Month: September 2020

This week makes 52

I DID IT!

I just bought myself a cake to celebrate crushing my goal. I am happy to announce this is my fifty-second blog. I did it. I reached my goal.

I started this journey posting my first blog on September 7th, 2019. The idea of blogging came from my life coach friend Patrick, thank you for giving me the kick I needed to share my stories, my thoughts, and messages with the world.

I set out with a short term goal. Write and post one blog weekly.

My long term goal was to keep up blogging for a year.

Write fifty-two blogs no matter how hard it is. “You can do it”, were the words from Louise Hay that inspired my first blog.

I will admit when I first began this journey I had no idea where it would take me. I was terrified I was going to be judged. I was scared to expose my life, my thought, and my ideas to the world.

As I began my blogging journey I could feel my old negative thinking started to creep back in. What if I am not good enough? What if people don’t like my blogs? What if my website isn’t perfect?

That’s when I had to shut down those negative thoughts and remind myself to just do my best. I took a pledge to myself. It was simple and looked like this:

I Sascha Davis will show up weekly.

I Sascha Davis will post one blog every Tuesday for a year.

I Sascha Davis will complete fifty-two blogs.

I Sascha Davis will keep writing until I reach my goal no matter what happens.

One blog per week ready on Tuesday’s for fifty-two weeks. I am beyond thrilled to eat my cake and say I DID IT!!

Was the years’ blogging experience perfect? No!

Did I learn a ton of lessons on the way and grow as a person? HECK YES!

I Sascha Davis have done my best and if my best isn’t good enough fuck it. It is as simple as that. I showed up week after week and I shared my blogs. Yes, it’s true I missed a couple of weeks along the way. I could have beaten myself up. I could have given up. I could have taken the unkind words people shared and quit. It is always easier to quit or to blame someone else. I know, I was once the queen of excuses, blame, and quitting.

I am happy I stuck with it. This has been one heck of a year that has positively changed my life. Blogging has brought so many wonderful people in my life. I am grateful for this experience and excited to see where the next year takes me.

Thank you for reading my blogs. Thank you for your kind messages of inspiration and positivity. Your feedback about my blogs has kept me going throughout the last year. I am truly touched and appreciate every one of you who took the time to send me a message.

I would love to host some guest bloggers in the upcoming year. Are you brave enough to share your stories, thoughts, or ideas with the world?

I did it.

You can do it!

Time

How do you balance your time?

What is important to you?

What makes you happy?

How do you make time for your home, friends, family, significant other, hobbies, work, responsibilities, travel, pets, or in my case time for writing?

Writing has given me a huge appreciation for time management skills. I laugh as I write this blog and that sentence as I am currently in my car in a parking garage while I wait for my son to come out of an appointment. Thank-you, Covid-19.

Today I am writing on Monday and I post my new blog on Tuesdays. Super last minute I know. I think I work best under pressure and close to deadlines.

When I first starting writing about a year ago now I set aside a block of time each day to write. At first, I found this process difficult because sometimes when it was my time for writing I had no idea what to write about. The thought of committing to fifty-two blogs terrified me. When I sit down to write sometimes I am flooded with ideas and sometimes I have nothing come to mind. Now I try to write whenever the idea comes to me. I have books to write in stashed in my car, my work bag, my purse, and even in my coat pockets. I keep paper on me at all times in case an idea hits me. Yes, I do write on my computer, tablet, laptop, and even my phone but I find the best ideas flow out when my pen hits the paper.

Having a block of time dedicated to writing seemed easy at first but when the ideas didn’t flow to me so easily having a block of writing time stressed me out. I thought I had to sit down and write the perfect blog or work on my never-ending book in progress. I started to almost dread my writing time until I removed all the stress. When it’s my time to write I just simply write. I write anything that comes to mind. Sometimes I end up journaling. Sometimes I end up working out some ideas for my picture quotes. Sometimes I start a sentence and just write whatever comes to mind. Sometimes I write about my day or what I am grateful for to give me more ideas. Sometimes I write an amazing blog or work on my book. I don’t stress I just write.

Time, you have to make time for what is important to you. Writing is important to me so sometimes I have to take time away from something else to allow time for my writing to happen. I can find time to be on my phone or watch television in the evenings so I feel like those are easy things to cut time away from to write. Sometimes I run out of time so to allow time to write I am missing out on doing chores or sleeping but I always make it work.

