@MIKALAHWATEGO

What’s your favourite color?
Green, the colour of nature and my home.

What self-care habits do you intertwine into your daily routine?
Brush my teeth, Make my bed, Feed my body with what it needs, not what it wants , write in my journal and start the day with a positive thought. Something as simple as it's going to be a good day. Positive thinking, positive mindset.. 

What's your favourite book?
Self Compassion by Kristin Neff.

Who can you go to when you need to get something off your chest?
My journal or my mum.
 
What’s your safe place?
The beach and waterfalls near my house. I can sit down in the sun, lay down, write in my journal and be present and grateful for such a beautiful place that I call home. 

Have you ever dealt with anxiety? If so, how do you calm your mind?
Yes. The best way to calm my mind is to take a deep breath , think of things that make me happy, speak out against it with words of encouragement towards myself such as ‘You’ve got this’ and push myself into a mindset where I'm not scared or anxious. Because at the end of the day I feel like anxiety comes from a place of fear.The fear of not knowing or what's coming next or the fear of judgment.. 

Have you ever gotten yourself out of a dark place? Or have you ever needed to help someone else out? If so, how?
Yes. I feel like everyone goes through a dark place in their lives whether it’s loneliness, depression or being ignored.  My dark place was feeling alone..But I found that I got angry for always feeling sorry for myself and I wanted to be able to look at myself and be happy again.. I had to help myself because no matter what at the end of the day you have to make the change within yourself first. It all starts with you.  And from that I eventually turned my dark place into something that I love now. I love spending time by myself and I learned how to cope with that through listening to music, podcasts that made me laugh, writing and art also helped me alot. And when writing instead of holding onto it i would throw out the pages in my book of how i felt and what made me upset. My mum would always tell me to not hold onto those things but to ‘inhale and exhale’ To write what you felt in those moments and to let them go when finished.
 
Do you think social media affects your mental health or has any other negative impacts on you? If so, how do you best deal with it?
Yes. I think social media can be a great but also bad platform. I would definitely compare myself to others on a general basis. Based on How I looked, how amazing their lives are and mostly how easy life looked for them. There was definitely a moment where I took initiative and caught myself getting depressed or upset and unfollowing people that I felt were not affecting me in a positive way. It's always good to know that everything you see on social media is not always real and people only ever post the good things in their life, never the bad.
 
What’s your biggest fear?
Time. I want to live a life of adventure, challenges, meeting amazing people, eating amazing food and learning the different cultures of this world. I want to soak up everything this world has to offer. I don’t want to waste my time on this earth. I want to make every minute count..

What’s the biggest change you can identify within yourself in the past year?
Loving myself.. Probably one of the hardest journeys i’ve had yet. I feel like ever since I was younger I have always had partners to rely on for my self love. They would tell me how amazing and beautiful I was but when I would leave them I didn’t feel as if I was anymore. It was normalised for me and I never had a moment in between relationships where I looked at myself as a person and asked myself do I love who I am? I still struggle with this today but I remember having a conversation with my partner and he said “I can live with myself. I can be by myself. I can enjoy being in my own company. I do not love myself because of you, I went through that journey myself and I am proud of who I am today. Are you?” And I never realised that I had never been through that. I think there's always going to be something we can learn about ourselves. 

What’s one of the hardest things you’ve had to go through in life? How did you get through it?
Putting my value and worth into someone else. 

What advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?
Take care of your MIND, BODY AND SOUL! Your body is a temple and you only have one. Treat it with respect, Fill your body with nutrients it needs and surround yourself with people that encourage you, help you and want the best for you.

 
If you could change one thing within society, what would that be?
Stop giving this false and UNREAL image on how you should look and what you need to do to be socially acceptable or beautiful.. No one else is you except you and that's what makes YOU beautiful! Learn to be comfortable in your own skin and love yourself <3