Mariana's Take on Life

 For most of my life, I thought that prayer had to be done in a particular manner. You know, kneeling down or standing and making really strong physical gestures as though one is in a physical battle with unseen creatures. Don't get me wrong,that is prayer of course. And because almost everyone around me prayed in that manner and I just didn't ,I didn't validate my prayers. I would think to myself , you're doing so badly ,look at others ,kabashing ,and you're doing nothing. That made me feel so far away  from God and at some point I didn't even care about my relationship with him , because in my head ,I always said ,"What's  the need ,I can't even be like  them" but God being who he is "always" finds a way to remind me that no matter how far I feel from him,his presence is "always" welcoming .  There's no reason to cancel and invalidate my prayers with my thoughts or what others think when God has already said that he he

You're probably here cause you read my first post on social anxiety and wanted to see the rest, thank you for being here!    Like I said in my last post,I wasn't diagnosed by a medical professional and everything that I talk about here is based on my experience. Some of the things that triggered my fear of being around a lot of people are ; my bad eyesight ,not being comfortable with my body, wearing uncomfortable clothes,over protective upbringing, being around people that made me feel some type of way and made subtly insulting jokes(sometimes,these people are even friends or family members) .     It's okay to feel totally lost and wonder what's going on ,but you're not alone,at all.      Here are some things I started to do that have helped me immensely;  (1) Talk therapy: talking good to myself , complimenting myself . It sounds awkward. It sounded really awkward to me when I read about it but it has actually helped me.  (2) Making sure I'm very comfortable w

 Before we get into this, please note that I am not a medical practitioner . I'm only a young girl writing blog posts for who can relate , thank you.   In my last post,I mentioned talking about anxiety when I am ready,so ,here goes .       What is social anxiety? It's a (chronic) mental health condition in which social interactions cause irrational anxiety. That's what Google tells me but if someone asked me that and I had no time to look it up,I'd say , Social anxiety is feeling sick from just thinking about  or being in social gatherings.      I didn't get diagnosed in a hospital which I'm very sure is the case with a lot of young people here in Nigeria but it's quite clear that social anxiety is very easy to spot. Even people who do not know what it's called happen to know that something is actually wrong with them . Some people think it's shyness but it's not, shyness is actually very different. It's temporary while social anxiety or phob