If This Is It, Is Mama Happy?

What if you were told that this was it? That the job you have today was the job you'll have for the rest of your life. That the financial status you live today wouldn't get any better. That even if you ate almonds and drunk water all day your weight wouldn't change. That this was it for you. Would you be happy?
About three years ago I was confronted with that question. I was really miserable around that time because I didn't have everything I wanted to have. Had a house but I wanted a bigger one. Had a very nice car but I wanted the latest model. I would not see everything I already had, but instead, I was focused on what I didn't have. Glass was half empty. One night, my gorgeous husband (and he really is) and I were having a very deep conversation about life and he said; " you know what, if I were told that this was it for me, you know, money, things, job...I would be OK, I'm happy." At that point I realized that I couldn't say the same and that made me feel so ungrateful. Days went by and his words were still in my mind so I decided to count my blessings and be thankful for EVERYTHING I already had: a great husband, gorgeous and healthy kids, a house and things. I realized how fortunate I was.

That's what I want to leave with you today. In other to get yourself back you need to be happy where you are NOW. You need to enjoy the life you have now. look at the positive in it, the good not the ugly. Notice how that glass is actually half full. For some of you is your financial status, for some of you is your weight, for some of you is your age, but whatever the situation is, stop for a minute and count your blessings. If this is the weight you are now then embrace your body and dress it like if this was it. If this is the job you have now, then respect it and be the best at it. Life is so short and everything can be taken from us in the blink of an eye. I am not saying by any means to be mediocre or to neglect your body. All I'm trying to do is encourage you to be happy while you're on the way to where you want to be. I want to be the best I can be. I want to go as far as I can go but if this is it, mama is happy. I am soooooo grateful for the husband, the kids, health, the list goes on and on.

So my question for you is... if this is it, is mama happy?

Love you all,

join me again next week.

I love me (Part II)

In continuation to last week's post, I would like to share a few tips you can use to help you learn to love the wonderful woman you are.

These are just some of the things I've done that have help me through this process:

1. Analyze yourself

Be honest with yourself and understand how valuable you are as a human being (not just as a mother). You are precious, delicate and the most amazing being on earth. God only makes great things...and He made you. Yes, despite the mood swings and hormonal roller coaster we go through when approaching that time of the month. :)

2. Treat yourself with love

The way you treat yourself will condition the way others treat you. This one has been mayor for me. I would always expect others to love me the way I thought I deserve to be loved, until one day I realized I was the one to set the bar by loving myself how I wanted to be loved. If you believe you deserve to be loved, then wait no longer....love on you and looooooove good!

3. Forgive yourself

We are not perfect. We all have made and still make mistakes. Yeap, even us Moms...

Forgive yourself for not being "the perfect mom" you think you should be. All the time, while I'm waiting for my kids to get out of school, I talk to a few other moms. Let me tell you, sometimes I hear all these things they do for their kids and how they count every strand of hair their child has (figuratively speaking;) and how...I mean crazy stuff. I ask myself how can they do all that and I can't? How many hours do their days have? When do they shower? and then I've also asked, Am I as good of a mom as they are? These kind of conversations can mess with your head but is up to you to not let them. There is not such a thing as a perfect mom because there is no such a thing as a perfect human being.

4. Stop self-criticism

Criticism breaks you down, but praise builds you up beyond believe. I AM A PRINCESS! What about you? When we speak negatively over ourselves it becomes a reality. If we are constantly talking about what's wrong with us we will never be able to fix it. When we speak, we create.

Speak great things about and over you and you'll see them come to pass. We all have things we would like to change about ourselves but talking negatively is not going to do it.

There is so much I would like to say but I better stop here, I really want you to come back so maybe I'll touch on this next week or maybe you all get the point. The bottom line is that once you learn to love yourself just the way you are, you will stop being a sponge absorbing all kinds of negative things to your life and will become a magnet attracting LOVE. As I said last week, loving yourself is the best gift you can pass on to your children.

I hope today you can say the same thing I now say "I LOVE ME".

Love you all
Until next week.

I Love Me

Growing up I hated my nose.

When I say hated, I mean it because I really did. I would look in the mirror and all I'd see was a shoe in the middle of my face and it was not a "Christian Louboutin" one 'cause at least it would have been a fabulous one, you know with the red sole and all. I thought it was all people saw, A WALKING NOSE.

