Author: Impower You

Healing through art & therapy! I used to be depressed and codependent with very low self worth and many unhealthy habits. But several years ago I started the healing process and am sharing what I learned with gratitude and hope for each of us. Peace & hugs, Leah
Book Reviews, D.I.Y. Therapy

My New Book is Here! “DIY Therapy: Healing Depression” is Finally Published

Impower You

For several years I have been working on healing my depression. It’s been a bumpy journey, but is slowly bringing me home to my true self. For a few years now I have been sharing my healing process through my DIY Therapy posts, which are free to read, here on my blog. I’m elated to finally share how I have healed in book form. Hopefully this will help me reach more people who are in pain.

Have you ever wondered what you could do -what possibilities would open up- if you didn’t feel overwhelmed by depression?

I published through Amazon so it’s available as both an e-book and a paperback.  This is not my first book, but it is my most personal. I share my struggles and pain honestly. Openly and honestly sharing healing is my gift to the world. With 1 in 4 people in the USA suffering from mental illness I hope my story will help others to start their own journey to better health.  Unlike a broken bone which heals in a matter of weeks or months, healing mental illness takes much more time and a whole lot of self-love.

For seventeen years I suffered in silence because the fear of a mental illness stigma is SO strong. I hid it even from my closest family and friends, “knowing” they would not understand. Well as it turns out, my family and friends and event complete strangers, care a lot about my mental health. It is with their support and encouragement that I was able to openly share my own pain and the struggles of depression.

If you’re suffering from depression I strongly encourage you to seek help. If you can’t afford a therapist find a supportive mentor, teacher or healer who can help you discover inner peace. Healing is possible IF you are open and willing to commit to a self-care plan. You’re life only  has value if you decide it does.

And it’s okay to stumble and fall along the way. Healing takes time so BE GENTLE WITH YOURSELF!

Peace and Hugs, Leah

 

 

Want more? Print and enjoy my FREE COLORING BOOKS!

Self love diet by Michelle Minero
Empowering Discussions

The Most Fantastic, Awesome and Wonderful 31 Day Self-Love Diet Writing Challenge

Impower You

How would your life be different if you regularly offered yourself loving thoughts, encouragement, actions and intentions to live your best life?

For about 20 years, self-care wasn’t a part of my life. I thought drinking (often too much), doing things and acting a certain way to be liked, and misguided self-care ideas (like the debt hole of ‘retail-therapy’) was self-care. Turns out what I really needed was to delve deeper into what brought me joy on a non-material level. It wasn’t things or attention, but self-love.

I invite you to let go of what doesn’t serve you and immerse yourself in a month of self-care with this simple challenge. I participated last year and it was the extra push necessary to being more authentic and balanced.

Join me the free, 31-Day Self-Love Diet Writing Challenge! http://www.lovewarriorcommunity.com/31-day-self-love-diet-writing- challenge/ 

Here are the official links and tags to help you accomplish and share this challenge.

-7th Annual 31-Day Self-Love Diet Writing Challenge Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1615358152093749/

-Self-Love Diet: The Only Diet That Works Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/SelfLoveDietTheOnlyDietThatWorks

-Twitter: @selflovewarrior https://twitter.com/selflovewarrior

-Love Warrior Community website: http://www.lovewarriorcommunity.com/

-Self-Love Diet website: http://theselflovediet.org/

-Official Hashtags: #SelfLoveDiet #LoveWarriorCommunity

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Affirmation for Following Your Heart:
I follow my heart because I know what I need and that is love. I give and receive with love. I grow and evolve with love. My heart guides me to self-love. I am following my heart.

bird heart

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 “Peace Love and Weirdness” is offbeat and includes positive affirmations for cultivating healthier thoughts.

Grab your FREE coloring book at: https://impoweryou.org/color

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You might also enjoy my book of word art and affirmations.

IMG_20160302_221046

Buy it for yourself or as a gift at Bookemon.com

Empowering Discussions

#MomentOfTruth – Share Your Story of How This Election Has Effected You

Impower You

 Electing Trump as president is terrible, but our fight is not over till we stop caring and stop working for equality! I’m happy to learn that Hollaback(one of my all time fave orgs) and 15 other nonprofits have banded together to launch #MomentofTruth: a campaign to document a rise in post-election hate and violence. People can submit stories documenting their own experiences, or stories where they witnessed hate or violence and tried to intervene. You can find the campaign at momentoftruth2016.tumblr.com.

“The election is over, but its impact is not. The 2016 presidential campaign exposed us to the deep racism, sexism, and power imbalances that are still entrenched in the United States,” said Emily May, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Hollaback!, the nonprofit that uses individual stories to spur new global conversations about harassment. “American citizens and noncitizens alike are feeling anxious, exhausted, and deeply unsafe. Our new campaign is designed to show people what is wrong, so that they can begin to see where we need to go next.”

The #MomentofTruth campaign is powered by Hollaback! and its partners Rhize, The Dinner Party, Women, Action and Media, CTZNwell, The Harry Potter Alliance, Uplift, Sadie Nash Leadership Project, Paradigm Shift, TMI Project, The Network Innovation Fund, Breakthrough, The Faith Matters Network, The UnSlut Project, StoryCorps, and Take Back the Tech.

Visit Tumblr, watch and use the #MomentofTruth hashtag, and visit the Moment of Truth StoryCorps Community page for more information on this campaign.

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 “Peace Love and Weirdness” is offbeat and includes positive affirmations for cultivating healthier thoughts.

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Grab your FREE copy at: https://impoweryou.org/color

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You might also enjoy my book of word art and affirmations.

IMG_20160302_221046

Buy it for yourself or as a gift at Bookemon.com

Empowering Discussions

Dec. 4: Free Mental Health First Aid training at The GO!

