Today is May 1st and we would like to take this opportunity to talk about the importance of self-love, and why Time 2 Love Myself, LLC is committed with mental health awareness, prevention of domestic violence, and against all types of abuse.
May is Mental Health Month and as such it’s very important to us. Why? Well… I have personally been struggling with traumas, anxiety, and depression for a very long time. I would like to share my experiences and hopefully help others going through similar situations to be open minded about seeking professional help on time, learn, or even prevent falling into a similar pathway.
Let me start telling you a little about me. About 37 years ago, I was born in the West side of Puerto Rico. I attended to a private elementary school in Aguadilla because my mom wanted us (me and my sister) to learn English, since she didn’t learn it while young. I always struggle with English, and my parents had to find teachers/tutors to help me out. At the time I didn’t realize the importance of being bilingual. Although, my mom always told us that she felt bad when her cousins where able to communicate with others while traveling and she couldn’t, always reinforced us the importance about knowing it. I guess… I never thought it was necessary, since everyone around me talked Spanish all the time, and I never heard people near me talking in English. Thus, my grades were not the best during 4th to 6th grade. Then, one New Year’s days my dad had an accident while celebrating at a friend’s house. Unfortunately, he fell from a wood ladder, broke his left ankle, and my mom didn’t know when he could return to work. Thus, they decided, due to uncertainty, to move us to the public school. Oh yes, I cried. I had my friends that I was going to miss a lot and didn’t know what to expect at the public school. Surprisingly, 7th-8th grade will become the best years of my life as teenager. Additionally, will only have one English class, what I thought it was a relieve. Then, once in the University, I got a little more comfortable with both languages but only reading and writing. My speech was bad and even thinking about having full conversations in English make me uncomfortable and terribly nervous. Now, I will explain why this relates to Time 2 Love Myself purpose.
Well… life happens, and I had to make hard decisions. Like what? Leaving my beautiful island Puerto Rico, been far away from my beloved family and friends, leaving outside my home time for the first time, taking a job in a place who knowing English was mandatory, moving at my own expense without knowing how was going to be, and taking a lot of risks since I was deciding leaving my comfort zone.
This move, came with a lot of personal and professional challenges, which is main part of the foundation of Time 2 Love Myself, because it really took me a long time to learn that I need to work with me, with my limits, to learn who I was, want, and like, and specially to learn to properly love myself.
Therefore, if I can make a difference telling my story, especially to the newer generation, while doing something I really enjoy and loved, creating soaps, while supporting non-for-profit organizations, and disseminating information from professionals to hopefully prevent teenagers’ certain life situations, I will feel accomplished.
I know it will not be easy, or perhaps many people will think this will be impossible because “nadie escarmienta en cabeza ajena” which I used to hear a lot when I was a child, which is “Nobody learns in someone else's head” (meaning: we are only capable of learning from our own experiences); but I truly believe we can make a change to prevent mental health stigmas or violence.
