How to stop people pleasing in 2016!

Hi everyone!

So im starting my new years resolutions early and blogging more regularly. I would just like to thank everyone for reading, my blog has been read all over the world which is just unbelievable, I really appreciate everyone sharing and liking my posts and I hope you are all being inspired.

If you feel like you have any comments or feedback or if you would like to be a guest writer on my page feel free to comment.

My whole thing in 2016 is that I need to stop people pleasing completely does anyone else feel like this?

I have become quite strong-minded in the last few years and know who I am but sometimes I slip back into old habits just like us all and people please without even thinking. I want this to be a thing of the past. Now I do not mean we do not have to care for other people of course we do putting others before ourselves is the key to happiness. 

But there is a difference...

I remember being a teenager and people pleasing was the last thing from my mind. I was quite possibly the opposite, people aggravating lol. But I didn’t have it all figured out I was also was quite self-centred so I didn’t care too much about other peoples well being in general.

Somewhere along the line I grew up and matured and through that maturity learned that we need to look out for one another.

Somewhere along my life path the essence of my self-worth dismissed slightly, I began people pleasing without even knowing it and began slightly relying on peoples opinions to reiterate what I believed about myself.

Do you ever find yourself agreeing to things just because its easier than saying no.

I don’t mean being uncaring and not considering other peoples feelings I mean actually making decisions based on the fear of what people may think of you.

I definitely remember living in a small town in Ireland and being almost paranoid about what people may say or think of me if I made certain statements or choices. Being at home over the holidays has given me the opportunity to catch up with friends and they have stated the same feeling, almost like there a roof over their head holding them down because they are concerned with what people, even friends may judge them.

I also spoke to another friend who stated that she suggested that she doesn’t like people not liking her. I cringed at the thought of this, I remember thinking like this and it really kept me from being myself.

We have to be ourselves regardless of what others think. It is impossible to please everyone on this earth and we have to accept it, not everyone is going to like who we are but that is okay, we are loved regardless. If you believe like I do in our God you know you are loved already, if you don't I am here to tell you, you are loved and do not need peoples approval so not living for it.

A long time ago I gave up caring what people think about me, being honest I think moving to London was the start for me I realised that I needed to be who I really was without caring about the options of others, as that is what holds us back in life.

If we seek the approval of others to generate self-worth instead of it being self-generated, we will make decisions based on this. The one thing that faith has thought me is that god loves us regardless if no one else did he still would.

And being honest to the wrong people we will never have any worth but to the right people we will always mean everything.

So in conclusion we need to stop people pleasing and do what is really us.

Still be polite, but be aware of why you are saying yes, what you are saying yes to and why you are agreeing to things.

I hope you are inspired.

Loves Annie xxx

Happy Christmas to all my readers and cheers to a wonderful 2016

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

Although I am a little late as I decided to switch off over the Christmas period, I would just like to say thank you to everyone for reading my blogs and for all your support and amazing messages over the last year, I am truly grateful to know I have made some of you smile and have a different perspective on life.

I want to wish you all a very happy christmas and a wonderful 2016! :) I am currently at home in County Cavan in Ireland and am feeling very content to be surrounded by people who love me. I am aware this can be a bitter sweet time for people who are going through a tough time in their lives or who have lost someone they love.

No struggle no conflict no flight no life...

To these people I would like to say just hang in there, it will get better. Life can be confusing at times disheartening at worst and in general a struggle, if things are not going your way. But there is light at the end of the tunnel and I think it is important for you to know that you are not always going to feel like this. 

Like everyone, I have being through really challenging times several times in my life where I didn't think I would ever be happy again. Let alone at Christmas time, when everyone else seemed blissfully happy this seemed unattainable to me, that I could ever be happy again but I did get there, so just got to hang in there till you do too.

I have a very wise friend once said to me that yard by yard life is hard but inch by inch life is a cinch!!! 

How true this is! Everyone goes through hard times in their lives even the richest most successful people. It can be hard to imagine this when looking at things from there outside, but it is true, every single human being has being down at some stage it is impossible to go through this life without being through some challenges. We are fooling ourselves if we think it is.

So, with this in mind let me suggest something. What if we stopped worrying about the future and just focused on our lives right now! At this very minute. In this very second what is wrong in your life? Do we have a roof over our head? Clothes on our backs? Food to eat? ( I hope you have) well then let us be thankful for these and continue to live our lives knowing that the next inch is taken care of.

What if we changed our perspective on these challenges, what if we looked at these situations in our lives as opportunities to grow. This is the hardest thing to do, as at the time it seems the situation is so negative. It is impossible to believe this could be a good thing.

