On Your Mark, Get Set, Evolve!

Dear A Beautiful Recovery Readers, First of all, thank you for continually checking in, wondering what changes were occurring or if something had happened. I love and send gratitude to each and every one of you.

The truth, though, is much bigger than “I went away for the summer and am returning back to reality and thus blogging”. No. The truth: I have undergone some incredible, life-changing experiences, and I wanted to fully immerse myself in those emotions and opportunities, stocking them up until I couldn’t wait another second to share them with all of my readers.

This blog is going to see an evolution of greatness. When I began this blog, I was healing. I was changing from someone who couldn’t look at herself in the mirror and had a hard time smiling when it was grey and dark outside to someone who has a hard time not smiling (not counting the week long stress fest that was moving back to school) and wants to shake the world awake into greatness. I was struggling over the winter//spring to define my values and my truth. I needed the end of the spring and the bulk of the summer to discover my passions and my purpose (at least at this point in my life). I wrote down weekly in my planner to write a blog post, to explain my absence, but no words were right, and I left behind every draft.

But rather than apologize for that, I know in my heart that this exact moment is the time to revolutionize this blog.

Here’s what happened that catapulted my change:

I moved back home in the middle of May (Wake Forest was done for the year), and I rushed into the notion that in order to succeed I needed money, everything on my “want” list immediately, and a superficial appearance of perfection. I spent weeks (in addition to the months already spent) looking for a job. Eventually, I walked up and down the streets of Downtown, passing out my resume, hoping for a call immediately. I got one: a nicer restaurant on the water downtown hired me the very same day. I trained nervously for one or two days and then was sent into a restaurant experience of negativity and hatred. During that week, I had a family explosion of negativity as well, and so the following week or so began filling with doubt, insecurity, and self-image issues. I felt myself spiraling into bad, old habits, ones I didn’t like or need. And it wasn’t until I was crying for a whole day straight that I came to the realization that I don’t have to live this way.

Wow. It’s true. Don’t live with things that make you miserable!

I did not even know that this was a possibility, but I started thinking more and more about the idea. Making money in a hostile environment does not make me happy. I slept on this for a day or so, and then I stepped into the restaurant and quit. After about two weeks, not even long enough to put on a resume, I quit. And I don’t regret it for a single second. I also don’t regret being hired, either. I learned that I was a person worthy of hire, a desired candidate for a job, but I also learned that my worth was much greater than pleasing people who could only snap back with attitude.

The idea that I could do what I love and be rewarded by the universe was a simple idea and a magnificent reality. It made me evaluate what empowered me, what gave me purpose. I had been working for trade at a local yoga studio, working their front desk in exchange for yoga classes. I already knew that yoga fueled me, as I was/am completing my yoga teacher training. But I was recognizing that my passion for health and nutrition was far more powerful than just reading through blogs online. With that idea in mind, I started looking up the credentials of my favorite blog writers, and lo and behold discovered my future. Amazing right?! Ahhh this is so fun and exhilarating for me to write!

I am currently training at Integrative Nutrition^® to become a health coach! What was once a passion of looking up superfoods, talking to friends and family about dietary liberation, and embarking on culinary adventures has morphed into an amazing phase of my life.

I will talk probably incessantly about my adventures as a student at Integrative Nutrition^® and being in yoga teacher training, but I know my readers love me, and it doesn’t matter what I write as long as I am being authentic and true.

And wait there’s more! Not only am I becoming a health coach and a certified yoga instructor, but I also started Crescent Moon Naturals, a beauty product line free of harmful toxins, filled with loving and nourishing vegan ingredients, designed to harmonize the mind and body with self-love. You can view my website here. The website is informational and a testament to beauty, but will soon expand to Etsy. Stay tuned!

So there you have it... my changes: A Beauty Revolutionary, a Yoga Instructor, and Health Coach swirling around with the title of Life Long Student! Beautiful, isn’t it? Worth the wait, too?!

With all of these changes, it is natural that A Beautiful Recovery will evolve, too. I am still going to write of my gratitude, my weekly finds, my life, but I am also going to include helpful health and nutrition information, DIYs, yoga, and weekly mantras. It’s a big haul, one that is going to be a slow but incredible shift, and I look forward to all of the places, people, and opportunities it will uncover and journeys it will take us on.

Who’s with me?

With love and endless gratitude, Namaste.

xxoo

Emily Friend