Then one day I woke up, looked at myself in the mirror and said “if anyone is going to change your life, it’s gotta be you.” It stung a little. It hurt a lot. I wanted to cry. I’m actually crying right now. I was 36 years old, and felt like I was on the verge of 65. My boys were 5 and 7, and I had been a stay-at-home mom for 7 1/2 years. But if I’m being honest, I leaned out of my life 2 years before that. The truth is, most of you don't know much about my struggles with mental health, and instead know me as Dance Party Liz. The girl who puts on incredibly awesome and colourful Onyx + Ivy headbands, and dances her heart out sometime between 6-7am most Friday’s on Instagram for the whole world wide web to see. It’s funny because A) it’s true and B) because most of you don’t know I’m also a mom of two boys, a wife of one quiet handy Andy of a man, that I picked up my family to move from the burbs to inner city Calgary 6 years ago cause I was dying inside, built a virtual business I’m so freakin’ proud of around movement, mental health, and the joys of the baby steps, all while being a wandering world traveler. Yup, in the last 20 years I’ve explored 45 countries and counting, both above and underwater, have met some pretty cool sharks, all while looking in all the nooks and crannies to find the secret to joy, happiness and overall fulfillment in this one precious life we get to live. With that said, I also went to my first therapist at 23, have suffered on and off for almost 20 years with the wallows although never formally diagnosed with the big D, and then was treated for a year or two with S.A.D. to recently find out I am actually an ADHD squirrel, and incredible proud of it! But let’s forget about all that for a minute, and talk about the Dance Party Liz you know, and why she has something beautiful to teach you. See Dance Party Liz believes life has no limits. She believes that it’s only her and that girl looking back at her in the reflection of her cell phone video. She sees her best self, with the joys of the anthem of the day, and moves with the freedom of a 4 year old on her very favorite birthday. She believes joy is something that is built in a moment's notice, and disregards the heaviness of the world we live in, or the struggles she has had with her mental health.
She wears her crown. She stands tall. She has no fears at all. She is free.
This, my friends, is the secret sauce. Finding moments of bliss in the ordinary. Controlling the controllable. Dancing your freakin’ heart out, and being proud to be YOU!
So today I challenge you to take a page out of Dance Party Liz’s book. Go buy yourself an Onyx + Ivy crown (yup, I totally put in that plug cause if it weren’t for these amazing girls I wouldn’t be here in this wonderful community writing this super cool blog), find your favourite tune, and crank it until the music and your movement changes your mood! You are not too old, and it’s not too late. You got this, and we got you! Onward + Upward! Liz Tizzard (aka Dance Party Liz)
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