First Slice

“Being happy is a very personal thing, it really has nothing to do with anyone else.” 

– My Why, First blog post 

I am going to start off with a little [forewarning] – if honesty isn’t really your thing, I’m probably not your gal and this is probably not the blog for you. Now that I have that out of the way, lets talk inspiration. 

Do you ever look in the mirror and ask yourself why me? Or sit at your desk scrolling through social media feeling like you’re in the middle of WWIII, meanwhile the rest of the world is passing you by? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there.

If only Adam and Eve would have stuck to the dang deal, everything would be a lot different, but unfortunately here we are. We need to first realize that only about 20% of life is out of your control. There is nothing and no one, not even you, that can shield life’s natural ability to screw you over and wear you down.  So how do we find happiness in a world where money is “everything”, cancer is constantly taking lives of the ones we love, the divorce rate is 50%, and judgement is passed at even the smallest glance?

Lets face it, life is so hard, and I am not here to tell you it is not. Being happy doesn’t come over night, it takes dedication, hard work and a little risk. 

Not that long ago I basically had an A+ in self-pity parties. I was constantly making excuses as to why I was always 5 steps behind the golden life I wanted. In January 2016 I decided to drop the excuses and go after happiness (whatever that was). Defining happiness for me started with a piece of paper and a pen on the most cliché day of the year [drum roll..] NEW YEARS. As corny as that sounds, it actually worked for me because I came to the conclusion that I really had nothing to lose, except everything I had ever worked for. There will be many “get to knows”, but one of the first is that I am a control freak. I have always had my life completely figured out and anything interrupting that plan was just not acceptable. This is one of the first realizations that I had that January. To be happy I had to let go of feeling the need to control every aspect of my life because quite frankly “having it figured out” does not add up to being happy. So on this day, I made my list – not a list of do’s and don’ts but a list of things that make me happy. This is another thing I learned that day, happiness is a feeling, which can relate to both tangible [coffee, puppies, books]  and non-tangible [rain, music, travel] things. When I say tangible I don’t mean a shopping spree to Nordstrom on a maxed out credit card. Now don’t get me wrong, when “20% off your entire purchase” at ULTA pops into my inbox, that still falls into my definition of happiness. However, we are talking something a little deeper than that – We are talking about fulfillment, not just something temporary. Temporary happiness is such an easy thing to achieve because it’s normally just around the corner to your house or on the other side of a text message, but that will last you an all of 5 minutes. Being happy starts and ends with Y O U and your mindset. So much of life is within your control, it’s just finding the willpower to take the reins. 

I created ShelBEinspired in hopes of helping people find the right mind-set and  e n c o u r a g e them to take the r i s k, put the reins in hand and take that leap of f a i t h to find happiness. I will write about my personal journey, best tips, relationships, travel, life, courage and self-love. I have somehow managed to create a life filled with happiness and if there is the slightest chance I can help even one person do the same, I’d say that’s a win. This world is temporary, but while we are here, might as well get your mind right and live it your best. 

Please feel free to let me know any suggestions on topics you would like me to write about (under contact me^^) and subscribe to my page to get my latest posts. I also believe that you only regret the pictures you didn’t take, so find me on instagram @shelbygehrels.