It's an honour to walk beside you 👫 Sometimes it baffles me that on a planet of 7 billion people, we 2 met each other in a flat in London on a drizzly October day.
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We come from very different places - physically and metaphorically. He grew up in Singapore 🇸🇬, I grew up in the UK 🇬🇧. He attended private school 🎓, I attended comprehensive school 👔. He grew up in a large extended family 👨👩👧👦👨👧👦👨👩👧, I barely ever see mine 👨👩👧👦. He's a Millennial 💾, I'm Generation Z 📱. And yet we both found ourselves at the LSE, in the same year group, making friends with the same person, who inadvertently connected us that one drizzly October day in London 🤷♀️
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The world is baffling and I'm grateful for its mysteries, for they brought me you @wahluns 😇
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PS photo creds to my dad who was highly embarrassing and ran around us thinking he was sneakily getting a picture when we all knew exactly what was happening 😄
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[Image description: in the first picture, Abi and Will walk away from the camera. In the second picture, they walk towards the camera with smiles on their faces. They are dressed formally: Will wears a grey suit, forest green shirt and purple tie, whilst Abi wears a yellow dress, leather jacket and floral high heels.]
It's OK to sashay away from people/places/things that no longer serve you 🤸♀️
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I'm a sucker for an inspirational quote and my fave one recently has been:
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✨ The woman you're becoming will cost you people, relationships, spaces and material things. Choose her over everything.✨
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(idk who said this btw - does anyone know who to credit? 🤔)
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When I started recovery, I was terrified of myself 😳 For years I had wrestled to be something I wasn't - a quieter, gentler, less ambitious, less opinionated woman. I believed that being this smaller version of myself was the only way I could ever be valued and loved 😔
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My distorted beliefs were reinforced by toxic people in my life at that time 🙇♀️ An ex-boyfriend told me my intelligence was "intimidating" and asked me to stop talking about things he didn't understand cos I "made him feel like an idiot". My former best friend told me I was "intense" and if I just "chilled out" then other people would like me. I existed in an echo chamber of negativity that made me hypervigilant, watching every word that came out of my mouth for fear I was being "too much" or "not enough" 🙊
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A major break through in my recovery came when I realised those people were wrong. Another came when I cut them out of my life for good.
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Sometimes the only way to move on with YOUR life and YOUR journey is to let go of those who want to change you or change the path you choose to take 👋 It's not easy - I lost my entire friendship group when I stood up to my so-called best friend. It was a deeply painful time that still haunts me, but despite it all, I wouldn't change my decision for the world.
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The woman I'm becoming deserves more than to be silenced and minimised and bullied. I will honour her no matter the cost 😌
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What do you need to let go of to grow? ❤️
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#recovery #quote #personalgrowth #anxiety #edrecovery #anorexiarecovery #wellbeing #wellness #selflove #acceptance #movingon #inspo #travel #mhaw #mentalhealthawareness
In my natural habitat 🌳☀️💃 I know every corner of this woodland back to front. It has been a vital part of every stage of my life:
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👶 When I was a kid, my family would bring me to play pooh sticks in the stream that wound through the valley.
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🤸♀️ As a teenager, I'd come here with my friends to while away lazy summer afternoons, and "revise" for our exams.
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🙇♀️ Whilst I was sick with anorexia, it was the place I took out all my pent up anger and anxiety and restlessness, stomping around the fields and up and down the hills until I felt human again.
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🧘♀️ On my trips home from uni, I savoured the wide open spaces and peace and quiet here, retreating from the noise and pollution in London and taking refuge among the trees.
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👩🦰 Now I'm living at home again and this woodland helps me energise and unwind on my commute to and from work. It's also the place I insist on bringing my boyfriend everytime he visits, because I love the way the pathways and fields and nooks and crannies that I'm so familiar with can surprise him.
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I am very lucky to have access to such an amazing woodland, right on my doorstep. Living in London really made me appreciate how glorious getting out in nature can be. I need these green spaces for my mental health and sense of being connected to the world 😌
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What helps you feel connected and grounded? 💚
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#nature #woodland #forest #outdoors #wellbeing #placetovisit #wellness #mentalhealthawareness #mhaw #mentalhealth #recovery #anorexiarecovery #eatingdisorder #eatingdisorderrecovery #edrecovery #greenspace #environment
