THE ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE By Sara Stepa

Hey Party People! If you haven't heard The Attitude is Gratitude has a NEW home and therefore will have a new way of posting and getting in touch with you.  If you regularly, occasionally, or just sometimes visit the original Blogspot site in search of my inspiring words, I'd like to send you over to its NEW home! I have built a beautiful new website where my blog will live moving forward. Content will remain the same, just in a prettier package :)  Please visit, bookmark, or subscribe over at www.theattitudeisgratitude.ca . If you are already subscribed nothing is required by you. I'll get you set up on the new site ASAP.  I look forward to continuing this journey,  and growing and sharing what this blog means to me and what it might mean for you.  With Gratitude,  -S See you over there! :) 

Hey Party People, If you’ve spent some time in the personal development space you won’t be surprised to learn that there is an intense focus on being positive, reaching for joy, and practicing gratitude. This blog itself is called the Attitude is Gratitude, and I’ve taken a deeper look at what gratitude means for me and my platform after gaining insight into this week's topic – Toxic Positivity! I always strive to be conscious of how I am showing up in my posts and do my best to share from an authentic space. I want to own that life isn’t always sunshine and butterflies but that it can also be chaotic and uncertain. That’s real, but at the same time, it's really easy to get caught up in the culture of positivity because we think that’s what people want and need to hear. That might not be entirely true.   Ok, so what is toxic positivity?? Toxic positivity is a forced or false portrayal that everything in life is peachy keen. It shows up when we are pretending to be happy o

Hey Party People , Have you ever gone through a time where nothing felt like it made sense? Where the life you were living was now foreign, or didn’t feel right anymore? This was my experience last winter. I was struggling with not only my job, but with who I was, who my friends were, and what I was doing in LIFE! Maybe it was my pre-mid-life crisis. I hear that’s a thing in your 30’s. No? Just me? Anyway, for me this time was a deep reflection of my life. I wasn’t viewing a job as just a job, or relationships as just people. I wanted everything to have more meaning and feel deeper… and I didn’t feel like I had that. I felt very out of soul . Another term for what I was feeling is called the dark night of the soul. This wasn’t a term I’d heard before last year and I’m guessing its not one you’ve heard before either. The dark night of the soul is described as, “a stage in personal development when a person undergoes a difficult and significant transition to a deeper perception

Hey Party People, For those of you who have followed along this past year, you’ll know that I’ve been on a bit of a journey. Quitting my job at the end of February was a major step towards finding a new purpose, my purpose. I was elated and overjoyed to be free and to have time and energy to do whatever it was I wanted. Before leaving I felt very weighed down and had no energy for, well life. I worked and that was all I had in me. When I left it felt like I could fly, my clipped wings were restored, and I could go anywhere. The first two weeks I leaned into anything that felt good. Food, sleep, writing. And I LOVED every minute of it. I was also flooded with ideas and inspiration and a wanting to do ALL THE THINGS. This also was accompanied by new spurts of anxiety – with all these newfound ideas where was I going to start!? I was able to flip these feelings from anxiousness to excitement. I made a huge leap into the unknown and was going to embrace that wholeheartedly, and I did

  Hey Party People, I wrote a different post for this week about being in service to others but I’m going to hold onto that one. I find it's often easier for people to be there for others and it's harder to be the one actually asking for help. So, this week we’re going to talk about just that. I am someone who wears my crown as Queen of Independence proudly, and I will defend it fiercely. I have constantly held on to the belief that I don’t need anyone. This probably comes through in some of my posts and my words encouraging you to put yourself first, or that Selfish isn’t a Dirty Word. I still believe this wholeheartedly because if we don’t believe in ourselves and our worth, I don’t believe others will either. With that said, we are all human and we are meant to live in community. Why do you think solitary confinement is used as torture? We can’t live in isolation; we’re not meant to. What I think happens though is that we get so used to taking care of others and asking

Hey Party People, Today we all need to take a brief, nay, MAJOR moment to celebrate the fact that THE ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE is one year old!!! March 22 marks the one-year milestone. Happy Blogaversary to me! I want to express immense gratitude to each and every one of you who has been with me on this journey so far. If you have read each post diligently, thank-you. If this is your first one, welcome. If you pull up a post when it calls to you – that’s perfect. No matter your connection to me or these weekly posts I hope my words have resonated with you and have encouraged you to live into the life you want. If you have not subscribed yet, it would mean the world to me if you did. I have something special in the works just for my subscribers coming soon. Something that I know will help you follow your heart nudge. This is a special moment for me, and something I want to celebrate. I created this blog at the onset of COVID-19, at a time where the world legit felt like it was crumblin

