Greetings!!!!

Hi all! Welcome! I’m so glad you stopped by to read the beginning of what hopefully will be a fun and helpful blog. I’m JoJo. I’m a mom to both human and fur babies and a wife to a loving guy that supports my crazy, even when that means I come home saying that I’m starting a blog. I am a total work in progress. That includes all aspects of my life: work, home, my relationships with others, and most recently my relationship with my inner self. Hence the title A Total Hot Mess. See, the one thing that very few know about me is that I live everyday with anxiety. Some days it’s better, some days it’s worse, but it’s part of who I am. I teach my daughter to embrace her uniqueness and be the most amazing person that she can be, even to accept her faults, yet I can’t do that myself. So I’m opening up and putting myself out there in hopes that my struggles and successes will help someone else. My hope is that this blog will evolve into what I need to continue to work on myself and to also give others the opportunities to share whatever makes them happy. I believe that all of our cups must be periodically filled up with warm fuzzies. It’s what makes life worth living and relationships worth having.

Living with anxiety is a daily battle. It is always humming just beneath the surface waiting to boil over and take over the day. I joke and tell my husband that I’m having a hard time trying to “keep my crazy in my pocket”, but some days that’s what it truly feels like. Some days just making it through the day is a huge success. The good thing is those days are fewer as I’ve learned how to handle daily stresses and triggers. Learning what triggers my anxiety has helped immensely. When I sense an anxiety attack coming on, I try to intervene the best that I can. Most times it works. I’m thankful each and every day that I am mostly in control of my anxiety, but there are times that it controls me. When those times happen, trying to hold it back makes it that much worse. That’s when I have to reach out for help. Don’t ever be too afraid to reach out for help. You truly are never alone. Phone a friend, text a buddy, take yourself out of the situation. Whatever helps. This is what I’m working on, letting my Type A personality not control me to the point that my anxiety kicks in and takes over. See, I told you, a total hot mess!