.jpg)
If you are happy, taking care of yourself, and living your life the way you want to, then you are living right. If the light you shine also illuminates others, then you are living even better. There will always be people telling you that you can’t, or even shouldn’t, live the way that you do. It is not their life, it is yours.
The only opinion of your lifestyle that should matter is your own.
Now, I’m not saying that you should not think of the consequences of your independent choices. If your lifestyle hurts others or the world we live in, then maybe you should listen to some sound advice and make changes for the better. If you’re not healthy, happy, or living well, then making positive change is worth it. However, if you are happy and living as your most authentic self, keep shining. I know that is so much easier said than done and there will be times where people will use their own fears, experiences, lifestyle choices, religious beliefs, and even envy, to challenge you or attempt to bring you down.
It takes courage to forge your own path rather than taking the cleared and accepted route.
When I decided to pursue photography in college, I faced a resistance. When I created my own photography and blogging business instead of pursuing a “steady” career working for someone else, I was challenged. For the most part, these decisions were hardly choices. They were simply me being me. Becoming a minimalist, studying abroad, moving out of state, moving to a small studio loft, renting instead of buying a house, waiting to be a mature age to get married, living with my fiancé before getting engaged, deciding not to have kids right now, saving up for a big wedding, taking off three weeks for my honeymoon, quitting my previous toxic job, what I wear, the length and curly nature of my hair, the way I look, my spirituality, and everything about who I am. People love to share their opinions. Each of them are wrong. At the end of the day, the year, your life; the only opinion that matters is your own.
I have often come to realize that when people say things about how you look or how you live, they often feel badly about themselves. Very often it is envy. They are unhappy with the way they are living their own life. They felt that they didn’t get what you have, so you should not either. Or other times it is a reflection of their own experiences, that actually have no relation to your circumstances. For example, if you want to start a business and someone you knows failed at their own startup because of their own mistakes, they might try telling you that you will fail too. In my own life, there have been people telling me I cannot live the way I do because it goes against their beliefs. Their’s, not mine. If they want to live in misery because of their beliefs that is their prerogative, but I do not believe what they do and I am happier and healthier because of it.
So when someone tries to bring you down for the way you live, the way you work, the way you look; ask yourself, are you happy with the way you are? If you feel free by simply being yourself, then nothing anyone else thinks matters. You matter.
Stand tall, be confident, be you, and never let anyone dim your light.