Impower You

I will be attending this training because I interact almost daily with people dealing with and sometimes suffering greatly from mental health illness.

Art

Outside Art – Petals, Leaves and Twigs

Impower You

I made this last week on my walk home from work.

outside.art

Creating art outside in nature is so balancing. I love to take walks in the park and stop to create art out of leaves, flowers, pine cones, rocks, twigs or even litter. I become so absorbed in the process that I rarely notice when someone has stopped out of curiosity to watch me.

What do you think?

Have you ever made temporary art outside?

See more of my art at Zazzle.com/OviedoStyle

Coloring Pages

Sing Your Heart Song, Loud and Strong: Coloring Page with Affirmations

Impower You

Affirmation for Your Heartsong:
I follow my heartsong. I sing it loud and strong. This is my heartsong. Listening to it all along. On this journey of life through the good and the strife. Guiding me with loving light, shining bright. This is my heartsong. I sing it oud and strong.

sing color

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 “Peace Love and Weirdness” is offbeat and includes positive affirmations for cultivating healthier thoughts.

Grab your FREE copy at: https://impoweryou.org/color

***

You might also enjoy my book of word art and affirmations.

IMG_20160302_221046

Buy it for yourself or as a gift at Bookemon.com

Empowering Discussions

Gratitude: A Video From Survivors of the Orlando Nightclub Shooting

Impower You

Have you seen this beautiful video from a few of the survivors of the Orlando shooting this summer? 

 Hopefully it will inspire you to give a little gratitude to yourself and those around you today.

You can support victims of violence and be the change by sharing love and compassion towards everyone and choosing non-violence as a way of problem solving.

Don’t just tolerate people for their differences, ACCEPT everyone as a human being with outstanding possibilities.

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Have you seen my FREE coloring books?

coloring books

You can download those on my ‘COLORING BOOKS‘ page.

 

Coloring Pages

Be Different – Coloring Page and Affirmation

Impower You

This is one of the pages from the free coloring book I created, “Peace, Love & Weirdness“.

Be Different coloring page

Affirmation for Weirdness
I am weird.

I appreciate being different.

Creating more weirdness is good.

There is balance in being weird. Weird is wonderful.

Normal does not exist. Average is a measurement.

Typical is comfortable. Different is energizing.

Different fuels innovation.

I am weird and weird is wonderful.

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Click HERE to download this FREE coloring book.

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I’m an artist and writer on a mission to bring healing arts into the mainstream. If you would like to support my heart work, please consider becoming a monthly patron on Patreon.com/Loviedo. For as little as $1 a month, you can fund programs like my D.I.Y. Therapy: Healing Depression E-course, my monthly “Radical” e-zine and other creative healing projects, like “Cultivating Radical Self-Love: A Collaboration of Healers, Artists & Writers“.

 

D.I.Y. Therapy, Self Defense

D.I.Y. Therapy: Are You Afraid To Communicate?

Impower You

A major blockade in depression is communication. It’s difficult to communicate unhappiness with family and friends, especially when it feels all-encompassing. You might began to feel like a burden to others if you are consistently unhappy.  After a while I was tired of my own depression, but I didn’t know how to communicate my feelings. A while back I began working on my communication skills and felt like I was making real progress, so I stopped when I felt like I had learned what I needed. I should have continued.

After quite an awful spring I was beginning to feel so depressed that I treated a friend rather badly (read my post on regret) and put serious strain on our relationship. This summer I learned that I still need a lot of work in regards to communication. Healthy communication is a skill I must be and want to be aware of on a regular basis.

“Communicate with compassion and openness. Holding questions, concerns and anger inside is unhealthy.”

When I asked myself why I am afraid to communicate, these were my answers.

  • People won’t care.
  • People will be mean or take advantage of me.
  • I will be a burden to others.
  • I will look weak.
  • It’s not necessary to share.
  • I should be able to handle problems on my own.
  • I don’t actually want to follow through or move forward on what I’m not communicating!

None of these are valid reasons, but I have convinced myself they are. So now that I’m aware of why I don’t want to communicate I can choose to not allow fear or doubt to guide my decisions.

Why are you afraid of communicating?

** Read more D.I.Y. Therapy Posts. **

Or get your very own D.I.Y. Therapy book.

Have you ever wondered what you could do -what possibilities would open up- if you didn’t feel overwhelmed by depression?

“D.I.Y. Therapy: Healing Depression” is available through Amazon; available as both an e-book and a paperback.

If you’re suffering from depression I strongly encourage you to seek help. If you can’t afford a therapist find a supportive mentor, teacher or healer who can help you discover inner peace. Healing is possible IF you are open and willing to commit to a self-care plan.

Want more? Print and enjoy my FREE COLORING BOOKS!

Download free books on ImpowerYou!

peace love weirdness coloring book

“Peace, Love & Weirdness” is an offbeat collection of my original illustrations and affirmations.

Grab your free copy on the Coloring Book page. 

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more than a girl book

“More Than Just a Girl” helps tween girls build confidence with information, creative activities and loving acceptance.

Grab your free copy on the More Than a Girl page.

Coloring Pages

Imperfectly Perfect – Coloring Page and Affirmation

Impower You

This is one of the pages from the free coloring book I created, “Peace, Love & Weirdness“.

imperfectly perfect coloring page

Affirmation for Imperfection
Perfection is a perception.

Imperfection is natural. Flaws are normal.

I am imperfectly perfect!

Imperfection is valuable. Imperfection is reality.

Unique, different, weird, ugly. Perfect, normal, beautiful.

These are just words.

I am perfectly imperfect!

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Click HERE to download this FREE coloring book.

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You might also enjoy my other book of affirmations and original art.

IMG_20160302_221046