Month: January 2017

#BellLetsTalk – Jan 25, 2017

On By thestampsinmypassportIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

If you are a fan of Grey’s Anatomy you are familiar with the lead character Meredith Grey. I know this is a TV show but the people writing for her are real. Her situations, albeit extreme for most, are real. She has battled mental illness her whole life.

She refers to her closest friends when she is worried about going into her dark and twisty place. I am sure even if you have never watched one hour of the show you can understand about the feelings of being in a dark and twisty place. I know I have.

In the past month or so, more than one person in my life has either called, emailed or texted apologizing for not being around. Not calling. All of them have said the same thing, I am just in my own space right now. Not really in the mood to talk to other people. Not in the mood for socializing. I get it. I am there as well.

I told all of them that I get it. I have been there as well. In December I like to blame it on the end of the year. Mental health issues are high all the time, but the holidays and the end of year is an increased time for many. For some, getting out and being very social is the answer for them. For others it is the opposite. There are only so many times you can answer the same questions or even want to answer the questions.

With the darkness does come the light. It sounds trite but you have to keep saying that to get you through. I woke up the other morning around 7 and it was already getting light. That is a win for me, it means that the days are getting longer and that light is coming.

The concept of #BellLetsTalk day is a special one. It isn’t just one day. We need to be aware of the people around us and those who may be in their own dark and twisty place, as well as our own dark and twisty place. We all go there. Some more than others and some for longer than others. We can’t just snap out of it. It is not that easy. There are medical reasons why we can’t, external reasons why we can’t or maybe we just aren’t ready.

I encourage you to send a message, call, text, whatever your mode of communication to at least one person today that you haven’t spoken to in a while. I just called to say hello and that I am thinking about you. One call to one person. If we all did that, imagine how many people we can reach today.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for coming on my journey with me. I appreciate it.

Live your best life,

Lisa

 

The night I was cyber bullied

On By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized2 Comments

I was a victim of cyber bullying. It was not the first time actually, but the other time I didn’t have a voice to fight back. Last night I had a chance in real time to confront my attacker and fight back. Thankfully the visual has been removed from social media, but it has left me scarred.

As many people do on facebook, they ask their FB community for recommendations on a multitude of things, which is fine as we are all looking for the same thing, which is we want the best we can do in our lives. It could be a restaurant recommendation to spend your date night, finding the right person to clean your house, or in this case something travel related.

I don’t like to comment on these posts. Most people know someone in the travel industry. Everyone has the right to choose who they want to give their business to, even if it is not booking with a human but a computer.

Someone else I know tagged me in the recommendation process which I appreciate referrals always, but I would prefer if they came privately as I don’t want to get a notification every time someone recommends someone else and says they are best out there and can beat any price.

There were about 20 comments on this thread. Someone I knew from a past contact deliberately choose to comment on the one that had my name attached. This person had an agenda which was to berate me in public, say horrible things about my profession, my ethics and business acumen and more.

After someone on the thread defended me and said that if the prices were equal they would give the business to me. Again this person could have chosen one of many comments to state her erroneous, ignorant comments, but she chose this one and again attacked my credibility.

My reply to her was simple – leopards don’t change their spots, your behavior here proves you are the same as you were before. That fueled this person to be vile, disgusting and so disrespectful I was mortified.

I sent a private message to the person who started the conversation and thankfully agreed and deleted the post.

As a friend of social media I would ask you please not to tag me in your comments in the future. I have been a travel professional for 27 years. I am very well respected in my industry and if you choose to use me for your travel plans I appreciate your business and I am glad I earned your trust and respect.

As Ellen says at the end of her show, be kind to one another. Words hurt people. I am still not over what happened last night.

Thank you for reading. It would mean a lot to me if you shared this post with your community to show what cyber bullying looks like and how it makes people feel. It is not a good feeling.

Live your best life,

Lisa