But I challenge anyone to say they have being through a hard time in their life and it hasn't thought them something. There is always something to be learned. How are we to know this wasn't meant to happen all along in our life path to teach us something! I for one have learned a lot more going through difficult times, than I ever have when things are going right. I have learnt who my friends are, what I am made of and how strong I am. I am sure this is the case if you look back on your life and all the what seemed like negative situations you have been through.

Think about all the "bad" things you have been through in your life. Now, think about the things you would never have learned if it wasn't for these.

What good things came out of them? Even if you lost your job, this could have been a catalyst for you get a better one. What if someone you loved died did that not teach you that you are stronger then you ever thought, or that life is precious and needs to be lived to the full.

So in summarisation... 

Always, always, always, look on the bright side of life! Our current situation should not effect our outlook on life and if it does we only have ourselves to blame. I do not mean we can not be sad or grieve when we feel the need to do so. But we can not dwell in them, time is constantly moving forward and we need to move with it!

I hope you are inspired

Loves Annie xxx

Have a little faith and trust, things will be alright!

Hi everyone! Okay so I have just realized it is my blogging anniversary this month, happy anniversary to me. I am in shock as I am officially one year blogging, which seems crazy and not only that but my blog has had over 53,000 views.

My blog has been viewed by people all over the world, below is just a short selection of views from tonight.

I never thought my little blog would be this successful, so thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I am truly grateful and hope you are being inspired! 

You can see my first post below.

I am going to keep this post short and sweet.

My post this evening is on faith, on believing without seeing. I feel like in my life this is one of the main things I have learnt so far and yet it is sometimes the hardest to do.

I am lucky in that I believe in a powerful creator, who I know is always on the look out for ways to make our lives better and help us fulfill our potential on this earth. But even knowing this in the past sometimes it was hard to believe things would be okay.

I have learnt that faith is the most important virtue you need to succeed in this life. We need to have faith in ourselves, in our abilities but also faith that there is something greater than us.
I have been to drug rehab meetings in the past (not for myself although I wouldn't accept judgement if it was) and the main thing they teach is to have faith in something greater than ourselves. Something that will help us overcome our fears and know everything will work out for the better.

I am living breathing proof of this just take a look at my back story. I have been through grief, depression and anxiety, over the years life has really tested me and at times. When I lacked true faith I thought this theme in my life would never change but I really tried to convince myself and in the end trusted they would. Now I look back and think they have! Drastically.

Two years ago I packed my life into three bags and moved to London town. I didn't know if it was the right thing to do at the time but I had faith and I had a gut feeling this was the path I should take. I am now working in my dream job, just yesterday I received a promotion, I am living in an wonderful house, I have the most amazing boyfriend, family and friends, a successful blog and I know it is not going to stop there there are so many more wonderful things i have in my life pipeline. As there are in yours!

I am not saying life doesn't throw ups and downs at me. It does. but I have faith that things will work out and they do! So maybe this evening all I want this post to do is spread a little faith, please believe me when I say things if things in your life are currently not going to plan, it will get better. Please, if you feel helpless in any situation, just put your faith in someone greater than us, our creator, that things will get better, no matter how hard they seem. See the solution, focus on that happening and just trust.

I hope you are inspired!

Loves Annie xxx

This blog takes two minutes to read and will change your life for the better!

This blog takes two minutes to read and will change your life for the better!

 I'm taking people points on board and creating shorter blog posts so everyone will get a chance to read them. ;)

Thank you to everyone reading my blog all over the world I am still in shock every time I look at my daily statistics (please see below)

Do you know every single time we think a thought we send out a vibration, an electronic magnetic frequency off our brains? Well we do. Every single one of these frequencies causes an emotion or creates a feeling, ( i.e a positive thought creates a positive feeling) this electro magnetic feeling/emotion frequency always attracts a similar wave. In other words these impulses or waves that we send out, attract a vibrational match.

Simply put if you are in a bad mood you are going to attract other things to keep you in a bad mood. So I am just going to tell how I attract good thoughts using a little something called thankful list ritual.

Every single morning when I open my eyes I think about what I am grateful for...

The sun in the sky.
The beautiful world I am waking up to. 
The fact that I am alive and healthy. 
When my feet hit the floor, I say thank you for my feet. 
For my ability to walk, to talk, to laugh. 
When I brush my teeth, I thank God for my teeth, for my fresh breath, my bathroom etc. 

Now you get the picture. I do this all day every day you may think, how do you have the time to fit this in? Do you know the average person has over 60,000 thoughts a day and what are they mainly about? Peoples worries or fears.

