Merry Christmas love,

Wishing you and your family a merry Christmas and a happy new year from my little family! 🙂

This year had brought a lot of love, joy and success to my family and business. Eight days ago I started my #GoodVibesGifting series for the purpose of giving back and connecting with my readers.

I got nervous at first that no one would participate in this series but as the days went by, I saw our connections way more than I’d ever imagined.

Next year, I’m going to share with you a lot more content that would benefit our community most.

Thank you for sharing your ideas in yesterday’s post. You can still give me more ideas at the end of the post even though this series has ended and I’m about to announce our winners.

Or feel free to leave your comments below about what areas in life you want to improve most so that I can focus on those areas next year.

Now, it’s time to announce our winners. I’m going to post their stories below, I hope you find them helpful and you can use their inspiring stories to improve some areas of your life.

 

TERRI PIETTE

I am grateful for the birth of my daughter, I found out years later that I had a tumor/cyst on my pituitary gland. I wasn’t producing hormones and had this since puberty but never knew and it just kept growing all those years. I realized then how lucky I was to have even gotten pregnant, Also i didn’t produce breast milk and never knew why. As much as I have always loved her, with the news I found out, I realized how much of a miracle she really was and appreciated her even MORE.

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DAWN SMITH

I would love to be able to help my sister know that she deserves good things in life. Her and my Brother-in-law just bought a house and she doesn’t think she deserves it. She has low self esteem so anything good that happens she a hard time accepting it. I guess in general just being able to help someone see that they are a good person and when good things happen believe in them and yourself.

My family is my first value and being a good person. The world is so different than when i grew up and i just feel that we need to be better to each other. To not judge someone and to see how they are as a person. I strive to be a better person daily and feel that if i am positive it might help someone else to be ?

Dealing with a negative person can have so many effects on not just them but you. When I come across someone who is negative i try and talk to them and see what is making them feel that way and if it’s something simple i offer some positive thinking that might make them see the situation a little differently. then there are some negative people that start to change how you are and those people just seem to be people that are so unhappy that no matter how hard you try and be positive they already have a wall up to block anything good. to me those people still need us to be positive and just be who we are and offer to be an ear if they need it. We can’t turn our back on everyone but we can decide who we are going to use our energy on and to what extent.

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DREVA ST CLAIR

I’d like to work on self care and spiritual growth so that I can feel more positive and rejuvenated and have that rub off on other areas of my life. It’s so hard to find time to Yourself when you have young kids but its also really important for your Well being.

I’m the first person in my family to get a bachelor’s degree. To some that may not be much but my mom couldn’t afford to put me through college so I found a way to make it happen through scholarships and financial aid.

Also, I became a mother two weeks before I turned 23 and my two little girls are a dream come true.

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LORNA WEBSTER

For me, I don’t know that I ever learned to ‘love’ myself, but what I did realize is that the outer shell is not important at all. I love myself inside and that’s what’s important. As you say, we all will be old and wrinkled eventually there’s no avoiding it, but many are born with disfigurements or can never look the way society wants. What I’m saying is, the more we throw off society’s expectations (something really hard, even I feel them), the happier we are. Societal expectations are there to make us unhappy, to make us ‘buy’ but the truth is if your personality is beautiful you will be beautiful. It shines out of your face and the people who love you will see it. It’s why we have ‘guilty’ crushes on ‘ugly’ people. Beauty is totally subjective and made up of so much more than the external shell. Sorry if this is a bit preachy, but I learned this over time!

You are so right that those people are unhappy and spread it outwards. I have a lot of hard things in my life and am a realist, but once I started facing my issues, I lost all that bitterness. Now I love to bring people up and support them. I find the best way to tackle that negativity, if you’re brave enough is to point out exactly how harsh and evil they are being. If that doesn’t work, I tell them ‘I actually don’t care about your opinion and I hope some day you are able to heal from whatever makes you so hateful’ that drives them absolutely nuts but sometimes it’s what they need to reflect on their behaviour. At the end of the day if somebody loves you they will support you and if they are not supporting you, don’t listen to them. A loving, supporting person will give their advice and voice their concerns in a way filled with care for you. Nasty, bitter concerns have no place, you know who you are and what you are doing, ignore them!

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SHANNA ELISE UPTERGROVE

I am grateful for my patience. Maybe being deaf has taught me that, but I love that I can listen to my children and even my mom and help them out and be grateful that I can help them!

Growing up, I did not appreciate being deaf. I think I fully embraced it after I got pregnant with my first child. today, I don’t mind it at all, it is a good thing that I can turn my hearing aid off when I want and enjoy total silence. But not being able to hear has helped me become closer to my kids and family.

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MELISSA A CRAIG

One project that I want to start doing that I just simply had the time for is compiling a family recipe cookbook, to hand down to my girls, I seriously did not have the time when they were younger, but now I have a little more free time and would love to compile recipes from my grandmothers. From some of my aunts and from our gatherings, to some of their favorite things they loved growing up. I think it would be great for them to keep and learn from.

