Epiphanies Of Life

Late last year, I wrote a letter to my prospective mentor, having lost all hope, I stated all the things I was struggling with and all the challenges I was facing. I sent the letter to my husband for his opinion before sending it out. He looked at it and said, “You already know the problems you have and you have, in so many words, stated the solutions. Mentors help people who help themselves.” I sat back in my chair, completely defeated and wondered, “How can this man say that I have solutions?” I was then forced to investigate and see what exactly he was seeing as the solutions. My point with this is that we often sit with solutions to our own problems but because we are overwhelmed with what is wrong, we don’t see what is right, even when it’s in clear view. This is when my journey to personal growth and self-acceptance began. For a long time, I depended on others for everything, for answers, direction, appreciation and validation but it was never enough and should someone do some...

During this time of the year, some of us still have hope in what the year will bring and we are looking forward to all the good things to come but for others, defeat and hopelessness have crept in. This is said to be expected during the third week of the year, as new year’s resolutions are already broken, the holiday hangover starts to seep in and reality hits on what it will actually entail to achieve all the goals that they’ve set out for this year. But there's hope, as I believe that once you know what the problem is, you can straighten yourself up and start to face the issue head on. So, how do you get over this slump and ensure that it doesn’t happen again in 2020? Firstly, I suggest taking a mini break from it all, a little bit of time to strategise. Take a moment to reflect on what caused you to end up in this position in the first place. Also, take into account all the self-sabotage habits and mistakes that slowed down your progress. Answer the question, what could ...

During this time of time of the year, many of us are dealing with back to work and back to school stresses and we spend a lot of money that we probably should have saved during the festive season to prepare for the year ahead. This can cause a lot of stress and anxiety, and ultimately depression. I was diagnosed with anxiety after I fainted at home during my matric year and with depression about 6 years later. In the years following the diagnosis I went through symptoms similar to those of grief. I was in denial, thinking that the doctors were wrong, I was just tired and it would go away, just like a cold but the symptoms have reoccurred multiple times in the last few years, and I could not deny it anymore. I’ve also been very angry with everyone, mostly God and myself, for even being diagnosed in the first place. In search of a cause I’ve taken out my anger on my family and blamed them for what I was going through. Ultimately, I came to terms with the fact that I do struggle with depr...

Happy New Year and A Beautiful Year ahead to everyone. I am so very excited to be starting this new venture of my life. As an Editor and Proofreader, I’ve always loved reading books and I wrote a little poetry when I was younger. I would love to share two pieces of my poetry that stand out in the future… Anyway, my name is Mapula Vilakazi and I am a newly formed blogger. I’ve shared motivational messages on my many social media platforms and I’ve had a very small blog in the past with a total of two posts but this is the very first time that I have committed myself to posting regularly and hopefully, inspiring some of you to start your venture as well. Epiphanies of Life is my attempt at sharing my “AHA” moments that have really helped shape the person that I am and have given me the courage to step into my shoes as a Blogger. Firstly, a friend was worried that lot of people may not understand what epiphanies are so here goes… an epiphany according the Cambridge dictionary is...