From Struggle to Blessing: How 12 months changes everything!

Greetings my friends. Wow where has this year gone!!? I cannot believe we are almost done with 2020! I am sure I say that every year but how can we be halfway through the year?! This also means that this month Living Abled is turning 1!! Isn’t that crazy? This time last year I was doing last checks on the Website, buying domain names, googling web hosting platforms and creating logos and social media pages. So much  has happened in the last 12 months and what I have learnt has been invaluable!

So what better way to celebrate the birthday of Living Abled than by talking about what I have learnt in the last 12 months and how the struggle can turn into a blessing.  Let’s get cracking shall we!

Struggle to blessing: You are not in complete control of your life… But you can be.

I think we have all realised this one by now. With the never-ending world crisis constantly looming at the forefront of our eyes, we have really come to realise that the plans we had for the last 12 months and the new decade have literally been thrown out the window.

Last year saw me spiralling through a dark period with debilitating anxiety. It got to the point where I couldn’t focus on anything but the loud voices in my head. This lead me to start focusing on the constant COVID updates. I felt so out of control of my life, and I didn’t like the feeling of not being in control.

Yes clearly in a lot of ways I am a control freak. I like to have everything planned out; from best to worst case scenario. I even used to write out scripts before I would call my Doctor’s office or a Hairdresser. This was to ensure I was in complete control of the conversation, and have numerous scenarios planned out. Yes I know, I am a little extra in this department but i am proud to report there have been no script write outs in some time! Winning!

Now before you go all Judgy Judy on me, I am sure you are a control freak in one way or another! We are human after all. We need to have a direction in life, otherwise we turn into the Grinch.

The first 6 months of 2020 made me go back to my roots and really work hard on every element of my life. Which is something i am so grateful for because this where this blog was born from!

Struggle to blessing: It is ok to stop you know

I think the current crisis has forced us to stop and re-evaluate our lives. For some it has been a life changer, for both good reasons and bad. Once you realise that even though you may not be in control of your life completely like you once thought, you start grabbing every opportunity to see where it leads you.

For most of us, we were in complete lockdown from March until June or still are constantly going through lockdowns. Every comfort we had in the outside world was ripped from us like our favourite teddy when we got grounded as kids!. We had no other option but to rock in the corner and watch updates like football scores.

If anyone was like me, I ordered tons of junk food and put on 3-4 Kilos! It was my way of coping through things, which didn’t help. Some of us handled the pandemic like pros; exercising, meditating, eating right and focusing on being mindful. Others had unimaginable struggles , losing loved ones, losing jobs, being in a toxic household, or by yourself.

Due to being high-risk, I stayed home from work and footy about a week or so before everything shut down. We were cleaning door handles every few hours, had a bottle of hand-sanitiser on the kitchen side, and made everyone who left the house go through the laundry on their return and have a shower. This caused some entertainment for some people outside of our household, which obviously didn’t help my state of mind at all.

However, being forced to sit with yourself, can be a really good thing. You are shown ways in which you can improve your thought process and even life in general. When we are forced to work on ourselves, we are forced to grow. I know I certainly have! This blog was created as a way to divert my brain and send my energy into something that can be of value to people!

I have my Psychologist to thank for that! She gave me that last little nudge in the direction to create Living Abled. You wouldn’t believe just how quick it all came together when I really started to map it out. I had a name within 2 weeks and was up and running within around 8 weeks. I have got so much more from blogging than I thought I would, and I feel it has catapulted me into 2021 the right way.

From struggles to blessings: Hello 2021!

For me, I started to reap the rewards going into 2021. I knew that with the work I had been doing with my Psychologist as well as the insane amount of self-help books on the shelf, it was bound to pay off.

The blog stayed dormant for a couple of weeks when I took a couple of steps back in my progress. However, I am glad it did!  It made me realise just how much I enjoyed writing and the joy it gave me to see you all respond with such positivity.

I got a job for the first time ever after volunteering for 10 years in 2020, and even though the job description changed, it still has been worth it.

This blog has helped me grow in ways I cannot explain. Has it been easy though? Oh hell no! there has been plenty of highs and lows, but you learn over time to find the positives and lessons in each moment! I know I am a big sap!

However, the first half of 2021 has been incredible. I made a promise to myself over a glass of Riccadonna on the 1^st of January that I would take every opportunity that came my way, and to stop overthinking every excruciating detail! I didn’t realise just how much that promise came into action within the first 6 months! From recording a podcast episode, growing to nearly 400 followers across social media platforms, horse riding, walking a 5km fundraiser it hasn’t been dull!

However, the biggest blessing of all isn’t the materialistic things. The biggest blessing is the messages I have received from you that have thanked me for posting a blog, doing the podcast episode and for just sharing my story. It makes the struggle and the challenges so much more worth while.

These last 12 months haven’t been easy, but I owe a lot of it to this blog and to you. You guys are the reasons I can look back on the last 12 months with a big wild grin on my face and get all the warm and fuzzies .

The biggest thing I can impart is this; never ever discount your struggles. They are what grow you. They are designed to push you and challenge you to become a better person. If you stayed in a season of peace and ease, you would never grow and never know your capabilities! I always say life is so boring without the highs and the lows that come from challenges.

This blog has done things for me that I truly didn’t see coming. But isn’t that the miracle of struggle? You think the reward will be one thing but it manifests itself into something completely amazing that you didn’t even realise. Some people are literal zen masters and can find stillness in struggle street, I admit I am most of the time acting like I have had a carton of Red Bull when I am in a struggle. Surely we will all get to that point that the struggle washes over us like a rain shower head and we welcome the blessings with wide arms (secretly thinking ‘that god that is over’ of course).

So yes 2020 may have been grueling, and 2021 still may seem like that, but I can guarantee you that your struggle will turn into blessings eventually, it may just take a perspective change or two or maybe even just taking the leap into a new beginning. Soon enough you will be grateful you went through what you did. The lessons to learn are yours for the taking if you go for it! What are you waiting for??  

Stay tuned for part 2! The next blog post will be recapping the first 6 months of 2021 and just how i did everything i wanted to within the first 6 months!

Speaking of 5km did you check out my Journey to 5km Blog post?? if not it is worth a read! https://livingabled.com.au/run-for-strength-my-insane-journey-to-5km/