Jennifer Westhoven- Reporter/ Correspondent HLN
Advice:
Don’t get too caught up in your emotions. I used to be so interested in mine: journaling about them, dissecting them, analyzing them. Then I heard something that changed everything. Picture a mountaintop in your mind. The most stunning, beautiful peak rising up into the sky. THAT is you! The mountain! You are not the weather. You are not some little leaf swirling around in the wind, you were always the mountain. Big woops if it’s cloudy for a while. The Mountain Stands. Now, you powerful mountain — what do you want to do with your life? What’s important to you? Focus on that, and just let the weather swirl around you, but never blow you around!
At one point in my life, I trusted people’s words. Then (of course) people broke that trust. So I started to look at “actions speak louder than words”. But that hurt, too. I was crazy about someone once, such a great boyfriend, always nice, always caring, never disrespectful. But he never said anything deeper than that, or that he wanted any kind of deeper relationship. I kept telling myself, well, actions speak louder than words and he keeps calling me and we keep going out on dates. But honestly, it was wrong of me to fool myself that he might really love me. And it was wrong of me to put that expectation of him, when he was clearly not saying that! Now I’ve learned something about people – look for the balance. Do their actions MATCH their words? Do they do, what they =say they will do? If they don’t, do they acknowledge it and say sorry. That’s integrity. It’s my number 1 quality to look for in people, people to work with, to laugh with, everything. These are the people you want to be around! These are the people who make for lifelong friends.