kintsukuroi.

kintsukuroi.
noun and verb. the art of repairing pottery with gold lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken. to repair with gold.

photo credit to the beautiful Natalie Plata, aka Life Through A Rose Lense. 

she did an absolutely beautiful project for the month of may--mental health awareness month. during this project, she photographed amazing souls to help share their stories and what they struggle with to help bring awareness. thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this project. and thank you so much for taking absolutely brilliant photos.

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i have anxiety.
it's a hard fact that i have to live with every day.

some days are better than others.
and i am so thankful for the better days because it means that i am not completely broken. 

those days make me feel the gold inside of me.
they make me feel good and weightless and happy.

but the bad days are still there.
and the bad days make me feel broken and heavy. 
sad and angry.
scared and frustrated.

anxiety starts in your chest and spreads like ink on thin paper. 
a tie-dye design of anxiousness.

you can't breathe. it takes control of your chest and spreads up to your mind and through your veins.

but self love helps me heal.

self love pours gold on my brokenness and mends all the edges back together. 

that gold makes me stronger and more beautiful than i was before anxiety threw me against the cold marble floor and watched me shatter.

however, gold does not eliminate the harshness of anxiety that i experience. it does not glorify or glamorize it. 

it makes it apparent to everyone. it forces me to be vulnerable. it shows off my once broken pieces. but by forcing me to accept it, and deal with it, and love myself still--that is a very beautiful thing.

me not giving up is beautiful and victorious. 

and not giving up is tough, but so am i. 
and darling, so are you. 

you too are tough and brave and absolutely beautiful. 

love yourself so much that the gold pulls your broken pieces together and makes you whole again.

because darling, you deserve it. 
and i promise you, you will shine again if you allow yourself to.

22:49

22:49
noun. time of night. (10:49 pm for those of you who don't know military time). 

it's 22:49 on 17 april 2017.

i haven't written in a long time and i'm so sorry.
i've been dealing with a lot. 

school is stressful.
i struggle to find motivation to study for the tests that i know determine my grade point average. 

i've been stressed.
i've been tired. so unbelievably tired.

yet i've been inspired. 
i quit my job. i started my own photography business.
i'm in the process of starting my own graphic design/advertising free-lance website as well. 
i said yes to my creativity. 

i like that.

it's 22:49 and i should be studying for informational systems technology. but i can't. 

it's 22:49 and my wrist is sprained because a guy who i thought was my friend didn't let go when i said "ouch, stop. that hurts."

he didn't apologize.
we aren't friends.

stop means stop. 
in every situation.

it's 22:49 and my mind is racing a thousand miles per minute.

it's 22:49 and i'm listening to the cello song on repeat.  

it's 22:49 and i'm choking back tears because i am tired.
i am not happy.
i am not where i want to be.

i know i should feel so blessed.
but i am stressed.

it's 22:49 and i'm reminding myself that life is wonderful.
that i am lovable.
that life is meant to be lived. and enjoyed. and loved.

it's 22:49 and i am reminding myself to be passionate. 

it's 22:49 and i keep looking around my room reminding myself that this should feel like home.

it's 22:49 and my anxiety and soul are battling it out.

it's 22:49 and i am me.

it's 22:58 and i am amazed how fast i typed this.
it's 22:58 and i take a deep breath.
it's 22:58 and i remember.

i remember that i am so much stronger than i was a year ago.
and two years ago.
and three years ago.

i remember that i have grown and bloomed and blossomed in multiple, positive ways. 

i remember that i am loved.
i remember that i am art.

i remember that my grade point average, yes does matter, but my soul matters more. 
my sanity matters more.
my mind matters more.

you know what else matters?
my feelings. my emotions. 
my thoughts. my words. 
my actions.

the fact that i have saved others from harming themselves.
killing themselves.
forgetting themselves.

i have saved others from sadness. 
and anger.

i have saved others.
and please know that i am not bragging.

but yes i am celebrating, because those souls, those bodies are absolutely incredible.
they are absolutely significant.
they are absolutely brilliant, and talented, and lovable. 
they are worth it.

and so are you.
you are so you.
you are so every star dust that makes up your body.
your mind.
your soul.
your skin.
your thoughts and emotions.

you are so you.
you are so worth loving each and every neuron of yourself.
from your toes to your knees. 
from your knees to your hips.
from your hips to your shoulders.
from your shoulders to your head.
from your head to the inside of your heart and mind.
everything.

so be you.
celebrate you.
love you.
and love life.

and please always say yes to life and to love, because i promise darling,

everything will be okay.

it's 23:04 and we are breathing.
it's 23:04 we are connecting our souls to the moon. 
and the moon to the stars.
and the stars back down into our souls because darlings we are made out of the very stars that lit up the darkest nights. 

because of this, we have the very power to light up our darkest moments.
so shine, love.
choose to shine. 

it's 23:05 and we are saying yes to shining.
it's 23:05 and we are saying yes to life.
and most importantly yes to love 
(love of self, body, mind, soul, life, positive others, and the world). 

dawn.

dawn.
noun. the first appearance of light in the sky before sunrise.

