I hope you all have been having a great new year in 2020! The stock market has been crashing, the coronavirus is scaring a lot of people, yet still life must move on. Let’s make the best of the life we have, and certainly my travels will not be stopping.
My birthday was February 25th, exactly the day of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I went with a girlfriend of mine, and we had an absolute blast. The whole time was constant laughter, drifting through the packed streets, costumes everywhere, and the personalities all around were beaming and truly spreading cheer. I love the whole idea of walking down Bourbon St. and catching beads, the whole communication with the bead giver is so funny, it’s an exchange of brief love to give and to catch.
This blog post is going to kind of get into a darker place, but trust me, there is SO MUCH light as well. Maybe you can relate to both parts. Firstly, I’ll start with some positive steps I’ve been taking. I took a bit of a work sabbatical to focus on my mental health. I work about 20 minutes a day, and of course I hire people to keep things running for me and my clients. I finally started to work again and have been motivated, finally! It’s hard when you’re healing from some emotional and physical aspects of life, but I can truly say I’ve overcome a lot of obstacles, and am thinking with absolute happiness and thoughtfulness.
When I left NYC back when I was 23 (now I’m 28), I went on a wild ride around the world, I lived in Germany, got married, moved to Maine, and now back in Boston after 10 years living away. I’ve been separated for over a year now, and luckily that chapter is soon coming to a close. Leaving NYC was the best solution for me, to focus on building “Catherine Wanders” as a fashion, travel and lifestyle blog/instagram. I also built a business “Social Perkz”, an influencer marketing agency. I will maintain these channels, because it gives me hope and strength, like I have found some sense of purpose. At this point, I’m ready for something bigger and better, and there’s a project I hope to commence within this year, I’ll keep you posted! I think it’s so necessary to make goals, accomplish them, and keep building your ideas. We are only as big as our thoughts, so I try to think “what’s next?”.
A New Year, Time for Self Growth
I really needed a restart button, so in a sense I’m actually counting my birthday as a restart to 2020. The first month and a half of 2020 was one of the worst of my life. From a breakup NYE day, to almost getting murdered a week later by strangers. I was bruised all over my body, bludgeoned knees, a cracked rib, and I had to go to the ER. I’ve really only been single for now 3 months in a matter of 6 years, so it’s a rude awakening to get back out there in the world as a single woman. But it’s a necessary process to get better on my own. I’ve had to heal emotionally and physically from both the breakup and the near death experience. I had some PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, Panic Attacks. They weren’t life debilitating by any means! But I had never experienced that before, and it was scary to feel I was entrapped in my own head and body. Whenever I feel like I’m in a vicious cycle, like for instance Insomnia, I look to guided meditation and guided Hypnosis. I kid you not, the Hypnosis is an absolute GAME CHANGER. I did one session of guided Hypnosis for PTSD relief, here is a link to an example and it truly stopped my symptoms. I could have sought out professional help, but I truly want to train my mind to be able to recover through my own methods. Some people choose therapists or psychiatrists, some seek mind altering medicine, but I prefer to be who I truly am, ME. It feels so amazing to be out of it, but it takes a lot of introversion, self discovery, and to do your best to alleviate the pain – it must be done.
As mentioned before, I haven’t been single often, and someone just told me I’m a serial monogamous dater – I had noooo idea, because I feel like I’ve always wanted time to grow and be single. In the past, I’ve agreed to relationships that I was not ready for. It’s time to take time for myself, and not jump into anything. Since I’ve already been married, tried another relationship a month later, I just don’t want to make another mistake. I’m young, yes, but I just don’t want to give years of my life away anymore. It has been a social experiment to get out there and date again. It’s honestly a lot of fun! I’m learning so much about the dating field by practicing. I am totally open for another relationship when the time is right, and I’m honestly really impressed by who’s out there. Till then, I’ll focus on my new projects, and enjoying life! I just enjoy life all the time, that’s what I want forever.
I love to focus on the positives, and step away from negativity. I realized for so long I allowed negativity into my life. I have learned when to step away from people who are toxic, and be STRONG. It was international women’s day yesterday, I cheer for all of you ladies out there. And to all you men, you aren’t all bad 😉 and I’m happy to be learning that as of recent!
So what’s next? I’ll be taking a 2-2.5 week road trip with a friend from NYC going towards Colorado, and stopping at National Parks! This will be closer to the end of this month. I’ll also be going to Bali the next month. I’ve always wanted to go, and like I said before, nothing is going to stop me from what is calling me. I can just feel all these places beckoning me! Cheers to the new start xoxoxo thank you for reading!
Catherine Wanders 