Can you even remember one thought you have had in the last five minutes before starting to read this? It was probably a worry right? Point made. We think automatically and if you start thinking positively and train yourself to do it all day everyday. IT WILL BECOME A HABIT.  

If you want a good life, now is the time to train yourself to think positively. Even if you never took any action and just started thinking positively your whole life would change. 

Just try it for a few days, see how you feel and watch what happens in your life.

I hope your inspired.

Loves Annie XXX

Fancy injecting some happiness and positivity into your life? Well this is how you can!

Hi everyone!  I am back. ;P

I haven't blogged in a while namely due to me having a lot of exciting stuff going on in my own life. I have also just being growing in my faith and really enjoying some me time. I have loads more exciting things coming up in the next few months, which I will fill you in on later.

First of all I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for reading my blog has nearly reached 50,000 views (aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!) This just seems crazy when I see the figures I just can't believe it.

I have promised myself that when I get to 50,000 I am going to start Vlogging :).
So there are exciting times ahead!

My blog is also been viewed all over the world, in the last hour it has been viewed from countries as far as Germany, Russia and Australia.

So I just wanted to give you some information on where you can find more of my inspiration if you want it. 

1. Facebook

I will be creating daily thankful lists and sharing positivity on my Facebook page daily, so check it out!

2. Snapchat

I have started creating thankful snaps and sending out some positivity and love in my snapchat feeds so add me!

3. Instagram

or click https://instagram.com/alightersidetolife/

I post on Instagram daily about love ,positivity, healthy food you name it. Health wealth and happiness  is what we are all aiming for so come on my journey here too.

4. Twitter

I share positive affirmations and thoughts on twitter also, so follow me and feel free to tweet me some inspiration. 

I am also on Pinterest Tumblr and Flickr and write articles for Infinity house magazine but these are the main places you will find my daily inspiration.

I hope your inspired. Stay tuned for my next blog, Loves Annie xxx

"The journey to success is shortened with each small step" - Ann - Marie Smith

Firstly can I just say thank you to everyone reading my blog has been viewed nearly 50,000 times and its been read in countries around the world form Serbia to South Africa which is just incredible. I wouldn't have believed that that was possible a year ago!

For those of you have who have read my previous blogs you will know that I have gone through some less motivated times in my life namely due to grief so I understand what it is to feel unmotivated.

But I also know that if you stay in that frame of mind for too long your mind becomes a vessel for negativity. Sometimes it takes time for one to realize that after you hit rock bottom you have to get back up and give life all you got and no one else can do that for you. My brother would have been 31 on Thursday and he literally embodied the art of living life, never one to be in a bad mood or negative about anything. He was grateful to be alive every single second he lived. He literally seized every moment life gave to him and was completely selfless in his acts, helping out anyone who was in need of his assistance without a second thought for what he wanted or needed. I remember my sister, after crashing her car was basically house bound with a young baby, while trying to find a new one he offered her his own that he had bought a week previous to the crash happening. At 21 years of age he had the intelligence and heart of a wise old man. 

The legacy he has left myself and those who had the pleasure to know him is not one shrouded by grief but a powerful one, one of enthusiasm for life and the motivation to live it to the full.

So that is what I'm doing and I want to share it with the world in the hope my journey will motivate and inspire my readers. 

One thing I have learnt in life is when it comes to your goals and dreams we cannot be patient! We need to be hungry. We cannot be content sitting on our bums every evening watching TV and entertaining ourselves with things that will not make us advance, learn or change in our lives. If we do we will end up regretting wasting our time when we are older. I for one do not want to regret a thing, I certainly do not want to regret spending ten years of all my life watching TV which is what the average person does.  

The excuse that there are not enough hours in the day is a useless one, one left for people just don’t want to make the time so don’t fall for it. Absolutely every single one of us has the same amount of hours in a day and yet some people get so much more done, why is that? Motivation is the answer. I am not saying that I am always on point or consistently use my time effectively, like everyone I slip from time to time into thinking I need more sleep or I don't feel motivated in a certain area of my life, but I try my best to stay positive and that pulls me back to be motivated.

There is that saying 'time spent doing what you love is not wasted' but there are exceptions do you think 5 hours watching someone else living there fake life is going to help you live yours?

We need to get excited about life if we want to learn something, we should research and read about it. I want to understand life and get even more motivated about it so I read every morning for half an hour on the tube and every night I re-read and study what I read that morning for half an hour. I really process what I read so I can learn form it and progress in life.  

Do you know if you read 2 books a month on particulate subject you would be within the top 5 % brainiest people in that line of expertise in the world within two years!

