August Influencer Highlight - Happy As Annie

My name is Annie and I'm a self-care and spirituality blogger in Los Angeles. I’m also an English professor, dog mom, and tarot enthusiast. 

By my late twenties, I was basically living what most would call a successful life: I was an intellectual property lawyer living in Los Angeles with my wonderful boyfriend and adorable dog, making plans to buy our first home and get married. Despite all these achievements though, I felt so lost and unfulfilled. I was unhappy, depressed, anxious, and irritable all the time. On top of these negative feelings, I was frustrated and angry that I had done everything right, everything the adults in my life had told me to do, and it hadn’t been enough. That's about when I started both my mental health and spiritual journey. I read everything I could get my hands on about mindfulness, quieting my ego and getting in touch with my intuition, and about living authentically and with intention. Looking back now, I realize I had a kind of spiritual awakening! I quit my lawyer job and went back to school for my MA in English to start over. Everyone thought I was crazy but it was the best decision I've ever made.

I'm a teacher through and through, so I started Happy As Annie to share everything I was learning on my journey toward living a more authentic and intuitive life. People always ask me how I was able to quit my fancy lawyer job and start over, and it made me realize that there are so many people out there who are experiencing feelings of burn-out, unfulfillment, and ego overdrive but are too scared or cynical or lost to do something about it. Some people aren't quite sure what it even means to listen to their intuition (I'm still learning as I go!), and we simply aren't taught or encouraged to believe that life can be abundant and magical. My blog documents my own self-care and self-discovery journey. It helps me stay accountable to myself while hopefully inspiring and helping others on their journeys as well. 

I would recommend the book I recommend to everybody, whether they ask for it or not! It is Steering by Starlight by Martha Beck. That book changed my life. I feel like it saved my life actually!

I'm not sure about a myth about my profession, be that blogging or teaching English, but I will say that working with tarot cards has become a huge part of my spiritual journey and there are plenty of tarot myths that I would love to debunk!  For me, tarot isn't about fortune-telling or seeing the future. I view tarot as a powerful tool for self-discovery. I mostly read tarot for myself, and it has helped me tune in to my intuition and get in touch with my inner thoughts, fears, and desires in a way that was impossible for me to do otherwise. As for magically picking the perfect card at the perfect time, that I can’t quite explain yet! 

They can read more about self-discovery and spirituality on my blog, http://happyasannie.com, and find me on Instagram, http://instagram.com/happyasannie.