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
Empowering Discussions

Respect and Confidence Go Hand in Hand

Impower You

I originally wrote this for my empowerment website. You can see that here: http://mpwru.webs.com

Respect for yourself is necessary for a fulfilling life. Self respect cannot be bought or forced, but it is within your grasp. What exactly does it mean when people say “Believe in yourself”? Obviously you are a real living person and you don’t need to believe that you exist. What we should say is Believe in your ability to accomplish your goals. Trust your instincts, listen to that voice in your head that says maybe what I want IS possible. It may be far out of reach at this moment, but it won’t always be so far from actually happening. Confidence is not much different than self respect. You basically need one to have the other. If you are confident in your abilities than you will respect yourself. On the other hand if you don’t have any faith in your abilities than you probably feel more loser than superstar.

This shouldn’t be news to you, but doing something amazing takes skills, hard work and patience. Miracles, angels, luck, karma, coincidence; they all happen occasionally to help us achieve our goals, but we cannot rely only that to get us where we want to go. Ask any successful person about their life and they will tell you of struggles, failures, days, weeks, months or years when everything went wrong. Still they persevered, believed in their ability to accomplish what they wanted and did not listen to the voice in their head that says they could not do it.

Accomplishing a goal that is important to you will give you a great dose of self respect. When you respect yourself it is easier to respect others, because you can see the greatness we all possess and know first hand that what you once thought of as lofty dreams can become your reality.

There is probably a greet deal that you have already accomplished. If you can speak, read, walk and feed yourself than you have achieved what we call basic skills. However there is nothing basic about these skills. You did not learn to walk in a day, you crawled around for about a year and learned from trying until you could stand up and put one foot in front of the other. Apply this same principle to all of your goals and respect the process you must go though before you can achieve anything.

Empowering Discussions

Quit Stereotyping Me!

Impower You

Once again women are under attack for being smart and more of American youth are getting messages that education is stupid. The issue today is clothing with sexist messages used to sell clothing. Could these messages be partly to blame for our nation falling behind the education of other countries? Absolutely.When you hear a message over and over again it becomes part of your life and will form your opinions whether good or bad!

Want to do something? You can sign this petition or at the very least use it to start a conversation. The only real positive change comes from people deciding not to put up with negativity anywhere.
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-forever-21-stop-selling-clothing-with-sexist-messages

I would be just as outraged over a guys shirt that said “Sensitive is Stupid” or “Real Men Hate Pink”. There is no reason to perpetuate gender stereotypes that make people feel bad because they like something that is mainstream!

What was the last sexist message you absorbed and how did it affect you?

Empowering Discussions

Sink or Swim

Impower You

“No wonder your heart feels it’s flying, your head feels it’s spinning, each happy endings a brand new beginning, let yourself be enchanted, you just might break through to ever ever after” This song, Ever Ever After from a movie titled “Enchanted” is stuck in my head. Even though I feel the saying “happily ever after” is silly, I love this part of the song.

I don’t want a fairy tale romance, a prince or a castle. I do want to feel enchanted by life and find the magic I believed in as a child. I miss those days when I believed anything was possible and that there really were magical beings, supernatural forces and adventure in every forest, dark attic or foreign land.

I want to feel alive. I crave adventure and a mission that will take me far away from all that I know and submerse me in a new story.

Someday will never come if I continue to play it safe though. Starting today and for the rest of the year my goal is to jump out of my safe zone and see what happens. I would rather sink in a wild ocean filled with my true passion than swim in a calm stream filled with doldrums of a boring life.

Empowering Discussions

Want some good business karma and create a positive difference in the lives of others?

Impower You

You can do this when you become a sponsor for the 2011 Business Essay Contest. This is a great opportunity to get your business noticed in front of thousands of entrepreneurs and to support small business in the USA. This essay contest is for women business owners in the USA over age 18. Women who are just starting a business and non profits are also encouraged to apply.

Sponsorship starts at only $29 a year. Where else can you get such a great deal for advertising and helping other business owners achieve their dreams? The goal is to raise $500 for each grant. Sponsors also receive monthly shout outs on the Investing In Women Facebook page, www.facebook.com/InvestingInWomen that will be seen by over 400 fans! Your individual sponsorship is very important. The full amount for each grant MUST be raised no later than October 31st, in order to award the grant and send out a press release by November 15th.

This is the third year of cash awards given out through Investing In Women, but they cannot do it without your help. Visit the sponsor page to learn more and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. www.iiwomen.webs.com

Karma’s calling, come and get some!

Empowering Discussions

Oh Molly!

Impower You

Oh Molly. We will miss you. All of us who have a sense of humor and who don’t want to live a life pushing our values onto others.
Your writings were hilarious. You made me laugh. I only lived in Texas for a year, but your articles really caught my attention.
Thanks for being so ornery!

Read some of Molly’s funny anecdotes on the atrocious governor rick perry and his HAIR.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/08/rick-perry-molly-ivins

Learn even more here about my hero: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Ivins

Art

It’s an Elephant Silly!

Impower You

It’s an elephant silly.
It isn’t a giraffe.
It has big ears and a trunk for laughs.
But don’t laugh at an elephant.
They are big and strong.
They will step on you until you are black and blue!

http://facebook.com/oviedostyle

Empowering Discussions

That is not me

Impower You

Your actions toward me are ugly, but I am not.

The words you throw at me are stupid, but I am not.

You are mean, but not because of me. I did not make you that way. Someone else taught you to be horrible.

I was taught to be kind and to love. After so much time in your company I have become careless and pushed love away.

I cannot stay with you. I will not stay with you. I don’t want to become like you.

I cannot change you and make you be nice to me or to anyone else. If you want to be nice you can. If you want your actions to be substantial than make an effort. If you want to share smart words than that is your decision.

I am substantial, I am smart. I can love. I choose to be this way.

I am not asking you to leave. I am kicking you out of my life.

Art

New Floral Portraits

Impower You

Roses are red or sometimes pink and they grow out of your head. That’s what I think.

See more designs on my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/oviedostyle

Empowering Discussions

What does lonely feel like?

Impower You

It feels empty and cold. It is the burning sensation that starts in your chest and consumes your whole body. feel like nothing. Like a giant hole that will never be filled.
Lonliness is sad, it is terrifying, it is polarizing. It feeds on my pain. It feels like forever. After a while it feels normal. I want to fill it with love, with anything. no matter how temporary, no matter how fleeting. I fill my emptiness with hatred, with loss, with a numbness that makes being alone seem more inevitable each year.

Empowering Discussions

I shocked myself today

Impower You

Today I rode my bike uphill for a mile and a half without stopping. I didn’t start out with that goal in mind. In fact I was sure that there was no way I could actually accomplish such a feat. I told myself just ride to the the top of the first hill and then you can walk. When I got to my destination a little voice inside said, why not go a little further. There was another hill and I wasn’t planning on going up all the way on my bike there either. Yet I did, then another and another and another until I had climbed five hills!!!

My legs and lungs burned with all this new exertion. However as I went up that last hill I felt newly energized and excited to make the whole trip without a pause. I was so surprised that I had biked the whole way without giving up.

This is fairly new for me. I tend to give up rather quickly and say that I don’t need to do this or that. It’s not important, even if it really is. So I shocked myself today by riding my bike all that way without stopping to rest. It was an amazing feeling. Perhaps this is the start of something new, perhaps I am growing stronger. I sure hope so.