Progress

It can be very overwhelming when you want your life to be a certain way and you think that you are not as far along as you want to be, or as you think you should be. But recently I've really appreciated how much long-term change requires patience, and is a slow process. Perhaps to restore faith in ourselves, we need to remind ourselves of how far we have come. Some growth in me over the past 10 years has been:

-Having more courage to ask guys out.
-Spending a little less time in negative thought and worry.
-Self-doubting a little less.
-Reminding myself of how blessed I am.
-Not taking other people's word for it and instead, checking things out to make up my own mind.
-Taking Sundays off from work for myself.
-Reminding myself to be in the here and now, and meditating a little bit more.

My advisor used such a great analogy to help me feel better: growth is like crossing the sea. You overcome some big waves, and then look ahead and only see a bigger wave coming, and you feel like you're back at square 1. But it's important to look back to remind yourself of how many waves you have overcome.