The Birth of a Blog
When I began my blog back in late May 2010, it was a trial run. I knew nothing about blogging, design, traffic, RSS, commenting, memes or carnivals. I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a mommy blogger.
I wanted to learn about blogging because I had an idea for a business and I had read that blogging would be a good way to promote it. Boy, did I jump into something so much bigger than I ever imagined! And I was headed into a very interesting period in my life, a period af enormous change.
Just Under the Surface
My life, at the time, was completely out of balance, although I had no idea JUST how unbalanced I was. You see, I was pretty good at hiding behind a mask and stuffing my emotions inside. My body was starting to rebel, but I wasn’t listening.
In July, I took a vacation hoping that would help me relax and move beyond my stress. About 5 days into my 7 day vacation I started to feel a little relief, however, within 2 days of returning home it hit me full force. As I was preparing to do a midyear review with my boss, I knew that I was in trouble. I had difficulty preparing my reports, I could not think clearly, and I was staying at home only when I did not have a very specific meeting scheduled.
The review was a disaster and it became apparent to me and to my boss that I could no longer do my job in my current state of mind. I took a personal leave and made an appointment to see my doctor. I have been on medical leave ever since. I am on medication, see a psychologist weekly, and have been doing much prayer and soul-searching during this time.
Our bodies are not meant to hold the kind of stress I was dealing with. I was overloaded beyond belief. I had work issues and personal issues I was dealing with.
Part of it was external circumstances, however, part of it was due to how I handled and processed stressors in my life. I have had to learn with both sides of this issue.
As I began to write about my journey, I heard from more and more people about how they are dealing with the same thing on some level. They are stressed, overwhelmed and feel completely stuck in their lives. As I was working on my healing process, I realized I wanted to help those who were also feeling the same. This is where the change comes in!
The Balanced Life, Perfectly Imbalanced
I currently am working on another blog specifically geared towards helping women and men work out the balance in their lives. To put their stressors in perspective. To learn what to say yes to and when to say “No”.
My new blog is titled “Living the Balanced Life”. It will encompass 8 different areas of our lives:
Faith, Prayer and Worship
Connecting to Those Around You
Finding Joy in Life
Learning to Just BE
Live Healthy
Being Productive
Renew and Refresh
Manage Your Home and Time
Living the Balanced Life will have regular posts in each of these areas to help you in your quest for balance. I will also eventually be offering, for sale, resources to help you on your journey.
My hope is to have Living the Balanced Life launch sometime early November, and to be in full swing by the time the New Year rolls around! Please note that my plan is to continue to ramble my more emotional thoughts at THIS blog, while LTBL will be practical and action oriented (or NON-action!)
To be sure you don’t miss out on when the new blog will be launching and when updates are made to THIS blog, be sure to subscribe via EMAIL by clicking HERE. I promise, I don’t share or sell your info, and I won’t hit you with spam!
Those who sign up via email will also receive for FREE the report “40 Ways to Live and Not Merely Exist!
In the meantime, for your education and encouragement…
As I am preparing to launch the new blog, my ramblings here will be on hold, unless I just can’t keep my mouth shut, lol! I need to practice what I am preaching and balance my time and resources on what is priority at the moment, which is getting my other blog live.
So… if you are visiting during my hiatus, I have reorganized my ramblings (as much as one CAN organize ramblings!) for you to pick and choose the topics that might best help you where you are at. You can choose from my most popular posts below, or from the list of Posts by Category in the upper right-hand column.
I do enourage you to leave comments as I will still be reading those!
Some of my most popular posts:
So…Who IS This Rambling Woman?
10 Ways to Avoid a Mental Meltdown
This is Your Brain, This is Your Brain on Overload
The Cure for the American Dream
If there are specific issues that you would like to see me address on my new blog, please feel free to send me an email to–
bernicemwood at gmail dot com!
Congrats on your changes to come! It’s exciting how we evolve as bloggers and I wish you the best on your new venture {especially because I suffered from anxiety for 20 years}. Looking forward to reading…
Thanks for the encouragement Annette! I’d love to hear how you overcame your anxiety one day…
Bernice
I just love all your posts…they are kind of on the order of my blog but you have a way with your words and I have to stuggle for mine.
My blog is more of healing the body and yours is more Healing the mind and soul. I need a lot of healing and I appreciate your blog.
I am going to tweet this. Terry
Sometimes all the healing can be interconnected together! I am glad my posts help and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future. I’ll pop over and visit soon!
Bernice
Bravo! I like your new blog journey! Thanks for stopping by Live with Flair. I’m glad I found you!
I am so sorry that you had that very difficult period of stress. How wonderful that you faced it head on and are doing something about it. You are a wise woman indeed!
Thank you so much for your kind words! Yes, it has been a struggle, but I am determined to learn ALL I am supposed to from it!
Bernice
Bernice,
Congratulations on making time for yourself and your launch. I’m looking forward to learning more about your journey and the discoveries you make along the way through your writing.
Thanks for dropping by! I took a quick peak at your blog, looks interesting. I’ll have to go “explore”!
Bernice
blogging is such a life journey. I look forward to reading more!
Just stopping by to say thank you for joining my blog hop. Returned the favour and am now following. I love meeting all these new bloggers. Can’t wait to get to know you better. http://www.jamarahcraftycreations.blogspot.com Sarah
congrats on the launch of the new blog – it’s been a pleasure walking with you on this life journey – keep shining sweet bella
wish you every blessing with your new blog. take care, Judith (Precious Moments)
You go, Bernice! I wish you much much buena fortuna on your new blog and endeavor. It is much needed in our lives to have such resources.
Peace and Joy!
Congrats on this weeks Admirer Monday #3 Spot! Hope to blog with you again soon!
so nice when people write about real things. love it. ❤
I can’t wait until the new blog is complete. This blog is already wonderful, I can image how great the new site will look when it is done!
Looking forward to meeting you at Blissdom. I can relate to your story. Overcoming anxiety (and a host of other health issues in our family) was the catalyst for my journey and my blog. I’m still learning and growing and although I don’t blog about it as much as I do the “healthy choices” part – learning to sit, be still, listen, and manage priorities is an important part of my journey. Good luck with the new blog. I look forward to reading it!
Just a quick note say this is somewhat where I am now. I have started a blog about a week ago and I am learning as I go.
I so am enjoying the creative process once again in my life.
I love your blog and wanted to say thank you for all that you have and are still sharing
Remember to make time in your day to play….
KML
Writersdailynotes.blogspot.com
It’s wonderful to hear that you’ve discovered a blogging purpose that will help others.
Thank you for such a raw post. I think a lot of us can relate to what you’re going through. Writing is so cathartic and writing and sharing is nothing short of powerful and healing. Best of luck to you on your journey and thanks again for your honesty. Authentic writing is worth celebrating!
I’ve stumbled across a lot of blogs recently where changes are being made. It seems as we grow our picture becomes clearer, the puzzle pieces fit together and IF we choose to embrace our “valleys” like you are…….soooooo GREAT – we see how our experiences can impact the lives of others. LOVE your list of 8 things.
We too will be launching our new blog/website in November, because over the past year God has showed us His plan so we are shifting. It’s an exciting time!
I’m looking forward to hearing about your journey, would love to connect. I can relate to you on some levels.
Keeping it Personal ~ Teri
http://facebook.com/keepingitpersonal
[…] about ‘how to blog’. What I didn’t realize was that I was about to embark on one of the most difficult, yet most important times of my life, and blogging was there to help me through […]