GUEST POST: A be-YOU-tiful Challenge by jess #blogtember #sharingmyspacewithablogIlove

My lovely writer today is named Jess. I am so happy to share my blog space with her please check out Beauty From Scars . This is her most from there.

You have heard the quote a thousand times… and you’re about to hear it again!

“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken” Oscar Wilde

Sure, we hear that but it doesn’t sink in. We are always comparing, judging, changing, just to be like __________. We want to look like, act like, be like someone else. What’s wrong with just being you? DON’T you dare say that you are boring! If you find yourself boring you’re the only one that can change that. BE YOU!

You were born to be exactly who you are – not to be like someone else. You are allowed to experiment with fashion, makeup, hobbies and sports – there are so many things out there to do in life and you’re trying to be someone else. Why not be yourself?

Try out for the school sports team. Just because you don’t look like the rest of the team doesn’t mean you won’t make it! Try out for fun, who knows you might actually be good!

What I’m trying to say is that life is short, don’t try to live like someone else, live for you.

In my experience, trying to be like someone else doesn’t work out; you feel worse about yourself and you are still looking for approval. You won’t please anyone trying to be something you are not. You have to be you!

Maybe you don’t like you.

Well then lets start there! Write down 5 things you like about yourself, they can be anything but they HAVE TO BE POSITIVE!

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

OK, have your list of 5 things? Good, now write 5 things you don’t like or would change:

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Look at your lists. The first one is positive and the second one is probably pretty degrading.

Why?

Look at that list again. Do some of these things surprise you? Would you ever say any of those things to a friend, family member or significant other? I find that the things I don’t like about myself are some of the things others love about me. Sure maybe some things could change, but I am who I am for a purpose. I look like this, talk like this, and dress like this because it is who I am. I am not meant to be anyone else. I am meant to be ME.

We tend to be hard on ourselves, I don’t know what your situation is but you need to look over your list again. You are beautiful! And NO I’m not just saying that! You really are! Put your list aside. Yes there are things you do and don’t like about yourself. We are all like that. EVEN that person you want to be has things that they don’t like about themselves. But we need to start giving ourselves the credit we deserve.

Take that list you made and destroy it, tear it up, shred it, burn it, throw it out, just get rid of it! Now go find a mirror or reflective surface! Look at yourself in the eyes and say: “I am beautiful.” Ok that was good, but try it again. “I am beautiful.” Ok, this time say it like you mean it! Make yourself believe it! “I AM BEAUTIFUL!” Scream it and shout it if you have to! Every day this week when you get up and before you go to sleep tell yourself that 3 times in the mirror! Tell yourself that you are beautiful, handsome, sexy…just be positive! Look in the mirror, you are perfect at being you! You are the only you this world will ever see! Don’t be someone else!

I will leave you with two challenges this week!

1) Do the mirror challenge, 3 times in the morning and 3 times at night -remind yourself you are beautiful.

2) Every time you look at yourself this week in the mirror, don’t pick yourself apart! If you find yourself starting to pick things apart, do the mirror challenge again.

Do this every day. Love yourself! That’s the first step to being you! Loving YOU. Don’t be anyone else – JUST BE YOU!

My guest: Jessica is a university student from Canada. She lends her creative writing abilities to the Beauty from Scars Community as an author and frequently takes the reins of the Twitter account to interact with our followers and grow the community through social media.

GUEST POST by “Chava Tivka” : growing up + depression + moving forward the best you can. #nationalsuicidepreventionweek

depression is like going through life as a

movie,

always watching, but

never taking part.

things once enjoyed are

slowly stripped

away,

one by one

until there’s nothing left.

living life as an empty shell

and in a place

no one

can understand.

Friends abandon,

leaving you in a place

of despair.

it wasn’t so bad

at first

but overtime as the sadness

turned to numbness

and apathy set in,

making life

devoid of

hope,

dreams,

relationships,

happiness.

I’m losing the battle

I was never equipped to fight

coping mechanisms,

talk therapy,

Prozac.

nothing helps…

and I’m getting worse.