"the night is darkest just before the dawn." 

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i've never hated myself.

i liked me, but I didn't quite love me.

not for the majority of my past, anyways.

i didn't know what "self love" qualified as.

i was always taught to put others first.

in doing this, didn't realize that i had been putting others before my own health.

i allowed myself to be taken advantage of.

i ended up in many unhappy situations that weren't necessary for me to be in.

i didn't allow myself to demand the respect i deserved.

anything positive about me, i would downplay for fear of coming off as cocky.

i would slip into secret depressions for no apparent reason for months on end.

nobody would ever know, i had a pretty convincing mask.

i liked me, but i didn't love me.

i didn't think much of it, though.

i tried to bottle it up, but it all broke loose in october of 2015.

i had been allowing certain people to manipulate and control 

my mind, 

emotions, 

and life 

for far too long…

eventually, 

the final straw that broke my back was thrown down.

that night was a blur of red.

i don't remember much from that night, but i know that i called andrea...

and talked to her about what probably was a rather trivial situation in retrospect.

but i couldn't compose myself.

i don't remember a point in my life where i had ever felt such a lack of control of my emotions as i did that day.

if "mental breakdown" was in the dictionary, the definition would just be a picture of me on that october night as i sat sobbing, beating the wall and gasping for air in the shower.

that was the lowest i'd ever felt, and that was when i knew i had to make a change.

either out of coincidence or fate, andrea and i became much closer after that day.

i say "closer" because, even though we'd known each other pretty well for about 3-4 years prior to that event, i still had no idea what her voice sounded like.

it's a weird detail to keep track of, i know.

but while i was on the phone with her for that first time, despite the oncoming breakdown i had, i remember hearing the calming familiarity and empathy in her voice.

like she'd been there before.

she had the ability to help keep me sane in one of the rare situations where i felt helpless and hopeless towards myself.

she had always talked about self-love before, and while i always approved and appreciated the idea and loved to hear her talk about it,

i never quite understood it.

but after hearing her voice for that first time over the phone, i did.

the first step i took was cutting out any negative and toxic people i had in my life.

there weren't many, but they existed.

that alone was a weight off my shoulders.

i've stopped relying on the approval and justification of others.

relationships with my friends, family, and teammates have been strengthened.

i've started getting the respect and recognition i deserve.

my happiness is no longer dependent on anyone/thing other than God and myself.

i'm exponentially more involved around campus and happy this year than i ever could have imagined i would be in college.

my confidence has taken a huge 180 from years past.

i acknowledge my flaws and imperfections - i'm not ignorant or blind.

but i continue to work on them.

i don't let them hold me back anymore.

it's unfortunate that it took almost 21 years to get to the point where i started treating myself the way i deserved to be.

but if i had never felt that weak, i know i wouldn't be as strong as i am now.

if you could take the current 22 year-old me and compare it with 20 year-old me, you wouldn't recognize who i was back then.

i'm thankful for how things have turned around for the better for my mental health in this past year.

i'm thankful for those that were, are, and will be in my life.

i'm thankful for andrea for being there for me in my dark times.

to me, self-love is being in charge of your own happiness.

if you control your happiness, there is no person or situation that will ever have any more power over you than you allow it to.

self-love, self-awareness, self-respect; i don't care what you call it, 

it matters.

though it took me a while to realize this, self-love has allowed me to enjoy my life to a fuller extent than i realized i could.

i will always love God.

i will always love my family.

i will always love my friends.

i will always love me.

[josh]

self-help.

self-help.

noun. the action or process of bettering oneself or overcoming one's problems without the aid of others; especially: the coping with one's personal or emotional problems

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“i didn’t realize it, but the days came along one after another, and then two years were gone, and everything was gone, and i was gone” –f. scott fitzgerald 

life was shit. life still kind of is shit but i’m better at handling it now then i was a few years ago. every day was a fucking battle to even get out of bed. i didn’t talk to people, i didn’t go to school, and i was all around miserable, does this sound familiar? for a lot of people it should sound like MDD, or Major Depressive Disorder. i’ve dealt with this for the last four years along with continuing anxiety from when i was younger. i won’t bore you guys with the details, so let’s start from freshman year of high school. 

i didn’t have too many complaints at the beginning, my grades were good, i had friends, and not too much stress. it all hit me like a rock. i think high school and growing up is a really stressful time period for a lot of 14/15 year olds, i also think mental illnesses are very common in young adults. so all of this fuckery was bound to happen at some point. 

i pushed people away. i told my best friend she was the root of all my problems, i made her believe it too. i gained so much weight from all the sleeping and eating i was doing. i had a mental breakdown in biology and had to be sent home for the day. depression had taken a mental and physical hold on me and i was a disaster.

people really did try to help me, to the best of their abilities, and it was so appreciated, but it didn’t work. therapists didn’t help, some medications didn’t help, and nothing really helped. 

