Mindfulness Monday – 2 – Mind, Body & Soul

Tags

Body, Depression, Humanity, Life, Mind, Mindfulness, personal, Soul, Thoughts, Update

I’ve come to a conclusion of what I need to do on a daily basis in order live a life that is healthy for my mind, my body and my soul all at once.

MIND – To keep my mind healthy I’ve started using an app called Elevate that I found on Google Play which is a series of games and activities that work your mind like a game that helps you get faster at calculating percentages or one that helps you learn to read faster.

Another thing I’ve started doing is reading more. Now I’m a great lover of words, I love books of all kinds and genres but in recent years with university I’ve been reading less and less. Now I’m using my time on public transport in the morning and in the afternoons to to read whatever book has recently caught my interest, currently I’m reading ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

BODY – Keeping my body healthy is difficult for me because I spent several years in a depressive bubble which consisted of eat, read, sleep and repeat. So I’m very out of shape and on top of that I’m an asthmatic and suffer from migraines frequently so exercise is not something I’m used to doing. I have however, started walking on the treadmill regularly and downloaded a yoga app called ‘Down Dog’ that looks interesting.

I’ve also had a look at my diet and have cut out Soft Drink, Potato Chips and added more fruit, vegetables and Water to the line up. I refuse to cut out the foods I love to eat even if they’re unhealthy but I have began to have them only in moderation instead of 2-4 times a week like I had been.

SOUL – my soul is the hardest thing for me to keep nourished and healthy. I have a very bleak view of the world, I’m cynical and tend to think the worse of future. I’ve been trying to fight my outlook of world with daily affirmations and thanks for all the good things in my life. I’ve also begun to meditate regularly again a habit I started as a child as a way to control my rather explosive temper and fell out of during my depression now I’ve begun again and I feel less stressed, less tense and more fluid if that makes sense?

I’ve also made the decision to cut down the time I spend on my Social Media accounts which thankfully I don’t spend huge amounts of time on to begin with but also the time I spend on technology in general. Disconnecting from the world of the internet in order to reconnect with the physical world.

 

One thing I have to keep reminding myself of constantly during this process is that this won’t have an immediate impact, that I have to be patient and that because results will be gradual, I might not even consciously notice them. Now I’m going to leave you with a quote I found that I love:

Take Care Everyone!

Sarah L.

Happy Belated Easter Everyone!

Tags

Blog Update, Life, personal, Work

To those of you who celebrate Easter.

I am apparently terrible at keeping to a blog schedule. So sorry to any followers that I may or may not have.

I have just recently, as in, in the last two weeks started an internship and had a half dozen meetings for group projects. you know what they say ‘It always all happens at once!’ but I will try to actually keep to the posting schedule from now on.

Just to update everyone, I now spend Mondays at my internship (which has been great fun so far) so my Monday posts may now be done later in the day than before, Wednesday posts will likely be around noon – 2pm Victorian time and Friday posts will likely occur in the evening.

I should now be posting on a schedule but life sometimes happens so I apologize for any missed posts in advance.

Syrian Gas Attack – Wednesday Current Events

Tags

Current Events, Humanity, Life, Opinion, politics, Syria, Thoughts, Wednesday

So for those of you who haven’ heard about it, yesterday there was a deadly gas attack allegedly carried out by “forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad” (Reuters). The Attack killed more than 50 people (ABC) including children.

As a rule, I try not to actively involve myself in conversations that have a heavy political presence surrounding them. I find that expressing an opinion in these sorts of conversations tends to attract a range of reactions and I don’t particularly care to be abused on the internet for sharing my opinion. A situation like this, where there has been a loss of life, where people are being hurt because everybody is trying to stay out of it, is something that we all need to talk about.

What is happening in Syria may seem like it’s worlds away to people in the ‘Western World’ outside of terrorist attacks on ‘Western’ soil but the Syrian conflict isn’t a solely middle eastern problem it is a global problem and a problem from those of us that consider all people no matter who they are, where they come from or what they believe to be people.

This may have begun as a political or religious conflict but now it is a conflict for all humanity. Governments who are turning refugees and asylum seekers away when they have the space and resources to help and the deportation and immigration ban in the U.S. are not the kind of government initiatives and decisions I want any part in.

As People, as Global Citizens, as Human Beings we have a responsibility to reach out and help those who need it not because it in some way benefits us but because we can help and because they need it. Refusing to do so makes us just as bad as the people that they need help to get away from.

So all my love and best wishes to those who have lost someone or has been injured or run out of their homes because of this conflict.

Much Love and remember to take care,

Sarah L.

Mindfulness Monday – 1

Tags

Depression, Life, Mindfulness, Monday, personal, self-care, Thoughts

I’m in my last year of university and soon I’ll have to go out in to the world and make a life for myself, lets be honest that is completely terrifying for a lot of people, I know it is for me. Knowing that it’s coming is making me rethink how I live my life.

I am on a journey of self improvement and a quest for inner peace.

What am I doing on my journey for self-improvement?

• While I’m not cutting out all the foods I love (Pizzzzzzza!) I am swapping out unhealthy snacks, like a bag of chips for healthy ones like apples, celery and carrots. Basically, I’m going back to basics with my diet.
• I downloaded a workout out app called 30 day fitness challenge which I’m going to start making my way through.
• I am making time to meditate instead of putting it off because I’m busy or tired or I can’t be bothered.