Whatever is important to you, you will find the time to do it. You will make time to do it. I never dreamed in my already busy schedule I could find time to write every day. I find the time. I make the time. Writing has allowed me to express myself, to share myself, and to help others. I enjoy sharing my experiences and hearing from people all over the world. Writing has opened my life up to some of the most amazing positive experiences. Writing makes me happy.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blogs week after week.

Breathe

Remember to breathe.

Catch your breath.

Focus on your breathing and remember whatever is happening right now is NOT forever. Nothing you have done in your life has been forever. Everything we experience in our lives is temporary. This moment you are worried about will pass. Just breathe. One thing you can always control in any situation is your breathing. One thing that can always calm us down is breathing.

Such a simple concept yet so many people forget about it. Breathe and focus.

Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. There’s a great technique of counting your breath to distract yourself from whatever is going on. You count in 4 on the inhale, hold for a count of seven, and then let go of a big breath out the mouth for a count of eight. This simple counting technique has saved me from saying things I know I would later regret. This technique has allowed me to slow down and process through the anger I sometimes feel.

Sometimes it just takes nineteen seconds to calm down. Sometimes I have to do this a few times over before I am calm. Sometimes I have to do this with my eyes closed in a safe place to feel like the effects of this practice working. I do this to calm down before I react in a way in which I do not wish to react. When I am calm I am acting from a place of love. When I am fired up mad, oh you better watch out, my place of anger and negativity is strong it wants to rip out and destroy all the positive work I am doing. Fight the urge. Breathe. I know my place of positivity is where I want to react from. Sometimes I just need to catch my breath in order to get back there. Slow down, focus, and breathe.

I admit I was once a very negative person. Every part of my life was negative. I wasted a lot of years being mad at temporary situations that I chose to drag around forever. I could not let go. I carried around a lot of past baggage. I relived moments that should have been temporary over and over again trying to figure out how I could fix them. You cannot fix the past. You can let go and learn how to deal with temporary situations in better, healthier ways. Always be willing to learn. Deep in the depths of my negativity, I never cared about breathing. I lived life in the fastest lane I could find. I didn’t care if I was dead or alive. I wasn’t kind and I wasn’t calm.

Shifting to positivity was not easy for me, being negative came easy to me. I did it for so many years it came naturally. Being positive was a struggle. Learning to breathe helped me battle negativity. I knew change was necessary. I knew I had to change every part of my life. I realized when I am angry I hold my breath. I was unable to even let my breath go.

When you start to get upset how do you react? How do you breathe?
Soon as I can feel my anger or negativity rising up in me I immediately focus on my breathing. If I can get through the next few seconds I can remain calm. Sometimes when I close my eyes I do a little visualization to go along with the breathing. Bring myself back down. Remain calm and react from a place of love.

Before you think this works for me every time. No, it does not. I am not perfect. I am a work in progress. No one is perfect we are all just doing our best. I simply catch my breath, focus on my breathing and I do my best, and if you best isn’t good enough fuck it.

Breathe, focus, calm down and react from a place of love, kindness, and positivity. Slow down and focus on your breathing before reacting. You cannot take back words or actions. Find your breath find your calmness.

Breathe in the positive thoughts and breathe out the negative thoughts.

What consumes your mind controls your life….

What’s on your mind?

Is your life centered on what you’re thinking about?

Are your thoughts positive or negative?

Most of my life I wasted being obsessing about all the things that I perceived were wrong or could go wrong in my life. I wasted so much time for years on repeat worrying about the things that could go wrong that hadn’t even happened yet. Yes, I thought I could see into my negative future.

Does this sound familiar?

Every single thought I had about my life was negative. You would be shocked to know my life was in a constant state of negativity.

The mind is powerful. What you put out to the world comes back to you. I put out to the world for many years that I hated my life, my luck was bad, I was unlovable, I was ugly, I was never going to succeed, I would never have enough money, and that I was an all-around horrible person.

What caused me to feel like this? It was my repetitive negative thoughts. I beat myself down and I let myself go. I gave up caring. I was stuck in a dangerous comparison game. You know the one I am talking about. I only saw the good side of people but the worst version of myself.

My shift from negative to positive came when I no longer wanted to live. When I was ready to give up on myself and for what? My negative thoughts consumed me. I chose to only see the darkness, not the light.