“well what’s so wrong in your life?” “how can you be depressed?” “what could possibly be making you so sad?” i didn’t have an answer then and i don’t have an answer now. i really couldn’t tell you why things were so bad, it was a mixture of everything in my life, including myself. i was toxic. i was gaining weight. i wasn’t pretty. i didn’t have friends. my life was worthless. obviously i don’t believe these things now, but oh god did i at one point in time.

i was so numb, i hurt myself, i binged, i isolated, i wanted to be gone. most days i was gone, my physical self being present but my mind was tucked away in a dark, cold place. i hated myself so much. of course i wasn’t going to try very hard to take care of myself when i didn’t think i deserved it.

but i do deserve it. 

i deserve to cherish myself and take care of my soul. i deserve to thrive and conquer as much as anyone else. i really cannot stress how important self-love is. you can’t make it out of this world if you don’t love yourself and i had to learn that the hard way.

days are still hard. sometimes i still have to convince myself to leave my room. life isn’t a walk in the park and i don’t expect it to be anything less because i am a fucking queen and i can handle it. 

and so are you. 

and you deserve to love yourself. you can’t expect to the fight off the world when you’re still battling yourself. 

“i had to fight like hell and fighting like hell has made me who i am”- unknown

[jessica]

demons.

demons.

noun. sources or agents of evil, harm, distress, or ruin.

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i have always been a shy person. 

the smallest encounters make my heart ferociously pound.

and for a long time, this anxious pulse made me often rely on my parents. 

my anxiety was dormant for most of my life. so i was just shy.

but that all changed one day during my junior year of high school.

my 10 year old cousin Gabriella died from cancer. 

after that, 

my anxiety came out with full force. 

i remember my first panic attack:

gasping for air, 

uncontrollably shaking, 

crying, 

and trying to grab onto anything that was certain, 

anything tangent.

i have had anxiety for a little over four years now, 

and with anxiety comes the possibility of experiencing an attack at any given moment when anxiety wins the fight.

life got hard sometimes, and it sometimes it still does. 

the uncertainty of when my next attack would be made me more anxious, 

being more anxious made me more anxious, 

having stress made me more anxious, 

every little thing made me more anxious. 

and sometimes that vicious cycle feels like it’ll never stop.

however, you have to deal with your demons. 

you have to fight the fight.

dealing with my demons everyday is the hardest part of my day.

and i am constantly stuck in my own mind. 

talking about mental illnesses makes some people very uncomfortable.

some people simply just don’t want to talk about it…

but it is something i have to deal with everyday 

and talking about it with others helps not only me, 

but also help others cope with it. 

my mental illness doesn’t define who i am. 

yes, at this moment in life it often controls me, 

but one day i will finally control it. 

having this mindset led me to start taking care of myself more, 

loving myself more, 

and most importantly 

being unapologetic for having anxiety. 

having self-love and self-worth is the most important thing 

when dealing with your own demons, 

and choosing to love myself every day is leading me to win this battle. 

and ultimately heals me.

[sabrina]

clarity.

clarity.
noun. sharpness of image or sound. quality of being certain. quality of being clear. 
——————————————

i am almost embarrassed to share my story of how I learned to love myself. 

cliche as it sounds, 

it started when my heart was shattered into a billion pieces by someone 

i thought I'd spend the rest of my life with. 

the one person who i revolved my life around 

drained the light and happiness out of me. 

one year + four months.

i was in a committed relationship with someone i saw a future with. 

after all, he was my first everything. 

people always told us they saw that we had a chance because of how happy we looked on social media.

and

my friends, family, and coworkers would say how sweet and humorous of a gentleman he was. 

however, social media + everyone else only saw the side that he wanted them to see. 

and love blinded me to the point where i didn’t realize how toxic of a person he was.  

behind closed doors:

he was demeaning towards me and others around him. 

he believed that he was superior

and used awful words to insult the people he saw “below him”.

he spewed negativity.

and his negative energy was so unhealthy for my soul. 

but still i loved him. 

and i loved him into college.

me being a year older and in a long-distance relationship 

seemed to make things worse.

he became incredibly controlling.

he was negative energy.

he was condescending. 

he was manipulative.

he was so incredibly toxic…

and even though he tried to cover it all up with sweet gestures:

there was always still a great amount of emptiness within me. 

i was never enough for him.

but finally through the breakup,

all the painful truths discovered afterwards,

devastation and heartbreak,

i experienced clarity.

i decided to reach out to those around me.

i reached out to my family and friends. 

one of those friends being andrea. 

my dear andrea torres introduced me to her brand:

purely psithurism.

time and love from the right people

was exactly what i needed to heal my wounded soul. 

my ex took a part of me that i will never get back.

however, i was able to fill that part with 

the greatest love there is:

self love. 

i have never felt so free and alive. 

i love who i am.

i am fucking worth it. 

and now

i am genuinely happy. 

andrea darling, thank you so much. 

you are an incredibly strong individual to share your story and create a movement. what you're doing is phenomenal.

thank you for being there when i was at my lowest and teaching me to value myself. 

self-love is a strong and powerful thing that needs to continue to spread. 

you, me, and every single person out there is a work of art and deserves an infinite amount of love from others and primarily from ourselves. 

i love you and thank you again.

[g.]