I find my comfort

in clear liquid form.

it burns my throat-

my punishment for being

ungrateful towards life.

but the reward outweighs the punishment,

and for a few hours,

I can forget

the pain.

There is a certain kind of sadness

That comes with not being loved

by your parents.

A hole that cannot be filled with

yourself

So you start to look to exterior

means.

To nights filled with experiences

no child should endure,

To days where the only happiness

I could find was found in a

A plate of food,

Only to have it taken away

because

“Ladies don’t eat that much”

Flash forward to the years

Where silence consumed me,

To the days where the rules I set

for myself could not be followed

To the moments where the words

would not come from my mouth,

But would appear on my skin

In lines of bubbling red

My heart remained empty,

The void getting deeper

as my stomach grew larger

and the words on my skin written

in red

Grew easier and easier to read.

Like an actor on a stage I

Put on my mask and played

The role I was assigned

But never wanted.

The empty void I thought I was

Shrinking

Was in reality expanding.

Consuming my body

And soul to the point where

I am standing on the ledge,

About to jump,

But don’t know how I got up there.

So I take a breath,

Say a prayer

And step off the ledge of self-

destruction

And on to the street of recovery.

What I DON’T want you to do when National Suicide Prevention Week is over….

              I was thinking of what I was going to write on the last day of national suicide prevention week. For awhile nothing came to my mind. But today something came to my mind and heart. The topic is in the title of this post. I want to remind you of what NOT to do when national suicide prevention week is over.

Please don’t forget those who are struggling. People struggle with depression and other mental health issues all year around. Don’t stop advocating for people. Don’t stop loving them. Don’t stop encouraging them. Don’t stop holding them, crying with them, and walking beside them through their journey. If you are the one struggling please don’t give up. Don’t stop asking for help. Don’t stop the work of loving yourself because you are worth more than you will ever know.

GUEST POST: Though I Walk: a view into the valley of the shadow #nationalsuicidepreventionweek

Hi!

I am a 27 year old female and about seven years ago I was diagnosed with a combination of schizophrenia and OCD. I’m going to remain anonymous BECAUSE of the stigma associated with these conditions (particularly schizophrenia), but I’m writing this so that people who, like me, have or do struggle with mental health issues will be encouraged.

What was it that brought on the symptoms of the illness? Now, I’m no doctor to say that, “oh, it was a deficiency in such and such a chemical in such and such a part of her brain,” but I can recognize the wrong thought patterns, ideas, and obsessions that led to my diagnosis. First of all, I’m pretty sure that I’m biologically susceptible to mental health issues. Although undiagnosed, I know that many people in both my mom’s and dad’s side of the family have suffered from obsessions, neurotic behavior, etc. For example, my maternal grandfather was obsessed with locking things. He locked everything, all the time, whether it made sense or not to do so. So that’s my biological history.

Also, I’ve grown up in a Christian home, with a firm belief in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, all my life. However, there was an element of fear to my life, despite me knowing that “it’s by grace you’re saved, though faith.” I still felt like I was living under the law, meaning that for some reason, I felt that there were particular things I had to DO to be saved, to maintain my relationship with God, when obviously, in scripture it says that no, he who is in Christ is a NEW creation, meaning that the old way of life under the law is dead. Once in Christ, you ARE a child of God; there is nothing you can DO to perfect that. Perhaps being an eldest child with lots of expectations impacted me in this way, but nevertheless, that’s how I felt. I was very fearful that something I would do or not do would throw me off the path of salvation, or that God would ask me to do something that was difficult for me, which led me to walking in a lot of disobedience. My particular brand of disobedience didn’t look like rebellion. There were no crazy hairstyles or referrals at school, anything like that.

I was just refusing to do things God’s way—even if though I was attempting to do what God told me to do, I was wanting to do it in my own way.. That’s why Moses didn’t get to step into the Promised Land; he did what God was asking him to do, but in his own way, not God’s way, striking the rock instead of speaking to it. Disobedience is saying to God, “I know better than you, so I’m going to sit on the throne of my heart instead of you.” Like I said before, another word for it is rebellion, which is something the scripture likens to witchcraft—so needless to say, it’s pretty serious. That’s why Jonah sat in the belly of the whale for three days and nights.