Deep in the depths of my negativity, there was always a teeny tiny light of positivity trying to get out of the blackness of negativity that consumed me. When I finally gave up I laid down in my bathtub ready to leave this world my thoughts had won. My dog jumped in the tub and put his sweet little head on my shoulder. He looked at me with those cute eyes and giant ears and it hit me I knew I wasn’t ready to go.

Deep, deep down like far down I always thought I was destined for a greater purpose in life. But with every negative thought, my positive light got smaller and smaller. I almost burnt that light out with the darkness of negativity. In the end I had a microscopic amber still glowing and I knew it was time for a big change.

When I decided to change my life I changed the way I thought about things and what I put out to the world. I also decided it was time to cut out the negative people in my life. You attract like-minded people into your life with your thoughts. I had a lot of negative people in my life; after all, misery does love company. Surround yourself with good people and life gets easier.

I started searching for programs, books, podcasts, speaking events, and hit the worldwide web in search of how to become more positive. I wanted to know to reprogram your thoughts into those of more positive. Is it possible to erase negativity and replace it with positivity? YES! Consume your mind with positivity.

I am not going to sugar coat this change is not easy. Change does not happen overnight. The change will strip you down to the bare depths of who you are. I will say change is worth it. It is never too late to make a change. You are never too old to make a change.

Let go of the negativity, focus on the positivity. Watch your life change for the best. I have never been happier with the changes in my life.

I choose to let go of my past.

I choose to let go of my negativity.

I choose to be present.

I choose to see the good.

I choose to be positive.

Nicknames…

Oh goodness here is the cold hard truth I am just going to say it. I am terrible with names. I have a hard time remembering names.

Since my first friend, I made I have been giving people and pets nicknames. It seems to be the only way I can remember names is to give them a fun nickname. My nicknames are usually based on how we met or something about how I remember you. Another truth, I can usually remember your dog’s names or other pet’s names before the owners ha. I swear I try to remember names but I come up blank. I hate that awkward moment when I have to ask your name again. I can’t count the number of times I have to repeat my name or spell my name. For the record this does not bother me, nor does it bother me if you forget my name because it’s not a common name or common spelling. I was nervous using my real name for my website because of the spelling, but it’s my website what else would I call it? I am Sascha Davis.

At my current job at the hospital, I work somewhere different every shift and so in my travels I meet a lot of people. It is hard to keep everyone’s names straight. First names are hard enough let alone if I am required to know your last names as well. Forgive me, friends, family, co-workers, and people of the community you all get nicknames. I don’t know why but I can remember nicknames and most time I struggle to think oh what’s so and so’s real name?

I will admit my nicknames catch on and I don’t mean for that to happen. I know I am not the only one who struggles with names. I don’t like that I am bad with names but it is the cold hard truth. If you have any tricks or tips on how to remember names please do share them with me.

I grew up with many nick-names of my own. The first nickname I can remember came from my mom, she always called me Bee. Not sure why I was bee but I was. Over the years I have been given a lot of nicknames. Sassy has been my nickname that stuck since high school days. I guess I can admit I am a bit sassy ha. My best friend and a lot of people call me by my last name Davis. I am a true Davis through and through. Most commonly, people seem to call me tall girl or something based on my height. I kinda stick out in the crowd. I am six foot three but I always dreamed of being seven feet tall. Yes, I embrace being tall. It is who I am. I like to think that people are forced to look up to me and chase after me when I walk. I don’t mean to walk so fast but it’s hard to slow these legs. A lot of my nicknames are my name just spelled funny because let’s face it my parents set me up adding an extra letter to make me “unique”. Don’t get me wrong I love my name and I couldn’t imagine changing my name but it is impossible to find anything with my name unless I custom order it, or maybe if I lived in Europe somewhere?. I know a few of you reading this blog can relate to the unique name dilemma. Not only do I have to custom order my pants, which reminds me a friend of mine calls me long legs sally for this reason, but just once I wanna get the key chain or the pen right off the shelf like the classic named people of the world. My son he can always find his name on these types of items. You’re welcome, son.

Do you have a nickname? How did you get that nickname? I love it when people share nick-names stories with me. Be sure to reach out and share your story. Or if you have a nickname for me also feel free to share. I could always use a good laugh!