Introduction

If you’re reading this, let me just start by saying thank you. Finding the courage to finally act on my dream and desire to start a blog has been a long process of fear, anxiety, doubt, uncertainty, and overthinking about everything negative or positive that could happen. I still carry all of these feelings, and have accepted that they may never go away. But at the start of 2019, I finally started making small goals and taking actionable steps towards the creation of this blog. I knew in my heart that spending basically a year and a half wondering what it would be like to write a blog, dreaming about the experiences and stories I would share, and envisioning the things I could create, meant that this is something I just need to do, despite the feelings that try to hold me back. So, to everyone reading this, thank you for the time and attention you’re currently giving to these words. Welcome to Living Embrace.

For those of you who don’t know me personally, my name is Shealyn Ivany. I am currently 23 years old and live in Mississauga, Ontario, a city just outside of Toronto. You can check out my “About Me” page for more details on me. Now let’s move onto introducing this blog, Living Embrace.

It took me awhile to really pin down what I want the main focuses of this blog to be. After brainstorming all the different topics I want to write about and experiences I want to share, I decided Living Embrace would be a self-development and lifestyle blog with a focus on mental health, wellness, and personal growth. It’ll be a place to share my experiences, advice, ideas, and things I’ve learned, and I hope to create a safe, open, and honest community. I’ll share self-development tips, advice, and ideas with what I like to call informational inspiration: actionable takeaways to spark some light into your soul.

Like every other human on this planet, I am not perfect. I make mistakes all the time. So let me just say from the start that in terms of this blog, I will most definitely mess up at some point. This was one of the biggest fears that held me back for so long. But I have to keep reminding myself that it’s okay to make mistakes, especially when you’re trying something new. You just have to pick yourself up, learn from it, and grow.

Before I started this blog, I knew I wanted to use it to share my story and parts of my life. But Living Embrace is also a place to share my tips, strategies, and advice about life and create actionable takeaways for my readers. I’m not a qualified professional in any sense, I’m imperfect, and I’m learning more every day. But I don’t want to let that stop me from sharing my ideas and advice because I believe I’ll always be a work in progress.

Even though I’ll be dishing out tips and advice, the biggest thing I want people to take away from my blog is to live life on their terms, even if that means not listening to or taking my advice. I know I can’t please everyone, and it’s impossible for every single person that reads my blog to agree or resonate with what I have to say. I am in no way telling you how to live your life. I’m simply sharing what works for me and getting you to think about what may work for you. Of course, it would be amazing if what I create and share will connect with people in some way. But I know my opinions and experiences won’t be relatable to everyone. I only hope to encourage you to discover the strategies that work for you so you can improve your quality of life.

I promise to always be authentic, honest, and true to who I am. I have a voice, and I’ve finally gotten to a place where I feel like I’m ready to share it.  I can’t wait to create, connect, and learn along the way. Adopting embrace as a lifestyle has given me so much, and I hope to show you that you can start living embrace, too.  

If you’re feeling intrigued or inspired, check out “What Living Embrace Means to Me” next, and join me on this journey!

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