I got older and little by little learned to accept my nose and realized that it actually worked with the rest of my facial features and, to tell you the truth, I had seen too many nose jobs go bad that really I decided that, since this was the nose I was given, I was better off liking it. By the time I was 18 I had great self-image. For the most part, I had a high self-esteem and I thought of myself as an attractive woman ;) (don't mean to brag...) I really thought I had no more self image issues...until one day.

That day was the day my husband asked me, "Why do your hands look like that?"
That question took me on a journey back in time and made me realize that for a long time I had been abusing my hands. I would pick up hot things with my bare hands, I would use super hot water to do the dishes. They were dry and full of burn marks. I would even make negative remarks about them. I just did not treat them with love and, since they are part of me, I was not loving myself.

Learning to love who we are entirely, is the first step to getting ourselves back. We must learn to love ourselves in spite of our many imperfections and flaws. If we don't love ourselves unconditionally, the way God does, no one else will.

My hands were my issue, yours might be your weight, your hair, etc. If we don't love one part of us, we are not loving ourselves truly. Remember love is not an emotion, it is a decision you and I make.

Loving yourself is the best gift you can pass on to your children.

(To be continued...)

Love you all. Join me again next week!

If You Look, You Will Find

From the very moment I got pregnant (and we all know how that happened) something crazy happened to me. I was hijacked! I was no longer mine. I was someone else's.

While pregnant I couldn't eat my favorite foods. I couldn't eat sushi, I couldn't eat shellfish, I couldn't drink coffee, I COULDN'T DRINK WINE! I couldn't because "it was bad for the baby". At the same time I had to eat those foods I was used to staying away from before getting pregnant. I was told by my doctor to eat because I needed to gain at least a pound a week. A POUND A WEEK! So on came the unwanted weight and "it was all for the baby".

The baby is born and right when I thought it was finally over I'm told to eat like if I were still pregnant because now I was breastfeeding. You got it, still couldn't have that glass of wine I was dying to have. Then after months of sore, leaking breasts I decided that it was time to get my body back, so I stopped breastfeeding just to realize that things were different. What was up now was down, and what was perky now was... WHAT HAPPENED? I'M MELTING! it was like being in a horror movie. But since nothing could be done at that time I dealt with it and became bff with my push -up bra. Just when I thought I had gotten my "new" body back ( you know, the one with the relocated breasts) there he was pulling on my shirt, looking at me with his runny nose and sad eyes begging me to pick him up. So I was not only melting, my back was also crunching. And that's not talking about my husband's worst enemies HORMONES. He would find me in an ok mood and he would blink and there I was crying. He tried to help but nothing he did really helped my crazy hormones. And then, to top it all off, 8 months later when I thought I was mine again, BOOM! I was pregnant with my second child.

This is not just my story, this every mother's story. Your story may have some variations but the bottom line is that we all go through this kind of moments in motherhood. Although it is the most beautiful thing and I wouldn't have it any other way, motherhood can be hard, frustrating and soooo overwhelming that we get lost in it. It is so easy to forget who we are because now we are responsible for one or more beings who can't go through life without us. We make sure they eat, forgetting to feed ourselves. We make sure our kids are healthy sometimes neglecting our own health because we don't have enough time or whatever. We love to see our kids nicely dressed and we spend whatever is necessary to keep their wardrobe in sync with their fast growth but when it's time for us we don't dare to make the same effort. We have a hard time putting ourselves on our priority list. Most of the time we are the last person on it.

We get so lost under piles of laundry, walking runny noses and never ending shores that we forget who we were before becoming mothers. We forget that we are women, then mothers.

I want to invite you all to embark in a journey with me in this blog. I will share with you my experiences through motherhood. I will share with you what I have learned from so many women that has help me find myself and enjoy motherhood the way it was intended. I will share real tips to find who you really are, embrace yourself and love yourself so then you can be the best mother you can be. We all have said in some point or another " I just let myself go..." and I want to help you get yourself back. I don't know all the answers but together we can find them.

Just remember you are a beautiful woman. You may be lost but if you look, you will find.



Love you all,



Cynthia

Join me again next Monday