I was always upset I never went back and finished college, at 35, I decided it was time. I went back and got not just one but 2 degrees! I made me feel accomplished and it showed my girls who were in middle school at the time if you work hard anything is achievable.

I WAS AN OVERWEIGHT KID, ALWAYS HAD BEEN SINCE THE YOUNGEST PICTURES OF ME, I NEVER had a time when I was thin, match this with moving all the time, I went to 14 different schools growing up, this meant for no long-term friendships even in the tween or teen years. I now have tried to maintain a healthy weight and have been steadfast with my own children in where we live. I set the goal of living in the same school district and home while my kids grew up, I never wanted them to feel like the new kid in school. They have gone to sleep away camp and had other experiences where they were meeting new people but I wanted them to have lasting friendships that I so lacked growing up. now my daughter a senior in high school has had the same best friend since first grade. and my youngest a freshman has a friend well a few of them since kindergarten. I just know that small thing has made me and them happier and healthier, so the thing that has changed is the nomad lifestyle.

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PATRICIA WRIGHT

I will tell you of a project I did and am thankful for. I had always wanted a record(book like) of my life. I did it over 30 years ago. I am glad I did because 8 years ago i had a brain enuryism and forgot a lot. If I hadn’t written and typed it i may never have had my story to pass on.

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PATTY

Actually, I was dreaming to be a travel blogger. I came to the U.S. three years ago and my first trip was to see Cherry blossom in D.C. while I was three months pregnancy. My husband and I enjoyed road trips and we had been at 23 U.S. states. Our dream trip is to travel from coast to coast by trains. In reality, my travel plans are held due to I have to care my little girl 24/7 I don’t even have free time to spend on my own. However, there were several great moments that our family spend together. I am looking forward for a right time near future to visit pleasant places in the U.S. with my lovely family.

To dealing with the negative people is to start by understanding the reasons for their negativity. I would say almost all negativity has its roots in fears. So better way is trying to understand them with mind positively.

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SHANNON F

THE ways I choose to deal with negative people VARIES. I’m not sure if it is the best but I have learned that it’s also not worth letting them consume my thoughts or life. Sometimes I have to SET boundaries with myself or them, Remind myself THAT their negativity is theirs them and not Mine, OFFER a positive perspective or attitude, understand that what they are going through Is most likely temporary, OR if needed i keep my interactions to a minimum or not at all if THE negativity is too much to be AROUND on a regular basis. I have noticed that negative people are much easier to deal with if my own self-worth is high.

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AMYBELLE2001

I just understand that if someone is negative, it is something that they are dealing with, not me. So I don’t pay attention to it and try to understand why they are that way. It’s hard and not always the easiest thing to do.

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SUSAN CHRISTY

I get spa treatments to take care of myself physically, and spend as much time as possible with those i love to take care of my mental/spiritual needs.

My dream as a child was to get married and be a housewife in my small Kansas town, which did not happen. but I achieved something even better. I was in the travel industry for over 30 years and saw the world. I’m sure if my big dream had come true I wouldn’t have seen much outside of Kansas.

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PAULA R

I was a secretary when I started working, a few years later I became a dispatcher, years later I became a repairman, one of a couple women working with all men. Then my most important job: A mother.

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BARBARA PACIFIC

I dreamed of going back to school and at the age of 41 I enrolled in college, I graduate this June with my associates Degree in Social work I will work with foster children. I feel so very proud of myself. I feel empowered as a woman! I would love any makeup if you have any Too Faced cosmetics would be amazing I would really love any cosmetics the palettes look amazing

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PAMELA SLOSS

I am grateful I survived being a survivor of suicide. I lost my husband very tragically in 2004, 5 weeks after he returned from A Year in Iraq. There were days I couldn’t get out of bed. And other days I wanted to be dead. It Took a whole lot of counseling and support from some stronger friends and family who put up with all the HURT, anger and lashing out. They HELD together the pieces of me. And I’m so glad to still be here.

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ALISON BRAIDWOOD

I always wanted to live overseas. So i did. I moved to England after I finished university, and lived in London for 17 years. I always felt at home in London, and loved the mix of cultures. I’ll never regret doing it. It does broaden your horizons.

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SAMANTHA

None of my family went to college so me being the first was a dream that i surpassed. Sheer determination got me through.

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Those are the stories from our winners. Because there are so many good stories you were sharing, instead of 8 winners I doubled it to 16 winners.

If you are one of them, please send me an email to hello@allaboutgoodvibes.com within 48 hours (by Thursday December 27th, 2018 8:00 PM (MST)) with your full name, address and your phone number. I’ll ship out the gifts by the end of this week. Congratulations!

Thank you all who participated. Hope to connect with you and give you some gifts next year.

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments below, what kind of content you would like to see next year. I’m waiting to hear from you!

Wishing you and your family, love, joy, happiness, success and prosperity. Happy holidays!

See you again next year!

xoxo,