If you want to change a particular part of your life just research it, read about it and then write about it literally make it your life. Write out lists of progression on anything you want to achieve within the next week, month or year whatever it may be and take action. I also want to be healthier so I make time to exercise everyday whether that is going for a walk or run and I cook my meals from raw organic food so I am getting the best nutrients out of it. I am not saying I have it all figured out I am merely suggesting little things that over time will make a huge difference and you can make then to, depending on what your dream or goals are. 

We cannot expect anyone else to change our lives for us we need to go out and get it for ourselves. 

On this journey I am really realizing how powerful our brains are, we only use 1 tenth of our brains. I now know that out thoughts create our lives, what we believe something to be, it will become, whether it is a situation or our perspective of our own self or our lives. Once we believe we are something, we embody it. If you want to get motivated in life you’ve got to tell yourself every day and I mean every single day you are doing better than good at life you are doing excellent.

I am sharing some of my ideas about life with you and if they resonate with you use them if not discard them and only use the ones that make sense to you individually. If we want something more out of life than to simply live it, we need to put effort into every aspect of it. Mind body and soul.


You may think life is difficult and sometimes it might seem that way but no one absolutely no one has a problem free one, what makes someones life better is how they deal with these so called problems. You have to go to work on yourself. If you want to go somewhere specific or do something different in life like change your career  or become the person you've always wanted to be. It really it really is up to you. You, and you alone determine faith, it doesn't matter where you you grew up, what circumstances you went through in life or what you did or did not have, all that really matters is that you get passionate about living it to the full.

So I’m going to leave you with this blog post, short and sweet. What do you what out of life? what is it that you desire? who is it that you went to become? 

Well write it done and start working towards it, start saying it out loud to friends and family no matter how far fetched it may seem it is your dream and if you do not believe it it will not happen. Don’t just write it down and forget input it take action even one tiny action a day will amount to a huge change in the long run. Im going to leave you to ponder on what it is you want out of life and in my next blog I will focus on what can hold us back.


I hope your inspired  :)

Loves Annie xxx 

Anxiety - let's get passionate about her

Okay so I'm out for a walk as I'm writing this and I feel like I have finally given anxiety the "boot” OUT OF MY LIFE. By "boot" I mean, I dug out the largest hardest steel toe cap thing I could find and kicked it so far out of my life that it will never darken my mind again!

If you do not know anxiety let me introduce you to her she is apologies for the language a BITCH! She is your worst feeling of fear multiplied by 100, a demon, a scar, a hurt, an insecurity a passion for being scared that just won't leave it's owner alone.
If you do know anxiety by nature let me tell you how to get rid of her once and for all. I have suffered from it on and off since my brothers passing, around this time a long-term relationship I was in also ended. I'm going to talk about it with the hope that anyone who allows suffers from it will also open up to their friends and family. I have given up caring how I'm perceived or what other opinions of me are and that is what began to truly free me from its clutches. Over the last 24 hours I have had 3 beautiful young people approach me from completely different backgrounds over this same virus and I feel the need to talk about this highly toxic lie. It can be something we believe about ourselves, others, or a situation that we believe to be true and more then likely isn't it is just our perception of it.

Around 350 million people in the world suffer from anxiety so let me first of all say you are normal. To those who think they don't suffer from it. You would be surprized to learn that you might and don't even know you are. If you are sitting in your house now afraid to do anything that would drastically change your life afraid to take a chance, leave the country, be by yourself for more than a day you more than likely are suffering from anxiety. If you constantly try to act loud or can’t enjoy your own company, try to keep busy all the time to distract yourself from thinking etc these may also be signs.

The Oxford dictionary describes it as the following:

A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome:or
Psychiatry - A nervous disorder marked by excessive uneasiness and apprehension, typically with compulsive behaviour or panic attacks

Sounds horrible right well what would make it even more horrible, would be taking that feeling and wrapping it up so tightly into the back of throat for fear of taking to anyone about it. This can sometimes happen for fear of being classed as crazy or depressed. It could feel like a stone on your head or a constant migraine, the urge to vomit, a funny feeling in your tummy or not bring able to shut your eyes, let alone sleep. Whatever way it decides to manifest in your body illness weight gain/loss are other symptoms it will show up eventually if the cause behind it is not dealt with.

Now let me tell you how I overcome it.
I discovered what the trigger was. What is the trigger for your anxiety? do you know? What situation in your life brings it on? Start to map when you suffer from it what the circumstances you are in at that moment? What is fear? What are you constantly thinking about? If you do this every time you suffer from it, a pattern will emerge and you will at least see what the cause is.

