The Shadow and the Shimmer

I've made the choice to not drink. Well, let me clarify. Not drink alcohol. I will still be drinking lots of water, sparkling water, the occasional Diet Coke (harder to quit than booze!!!) and vanilla soy milk in my coffee. It's a personal decision I've made after having struggled with alcohol mis-use for close to two decades. My longest stretch "near-sober" was when I was pregnant with my first son. Although I would have the occasional glass of wine with dinner (and usually wouldn't finish the glass), it really was the first time I had gone close to a year without any type of alcohol-induced buzz. Fast-forward to a month after my son was born. I had a glass of wine with dinner, once I had stopped breastfeeding. It felt weird. I didn't love the taste anymore, and I was hyper aware of how the wine was making my head ache and giving me a weird spinning/out of body feeling. It didn't feel good, so I didn't have a second glass. But t...

I love quotes. I love positive affirmations. When I was working at MK, around the time that I was really over the corporate world, I would do all of my work quickly, and then spend my "lunchtime" printing out inspirational quotes and taping them into a little black book. It made me feel recharged, reconnected and ridiculously blissful. Just the act of reading beautiful, positive things got me into *the vortex* (if you haven't read Abraham Hicks, now is the time to do so!) I'm not religious in any organized fashion. I have pretty strong opinions about how organized religion is the root of (most) evil, but I tend to keep that to myself unless asked! However, lately, I am really digging the idea of making Sunday's "holy" in my own personal way. I can still enjoy the things that I find get me closer to my idea of "god" (I don't use this term often because of it's directly religious connotation) but I do like to use the terms ...

So, this topic has come up in my mind, and in conversations with other women SO MANY TIMES. I'm talking about friends who aren't really friends. Friends that really just enjoy tearing you down, because they are insecure/not happy/jealous or many just a little bored and resentful? Otherwise known as, the bully friend. I think we all have one or two (hopefully not too many!!!) in our lives. Sometimes it's an old friendship that you continue to carry around because you feel obligated to do so. Or sometimes it's a new friend that seemed to check all the boxes in the "good friend" department until you slowly start realizing that they aren't who you thought they were. And, unfortunately, these people get under your skin and actually affect your mood because you have to deal with the whole  "why is always trying to find a way to inadvertently dis me?! Why is she sooooo meaaaaaaaan!!!!" that goes on and on each time something happens, but then...