Hi all. Happy Monday! Today is not the happiest of Mondays for me because I was up until 6am with raging insomnia for absolutely no apparent reason. The good thing about being up all night was that I had hours upon hours to reflect about life, ethics and what is most important to me at this point in time.

Want to know what I came up with?

Loving. Life.

It sounds so simple, and perhaps even a bit impractical to value LOVING your life above all else, but if that’s simple & impractical then those are two things I am proud to be because nothing in the entire UNIVERSE means more to me than being completely, utterly, ridiculously, unabashedly happy and content with my life.

I got into this convo last night with one of my best friends about the rat race of life and how sad it is when people don’t pursue something that truly captivates them just because it seems unattainable — and maaaybe that’s why I kept thinking about it again & again as I lay awake, exhausted and frustrated about not being able to fall asleep, but content at least knowing that I love what I do and I feel pretty darn amazingly lucky for that.

I’m keeping it short & sweet today and giving a few firsthand tips about falling in love with your life. Trust me, I haven’t always loved my life. I lived for many years playing by other people’s rules, suffering from my eating disorder and drowning in anxiety and expectations for myself. I drank a lot, I had a horrible sleeping schedule (maybe that hasn’t changed – ha!) and I did what I loved as a hobby and never thought I could do it full-time.

^^ That’s just a little inspo because I never want to give off the vibe that I was born loving life and that blogging for a living fell into my lap. It was hard work & I made it happen because I desperately wanted to and knew I could make it happen because that’s how passionate I was about it.

NOW… here we go:

How to Fall in Love With Your Life?!?

1. Ditch the Negative Nancy’s: Sorry, but we all have them. They might be friends, family (harder to ditch, haha) or people that surround us in one way or another. Sometimes you grow apart from people. That’s okay. If someone is weighing you down, let them GO. This was the hardest thing for me to learn and by far the most valuable. If you feel that someone is not supportive or they are sucking energy out of you by the minute, they aren’t worth your precious time. That time would most certainly be better used building your empire & working on YOU!

2. REFLECT, hardcore. What do I mean by this? Draw inward. What is it that you REALLY love and want to do? Disconnect from the expectations, from what other people want for you / have set out for you / the plans you made for yourself when you were 15 years old and are desperately attached to because it’s human nature to fear change. Meditate, breathe, go on walks ALONE, write, journal, stretch, get yourself a therapist — whatever you feel like you need in order to check in with yourself and be aware of what you need so you can make it happen.

3. Set goals, & believe in them. Once you know what you want / need, set goals for yourself. Set very practical, reachable goals and set goals that feel wildly unattainable and far away. Work toward them, every day. Don’t beat yourself up because you’re not there yet. Enjoy the journey and recognize how the whole journey is interconnected, and that the beginning is just as important as the middle and is just as import as the “destination” which is actually just another step along the way. And BELIEVE in them– tattoo it on your body if you have to (really, lol!!), because without that confidence goals will dwindle & dwindle until they are mere memories.

4. Crowd out the bad with the GOOD! For all the Negative Nancy’s you let loose, crowd them out with wonderful, supportive people. You can meet them in all sorts of ways. I’ve developed amazing friendships with other health and lifestyle bloggers because we tend to have a lot in common– I never thought this is how I’d meet so many of my closest friends but it has been. Similarly, crowd out the bad experiences with good ones. You don’t like your job? Crowd out that negative time with positive time– after work yoga, dinner with friends, cooking, alone time, sleeping well– there is SO much to look forward to throughout the day. Make it happen!

5. Love: Love hard, love true, love deeply. Love the people around you, love your hobbies/passions, love yourself, love your space (surround yourself with furniture that makes you HAPPY– literally everything counts), & love the food you feed yourself with and the exercise you do. Love until there isn’t any more room in your body to hate, be angry or feel negative.

And most importantly? DON’T FRET ABOUT BEING PERFECT. It’s all about balance. Striking a balance is way more fun than concerning yourself with perfection.

You feel me? I’m coming back tomorrow with details on how I refresh myself every day and with… drum roll please… the debut of THE BALANCED BLONDE TV! Subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can see the video when it rolls out first thing in the morn!

Love you all. Tell me how YOU fall in love with your life… Let’s hear it!!

&, as always, join me in the #FallInLoveWithYourself and #TBBMadeMeDoIt movements on Instagram and Facebook so I can keep up with your inspiring lives!!!