Once you’ve discovered what the cause is you have several options but the one thing you can’t avoid is talking about it either with a close friend, family member, counselor or even a stranger if you can’t face telling anyone you know. The most important thing you can do is talk about it, I'm serious if this seems to hard at first just write it down, write about how the situation makes you feel etc. Eventually if you write about it enough you’ll be able to talk about it. The most important thing to remember if you are suffering from it, is to just keep reminding yourself is what's the worst that can happen from this situation that is making you feel like this. Write it down and then say okay well that's not that bad and try to think of the positives from the outcome ie. I’m still be alive. No matter what it's over it always have the same effect, it will get rid of the overwhelming feeling and get it out of your body.
Ps. remember it's totally normal everyone, 330 million people all over the world suffer from it.

Just say to yourself flip it I'm right, whatever the situation is once you are being true to your heart and soul you do not need to apologise for how you feel.Try be calm just relax and breath and focus on your breath. Tell who ever you believe in whether that is a higher power, God, Jesus, Allah or even your higher self they are all the same, ask with all your heart, for them to wrap there arms around u so tightly u actually feel the love and calm down.

When I suffered from it I felt like my stomach was so sick with anxiety, I felt like I was going to explode or go crazy. Another thing to remember is that we are who we are. More importantly we are exactly who we are meant to be for a reason, we act and feel exactly how we are meant to! Just remind yourself when you feel it coming on say FLIP IT get the hell out of my body and pray so hard for it you can't be ignored. You will literally feel the love and warmth of who I believe is Jesus but whatever you call that something out there that is more than us mere human beings and you will know you are loved like a baby. Then u want or need to crawl into a hole away from everyone. You will have love behind you giving you strength to stand up and make whatever changes you need to make to stop suffering from it. Promise yourself that today you will take action whether that means removing yourself from the situation that is causing it or talking about it until you find the cause and solution to this vile infection.

To sufferers I send my love and the assurance that you can beat this disease. I am and so can you!

To non-suffers maybe this will be insight or a source of help to a friend suffering.

I hope you feel inspired,
Loves ANNIE XXX

Instagram fever ;) - For daily inspiration

Hi everyone

My blog has over 35,000 views now this is just unbelievable thank you so much to everyone following me and reading my posts I hope they are helping you in some small way and your own individual journeys.


For anyone who doesn't know yet, you can follow me for daily inspiration on instagram at -alightersidetolife please link see below

https://instagram.com/alightersidetolife/ or search alightersidetolife

see you all there ;)

I want to start blogging daily sometimes its just hard to find the time so if you want daily inspiration and to keep up with what I am doing come follow me!

I hope you are inspired or I at least make you smile!;) 

Loves Annie xxx

Follow me on snapchat for motivational videos

Okay firstly I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone for reading my blog !

The support I receive on a daily basis is overwhelming here are some of my statistics from today alone, I have readers in Bulgaria and the United Arab Emirates which is just unbelievable.

I promised myself if my blog got 50,000 views so because I'm on 35,000 I am going to start practicing on snapchat, just giving short motivational videos! 

I get a lot of daily inspiration just from my general day to day tasks and most of the time I am too busy living my live to sit down and write about all the wonderful things I am learning on this journey. So if you don't want to miss out add me on snapchat - alightersideto

Looking forward to start this new journey with you all! Stay tuned for tomorrow mornings motivational snapchat!

I hope you are inspired 

Loves Annie xxx

A inspirational poem by Isabelle Hobbs

Hi everyone!

Okay so the other day I had the pleasure of reading this amazing poem and felt compelled to share it with all of you!

This poem is written by a thirteen year old girl called Isabelle Hobbs, I just couldn't believe it when I realised it was written by someone so young, I think you'll all agree after reading it that this girl could teach the world a thing or two.

You should be thinner, You should be taller,
You should be smarter,
Your hair should be longer,
Trying to look like those supermodels,
You compare yourself to them and you think that you look colossal.
If you hide the real you,
Then you are limiting yourself in what you will be able to do.
There you are unable to see what you could become,
Let the world know who you are before your heat and body goes numb.
Be yourself,proud and bold,
Don't fall for the perfect image which people think is gold.
As long as you are as you can be,
Then inside you will feel happy.
Don't change yourself to be someone that you don't want to be,
People don't look the same, that's just the reality.
Just be yourself as you have your own personality.
You originality is your own very speciality.

By Isabelle Hobbs

Thank you so much Isabelle for allowing me to share this, you are a wonderful inspiration!

I hope you are all in awe just as much as I am.

Loves Annie xxx