Thus, what led to my descent into the world of the psychotic, was that although I felt a call of God on my life, I had a wrong picture of God, hadn’t quite grasped the gospel, and was therefore unwilling to serve GOd His way, and so though I sought to obey, it was without throwing myself wholly into the service, trusting God with all my heart.

Though technically, once I did trust with all my heart, throwing myself fully on the mercies of God, matters in my mind only got worse. The compulsions became stronger (they were never violent or dangerous, just maybe bizarre, combined with incredible indecision on my part), and the guilt I felt for not following through with them rendered me nearly incapable of socializing, and vise versa. When I did follow through with the compulsions, there was a euphoria that made life seem easy. Daily life was a constant battle.

I did begin to grow in my spirit however, as the Spirit took control. The Lord began to educate me in the act of walking by still waters, where He, by His Spirit, began to restore my soul in paths of righteousness—for His name’s sake. A river of living water began to flow out of my innermost being, as the scriptures say, and I found that while it was me myself that the Lord desired—he wanted time with me rather than the actions I performed in service to Him, the times of communion with the Lord began to result in an outpouring of His Spirit wherever I went, and there was a new power behind my service to Him.

Something that became very evident and dear to me was that God understood everything I was going through. People most certainly didn’t understand. I was weird and awkward and many times inappropriate, but this mental suffering was a furnace that was purifying my heart before the King of Kings. He was making me into a faithful servant in His sight. The Bible says that Jesus, although He was a Son, learned obedience through what He suffered. I, as a daughter of God THROUGH Jesus Christ, have also learned obedience through what I suffered.

I’ve quoted quite a bit of Psalm 23 throughout this testimony, and that’s because that chapter became very dear to me as I walked through this “valley of the shadow of death.” I knew that I would “fear now evil,” because God was with me. When I was kicked off of my college campus in 2008, directed to see a psychologist, and when I was diagnosed with psychosis in the form of schizophrenia, what was my reaction? I told my psychiatrist this later—I knew it wasn’t forever. It was just a season, and this too shall pass.

The healing process took quite a long time—from the time I was diagnosed in 2008 to about 2010 or ’11 when I moved back onto campus at the university I was attending. What sustained me through the process? Prayer and praise—dwelling on the greatness of God rather than on my circumstances, which were sometimes quite dismal. I felt ostracized and misunderstood, isolated, in almost every circle of life, from church, to school, to family life. Another thing was submission to my parents. I’m grateful I grew up with a respect for the authority of the scriptures because they say to “honor your father and your mother,” and that a single, unmarried young woman is not bound by her oaths if her father hears of it and negates it. That definitely kept me out of a lot of trouble! Also, regular medication. I submitted to my doctor and was (and am) on the prescription he put me on. I’ve been tempted to not take it, especially now that I’ve been well, but I figure that if the Lord does want me off, it will be very very very evident. So I’ve stayed on my medication.

So overall I can say that those years, while the hardest in my life, served to produce the most fruit. I don’t think that God caused them, but I definitely think that He allowed them. He’s brought me thus far and will continue to remain faithful. And like Paul said to the Thessalonians, “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” To God be the glory!

Dear those who are contemplating suicide, (World Suicide Prevention DAY)

Please know you are NOT alone. It helps to know you are not alone. I know it does not heal anything. I know it doesn’t change the fact that you are hopeless and engulfed by loneliness. The statistics probably make you angry. They make me angry sometimes. However, please see them as a chance to know you are not alone. Don’t see it as all these people don’t care. They probably just don’t know. I apologize if people in your life neglect you. Not everyone cares. But SOMEONES does care. We don’t need to focus on those who don’t. I  think that people don’t care about me. I have had friends who left in the middle of my depression. But someone DOES care. You matter. You have a purpose. You are loved by the God of the universe. If you don’t believe in Him just know that I love you. I care. I breathe a prayer for you. I remember you often. I think about those that are hurting. I would give you a hug if I could. I would not tell you things are going to get better. However, I would hold you in my arms while you cry. Beloved, you are so lovely. You are so worth loving. Take care of yourself.

Please watch thise video: Sunshine – Jake Miller