Today is a quick but happy and bubbly podcast with one of my close friends Malissa. Malissa is one of the kindest, brightest and most genuinely confident (not to be confused with cocky – she’s very humble) people in my life. However for a short period at the end of high school, Malissa who had always been quite popular and happy, suddenly found herself without a close group of friends around her – she was starting to venture outside her comfort zone and become more independent and her friends weren’t supportive of this. Malissa became self-conscious, she still hadn’t really discovered who she was and now was questioning whether she had made the right decision in taking a different life path to her old friends.

It wasn’t until her godmother suggested she read”you can heal your life” by Louise Hay that Malissa was able to snap herself out of her rut. She learned that if she changed her thinking; stopped being fearful, wondering “why me” and second-guessing herself etc. and started replacing those draining thoughts with positive affirmations (like just telling herself that she loved herself – even if she admits this did sound a little strange in the beginning), that she could re-wire her thought patterns. By thinking differently she was able to start tackling the areas of her life that needed attention.

She started paying more attention to the quality of her foods, committed to daily exercise and went out and signed up for the activities she wanted to do.

Does she still have bad days? Uh yeah, she’s human, however she’s now knows how to nurture herself when life gets tough. Her parting advice. Just breathe. Life does get better, and you can play a huge part in that by first loving yourself and surrounding yourself with people that value, live, inspire and respect you.

Are you now as in love with Malissa as I am?

Check out her website www.malissafedele.com and follow the links to her social media accounts or purchase her cookbook (think recipes for sticky date pudding, passionfruit icecream and pesto salmon with roast veggies – yes plez)