t know when a child typically becomes aware of her body–or even what anorexia means. For me, it was when a neighbor came over and commented on what a big girl I was. I was seven, and her tone was disapproving. So I went to the mirror and stared at the face of a girl with a mushroom cut and thrift-store clothes, and I tried to figure out what was wrong with me. Then I put my fingers around my wrist, and they just barely reached and that would become the way I measured my value. For the next six years, I’m not…
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I Love My Body – Esthetician
[Guest Post by Kayla Johnson] – I am an Esthetician–and let me tell you–celebrities are not perfect. Here’s the truth: To look like a celebrity you have to have a stylist who can look at your body and will dress you in the right clothes to conceal your flaws and accentuate your strong points. The book The Science Of Sexy shows you how to do this yourself, and is a great book! You will then need a professional makeup artist and hair stylist and be willing to sit in a chair for sometimes two hours to make you perfect. That’s right–two hours. After that you will spend thousands of dollars…
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I Love My Body – Green
[Guest Post by Arlene Pellicane] – It was a breakfast appointment with an unexpected blessing. A green blessing! My husband James and I were at a business breakfast a few weeks ago with a group of realtors–my husband is a realtor–in fact, he sold Renee and Marc their house! Across from me, there was a fit, thin, and very energetic realtor wife. She happened to be a fitness instructor and as we begin to chat, her enthusiasm for the color green came out! “In the morning, I take a cup of spinach, a cup of kale, and a cup of collard greens, mix that up with a few grapes for…
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I Hate My Body
[Guest Post by Sarah Miller] – I hate my body. Or at least, that’s what I would have said if you had met me two years ago, before God decided to radically change my life AND my body. I had always been overweight–and ridiculed for it. From the age of 8, I started putting on weight and never bothered to take it back off again. By the time I was a senior in high school I was 250lbs–and at a place where I didn’t care what I looked like. Every day I wore the same outfit: baggy jeans, baggy sweatshirt, hair in a ponytail. No variety. No desire to make…
