Somewhere along the line you may have changed, you may of stopped being your true self. Maybe you let people stick a finger in your face and tell you that you’re wrong, that you need to change. That you aren’t strong enough, pretty enough, smart enough or even good enough. Even ridiculed you down to the last inch just to make them feel better about themselves.

Let me tell you something you already know, the world isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. It can be a very mean and nasty place, it does not care how tough you are – it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. No one will hit you as hard as life, but it isn’t all about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. It’s about the strength it takes to continue down the path of life no matter how hard things get.

Living with anxiety can be a daily battle within our heads that seem to never cease. A constant war inside saying maybe what they say is right. Maybe I am not smart enough, maybe I am not cut out for what I need to do in life. But when you lay down at the end of the day when you are about to go to sleep, who is always there for you? Yourself, not those people who harassed and picked on you today. Every situation in life that may seem so big and real at the time, is really just a little blip in our lives. Years down the line you may recall what they said to hurt you, but look at yourself and say,  “I am still here, I am pushing forward,” and that little moment will begin to disappear. This is because we are all stronger than we think!

As my mom always said, “It’s not the failure in life that shapes you, it’s the way you pull through and never give up on yourself that shapes the person you truly are.”

Has anyone ever said something harmful or hurtful to you? How did that affect you? Have you ever been able to push away what others have said to you? What do you do to build confidence in yourself?