Hello, welcome back to another Tuesday T.A & Co. blog post! This week, I wanted to touch on the topic of self-growth. To me, a self-growth journey is different than a self-love journey. Even though both include dealing with your inner demons and becoming the best version of yourself. I believe that self-growth is more about giving yourself the motivation to be the best you. While self-love is about giving yourself the love you need to be the best version of yourself. Two different actions.
About a couple years ago, I decided to better myself. After seeing years of toxic & harmful patterns that only brought toxic & harmful people. I got tired of it. It wasn’t till about a year ago when I started to do more research & take this more seriously. Since then, I have seen some positive change in myself. Even my friends and family can agree with that statement. And it all started with incorporating some helpful, healthy habits in to my daily life.
1. Writing in a gratitude journal
Gratitude Journaling is good for your mental health. A growing body of research shows keeping a log of what you are thankful for can lower stress, help you sleep better, and may even reduce the risk of heart disease. Of course, maybe this habit isn’t for you. Not every habit will resonate with you. I started journaling actually my senior year of high school. I wanted to just have a place where I can write my thoughts down. And be able to express my emotions in my own words. The more I journaled, the more I saw how negative I was making my journals. So, I decided to invest in a grattitude journal. Some of the benefits are:
- Improving self-esteem
- It increases positivity
- Reduces stress
- Helps you sleep better
- Helps to make you happier
2. Forgiving my past self & moving on
So many times, I find myself really just dwelling on the past. Whether it is on a decision or a mistake I made. Maybe even an event that happened that I could never move on from. But one habit that I’ve been pushing myself yo incorporate in my life is forgiving the past. Being in therapy has helped a bit with this as well. This is something hinders many people’s self-growth.
There’s not much you can do to change the past. And letting it have that much control over your future is even worse. I found that the more I would dwell, the more I regressed to how I was back then. In order for me to finally heal and be okay, I knew I had to move on. Even if I never got closure or the apology that I deserved…moving on was the best thing I could do for my self-growth.
3. Using self-awareness to aid my self-growth
This is actually is something that I have grown to get better at due to therapy. So, what is self-awareness? The definition of self awareness is having a clear perception of your personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions. Self Awareness allows you to understand other people, how they perceive you, your attitude and your responses to them in the moment. Over time, I have been able to change my actions and reactions to certain things. It as well has helped me be able to find out my triggers and put my mental health first more. Self-awareness helps us to become better decision-makers & it gives us more self-confidence — so, as a result, we communicate with clarity and intention. Allowing us to understand things from multiple perspectives. It frees us from our assumptions and biases. Helping us to build better relationships. Something crucial to our self-growth.
4. Learning that self-growth isn't always apparent
With any progression journey we take in life , we are so quick to want to see progressive. Something physical and tangible that can show that this is working. The thing with self-growth is that the progress is subtle. It doesn’t truly show till later on. Probably even a couple years later. Like I said earlier in the post, Self-growth is more so about giving yourself the motivation to the best version of yourself. And you won’t realize that you have changed till something makes you realize it. Whether that is after losing a friend, having a family member point it out, or just you being more self-aware to who you are. “But how will I know I am doing well?” You will know. The universe will let you know ,too. Trust your gut feelings.
5. Getting better sleep
Even though, as I write this it is 3 am, I was binging the new Netflix show called Squid Game. So, this one night is an exception. But on other days, I try very hard to stay on a consistent sleep schedule. Trying to get my 7-8 hours of sleep. I found that when I was more sleep deprived and tired, my anxiety was worse. My eyes would twitch consistently. My memory was so bad that I would have to take moments to pause and think about what I was just saying.
Creating a better sleeping habit is a big factor to my self-growth. As well as to my health. Now, I’m not here to preach about my gym routine and my new diet because I have none of that. What I do have is the motivation to just be cautious of what I put in my body. And the self-awareness to know how it affects me. That is self-growth right there.
6. Learning that self-growth is in baby steps
Over the years, I discovered how impatient I am. I probably get it from my dad a bit. Probably, both of my parents. They are pretty impatient at times. All that to say, is that I was always seeing these influencers have such an aesthetic growth. Like as if it all happened at once. That put some high unrealistic expectations for me. I thought self-growth was going to be like a snap. That one day I’ll just wake up with clear skin and I’ll have the energy to be healthy.
When in fact, that was so wrong. It was a gradual build. A lot of the work that I put in to myself was baby steps. Especially, when it came to how I took care of myself. I had to put everything in to bite size pieces. I found that when I rushed in to something, I lost the momentum. Everything became too much work and I quit before I could even get my foot out the door. So, be patient. Take baby steps & eventually the growth will show.
THANK YOU FOR READING !
Self-growth is something that is an ongoing journey. I don’t think as people even humans that we ever stop growing. That we stop learning who we are as people. I guess for now, in this phase of my life, I’m learning who I need to be in this moment. And it’s quite eye opening to see how far I’ve come. But also how far I have to go.
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