February 24, 2012 by Ashley

What exactly is Secret Week?

For seven days, I’ll be sharing some of my deepest secrets on the blog as a way to let go of the burdens they have left with me. I’m encouraging others to do the same, be it on their blog or anonymously. For me this week will be all about letting myself be a little bit more vulnerable than usual and hopefully letting others know that they aren’t alone.

How can you participate?

There are a couple of ways to participate, depending on how comfortable you are with your secrets:

Share your secrets on your blog and link-up starting March 12: Starting that Monday (March 12) I’ll have a link-up going for the whole week for anyone to submit their secret posts to. You can post every day, a couple of days, or just one of the days – it’s 100% up to you.

Share your secrets anonymously to be posted on my blog throughout the week: For those that want to share something anonymously, I’ll be having posts with your secrets up throughout the week as well. All you have to do is submit your secret through my Formspring account by March 10 and it’ll be posted. You can do this anonymously so I won’t even know that it’s your secret unless you tell me who you are.

How can you spread the word?

There’s a button on the middle sidebar that you can post on your blog before Secret Week or on your blog posts during Secret week. The more, the merrier so I’d love for you to post it ahead of time even if you don’t plan on participating!

What about the negativity that could come from it?

I can’t promise you that you’ll only receive positive comments and that no one will be a jerk about you opening up. I wish I could, but I can’t since I can’t even guarantee that for myself. However, I do know that the blog world has always been a place for me to find people who support me when I need it most. Especially when opening up about something important. I know it can be kind of intimidating and a bit scary (which is why the option to share your secrets anonymously is there), but my hope for this is for all of us to let go of the things troubling us and find some sort of peace in it by opening up about it. Hopefully everyone will respect that hope for my blog AND yours, too.

Have a question I didn’t answer? Email me!

Otherwise I look forward to sharing my own and reading your secrets

starting on March 12! Don’t forget to spread the love with the button, too!

blog positivity week details will be sent out this weekend as well.

Living The Right Life: The Cold Hard Truth

February 10, 2012 by Ashley

This week I stayed out of the blog world for the most part.

I didn’t post much. I didn’t read much. I avoided most social networking. Emails didn’t get answered within 10 minutes like I usually try to. I kept myself out of the loop because I felt so off. Life was weird because at home, life was never better. But inside my computer?

I was tired. Uninspired. And (almost entirely) ready to walk away.

I wanted to maintain some unrealistic image of myself. One that I knew I’d already let the guards down on, but wasn’t ready for it to go away completely. I knew I wasn’t perfect and most importantly, I was okay with that. And along with that, I knew no one on here expected me to be. But that didn’t make it any easier.

The truth is, I’ve been holding back from you.

I haven’t lied. I haven’t covered up the truth. I haven’t pretended to be someone I’m not. I’ve been honest and open as I could be… about 90% of the things in my life.

It’s funny how blogs work because you can think you know someone, inside and out, because you’ve been reading their blog for so long. But the truth is that you only know what they are okay with you knowing. What they’re okay with opening up about. And it’s up to the blogger as to when they want to drop the bombshell on everyone, if they ever do, that their life isn’t as it seems.

That being said, I’ve decided it’s time that I open up about the things that are still waiting to be uncovered. Drag my skeletons out of the closet and never look back. Holding back and not being 100% honest with myself leaves me feeling restless and uneasy.

I like being an open book, no matter how vulnerable of a position it puts me in.

So I’ve decided I’m going to have Secret Week on the blog starting on March 12. One week will be dedicated to me putting myself out there and opening up about things I’ve been inclined to keep quiet. And I would love for anyone who’s interested to join me. I’ll post more about this in a week or so, giving you an option to link-up if you plan to participate, a button, and a way to share your secrets anonymously if you’d rather avoid doing so on your own blog. If no one joins in, no worries – I’ll still be spilling my guts to you, but I know there’s strength and comfort in numbers. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that needs to let something out.