I think there’s a real tendency in society to put things off until we feel ‘ready’ or until there’s a better moment. I was recently thinking about moments I’ve really enjoyed or something I was proud of myself for and found that in most of these cases I didn’t feel as ‘ready’ as I thought I would, but I went ahead and did it anyway. That either allowed for self-growth or just for spontaneous moments that make life fun.
Finding my own voice and realising what I stand for was something that took me a while and I think is always an ongoing process. Writing this blog in many ways has helped me find my voice and has given me a platform to share things that are important to me. Learning to utilise it and discovering what I believed in has been one of the biggest things in boosting my confidence and self-esteem, which at one point in my life was very low. Hopefully, this can help someone on their journey to discover their own voice.
I’ve always been someone that likes to keep lots of small which to everyone else is insignificant things that remind me of certain events, like for example tickets from planes, trains, an event I went to that I really enjoyed or really meant something to me. They help form really nice memories, but collecting small ‘memories’ as I call it becomes a bit of a problem when you end up with lots of tickets and items and nowhere to put them. This is why I turned to scrapbooking. In this post, I hope to give you some ideas of what you could include in your scrapbook and create a book that can be a beautiful hub of your memories.
Living minimally seems to have become a lot bigger recently, especially across social media. After coming across a lot of content on minimalism, I want to demonstrate why a minimalist lifestyle is not as great as it may seem at first sight. Although a minimalist lifestyle may work for some people and I have no problem with those who choose to lead a minimalist lifestyle, minimalism also presents problems that often get ignored.
I do want to make sure that my content is varied so not everything will be in relation to this pandemic, but as something that we are all affected by at the moment, I also want to be creating content that feels relevant. Relatable content that may bring some sort of comfort during what is a difficult time.
Being in isolation is definitely challenging - as a person who sees myself as an ambivert (both an introvert and extrovert) not being able to surround myself with people, especially friends has not been something I have found easy. But, being at home more and the world having pretty much stopped has given me more time to think - to reflect, to pause. Here are some of the thoughts and things I would say I have learnt.
I have a lot of time to think and reflect recently. That has made me much more aware of my inner dialogue. It has also made me aware of some thoughts I sometimes catch myself having that I need to change. This is not an exhaustive list- these are just some of the things that I have found I have told myself (over the years and generally) and isn't helpful. Some I have already changed my outlook to- others are still a working progress.
Helping others and looking after yourself can be a very fine balance. It can be very easy to get caught up in someone else's battle so much that you neglect how you feel and forget that it has become part of your own. So I'm writing this based on my own experience hoping it might help someone else. Of course, this depends on just how much the person you are helping is struggling and can vary depending on the seriousness of the situation.