Hey Party People, Today I want to give you permission. Permission to be everything you authentically are. We often push down our inner being and mold ourselves into a version we think others want or try to be someone we think we should be. Who you should be, is you. When we were born we had no misgivings about who we were. We just were. You can see it in a baby as they gaze in awe and wonder at every discovery around them. You can see it in a toddler with their over-active and zealous imagination. During these early years, we have not yet been touched by the great influences around us telling us who we are. We are the original and most pure version of ourselves.   I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately how we are born in our purest form but over time life takes its toll and we begin to craft insecurities and feelings of unworthiness about who we are. We strive to please or live up to the standards others lay before us. We craft new belief systems about ourselves and internali

Hey Party People, I’ve been reading Alicia Keys’ memoir, More Myself over the past couple of weeks and it has been intensely inspiring. Her creative journey of coming into her own sound, fighting for her time, and decision to choose herself is truly moving. It has brought tears to my eyes a couple of times. Not tears of sadness but of hope as it stirs something inside me to believe and trust in the process. I would highly recommend the read to any creative out there trying to find their voice, their vision, or is struggling with other people’s influence over your work. It’s scary to trust the process and to choose ourselves. I was all up in my feels at the end of February battling with my own insecurities. But now, NOW I am freaking stoked for the space I am in. I’ve always been a list person, a to-do list extraordinaire, and a consistent planner which is why a step into the unknown without a plan was super challenging for me. But I am approaching this next phase differently with

Hey Party People,  As I concluded the final days of my role at my job, naturally I experienced many emotions. Some expected and some surprising, or maybe I was just avoiding them.  I was excited  I was scared I was exhilarated I was sad I was anxious Taking this step towards a new life, away from everything I know career-wise, gives me those fluttering butterflies. Those butterflies progressed from excitement to fear in my final days. With each person that sent me off with best wishes, and excitement to see where I end up, I began to feel these jolts of uncertainty. I thought, where will I end up, or what will my next step be? In making this decision early on – though it was agonizing, as I write about in “ What It Feels Like to Level Up ” – there was this inner knowing that I was going to be ok. As the decision became more and more real with each passing day those tiny little gremlins returned and my faith was being tested. Still is as I write this.  By leaving I am 100% betting on my

  Hey Party People, I am just about to round out the last week of my job. I made the leap to leave this role at the beginning of January, and after a lengthy transition, I am on my way to freedom in a short week’s time. This also means I’ll be receiving my last regular paycheque. For many this would cause feelings of panic and anxiety, I know this because it was the central fear of others when I voiced that I would be leaving my job. What was I going to do about money? Well first things first, I have always lived within my means. I’m not a big shopper (but I do love my shoes!), my rent is insanely affordable for my area, and the space I tend to spend the most money is on travel, which isn’t on the table right now. I’ve always felt I had pretty good money mindset, I’m saver, pay my bills on time, and don’t spend money I don’t yet have. This I’ve earned is not regular human behavior and perhaps why money is a cause of stress for so many others. Money is also often correlated with h

Hey Party People, When you wake up each morning, who do you see looking back at you? How do you feel about that person and what words do you say to yourself? Are you loving on yourself and see someone who is strong, resilient, and worthy? Or are you a hater and focusing on your flaws and perceived shortcomings. The words we say or think about ourselves matter. Whether this is out loud or in our head what we think is powerful. DYK we think approximately 90,000 thoughts a day, 90,000! Further, of those 90,000 thoughts, approximately 90% of those thoughts are repeats from the day before. Our minds are on repeat, so what are you thinking, saying, and feeing about that person in the mirror everyday. I strive to be positive and to be the best version of myself. But right now I would not say I am my best version but I’m making progress. In complete honesty one of the first things I’ve been saying to myself when I look in the mirror is… “why can’t I freaking sleep, these bags under my ey

Hey Party People, It’s Black History Month! If you’re like me, you probably didn’t learn shit about Black history when you were in school – through the public education system or at post-secondary (unless you intentionally enrolled in African studies). I admit I didn’t know much up until the last couple of years. I didn’t even know there was a Black History month, or why it was important to acknowledge it. Before I dive in today, I encourage you to jump back to two posts I made last year at the peak of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests after the very public murder of George Floyd. The Unveiling expressed my personal turmoil as I was confronted with the realities of racism and my beliefs that it was just a “US problem”. Do Your Own Work followed the next week and encouraged us to explore our own personal feelings (as white individuals), to understand our beliefs about systemic racism and the role we consciously or unconsciously play in upholding the inequalities of our systems