My quest for inner peace is a tad more complicated.

As some of you may know I have suffered from depression since I was a teenager and while I’m fairly good at managing it I still have the occasional slump where the demons in my head, the ones that tell me that I’ll never be good enough or that no one cares or that I’m less than useless, get to hard to ignore.

For me inner peace means many things but it primarily means being happy with being myself. It means acknowledging that the demon’s in my head are there but refusing to let them have power over me, it means fighting them every step of the way and refusing to let them stop me from seeing my own self-worth.

Which is harder than it sounds but I believe with every part of me that it’s going to be worth it both now and throughout my entire life.

So I leave you with this:

and with my best wishes for all of you!

Take care of yourselves!

 

SARAH L.

Friday 1 – Photo

Almost right after my last post I got sick. 4 days of misery where I still had to do assignments due that week despite the fact that I could barley see straight and my head felt like it was going to explode. An unfortunate side effect of this was that I didn’t get my posts for this blog done. 

Which makes this post my first in my new blog schedule!

As it is Friday I thought that I’d share a photo I found well cleaning out my phone.

I give you the view from my aunt’s front yard. Taken during a trip after I finished VCE (year 11 and 12).

Blog Update

Tags

Blog ReVamp, Blog Update, Current Events, Friday, Just Cause, Life, Mindfulness, Monday, personal, Posting, Schedule, Thoughts, Update, Wednesday, Writing

So I finally figured out what I want to do with my Blog and when and what I’m going to be posting!

Isn’t that exciting?

So starting from next Monday (Australian Time) I’m going to be posting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

 

On Monday’s I’ll be posting about Mindfulness and Health. For those who haven’t seen my last few posts I am currently on a journey of self-improvement and am working on improving both my mental and physical health. So my Monday posts will cover

• My journey
• Mindfulness Exercises
• Stories of other peoples  journeys
• Quotes

 

On Wednesday I’ll be posting about current events. Those events can be anything from what I’ve seen in the news or I’ve read online or an article I found and want to share, it could be about Politics or Entertainment or my professional industry (Communications) or even Gossip. But it could also be about events that are happening in my life or in the life of my family or friends (names withheld).

 

So on Friday I’ll be posting things I found that I want to share. This could be anything from a Youtube video or a Meme to something I found during my de-cluttering sessions like old photos or relics from my childhood. I might even post recipes or pieces of work I did during Uni that week like a handout I made or a press release I wrote. It will really be whatever is going on that week for me.

I may also post at other times if I have something to share!

So my next post will be in 5 days and counting! I hope you’re all still here by then.

Sarah L.

 

 

Turning Over a New Leaf

Tags

Depression, Life, Mindfulness, personal, self-care, Thoughts, Update

So a couple weeks ago I fell into a bit of a depressive slump. I didn’t want to gt out of bed and I didn’t want to leave my room, I didn’t want to eat or see anyone. Thankfully I pulled myself out of it before the new semester started but it got me thinking about the way I live my life and the mindset I have while I go about my day.

I don’t know what depression feels like to other people, for me it feels like a cross between being numb and drowning, being immersed in water with everything around me being muffled and I just can’t care about anything no matter how hard I try.

It’s gotten easier over the years to pull myself out of these slumps not because the depression is going away, depression is not something that goes away I have just found strategies that work for me when it comes to dealing with it.

Which brings me to my new leaf!

I have resolved to do the following every day:

• 20-30 minutes of some form of exercise
• 30 minutes of meditation and reflection
• focus on the positive (I got out of bed, I got dressed, I went to class)
• Fight the voice in the back of my head trying to bring me down
• eat and drink healthier
• be thankful for the support of my family

It might not seem like much but for someone like me who struggles to do the day to day stuff it is a lot of work.

But I am going to do it! this is my new leaf and I am determined to do my best.

 

Blog Revamp

Tags

Blog ReVamp, Life, Mindfulness, personal, Thoughts, University, Update

Hi Everyone! If there is anyone out there. This is just a quick post to notify everyone that I’m in the process of revamping my blog.

I’ve decided that it’s time to re-design and re-focus on my life and what is important to me and my future. One of the ways I’m doing this is by revamping my social media accounts this includes my blog that has been sitting stagnant since last year.

I have recently been pondering my life and come to the conclusion that I need to start doing things differently and focusing on what I want for my future and who I want to be.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to do this.

As a teenager I suffered from depression and ended up dropping out and not finishing year 10 which for Americans is their Sophomore year. Most days I couldn’t even bring myself to get out of bed.

At the age of 18 I went back to school at my local Tafe in order to do my VCE (years 11 & 12). Getting to that point was a huge win for me and that was also the first time I had to sit down take a breath and consider what I wanted from my life.

I Love Learning and had wanted to go to University all my life so getting into Victoria University when I was 21 was a little like winning the lottery (for me anyway). Now I’ve started my third and hopefully final year of my degree (fingers crossed) and I have found myself in need of taking that time to slow down and think about what I want to do after all this.

I honestly encourage all of you to do this. Sometimes it feels like the world is going non stop at the speed of light and we’re all just trying so hard to keep up that we forget to take a moment to just breath and think.

Anyway this post ended up longer than I was planning. I hope your all taking care, feel free to drop me a comment or two if you want to chat!

 

 

Female Empowerment

Tags

DC, empowerment, Feminism, Marvel, Women in Media

One of the major high points of the Comic Book Television and Movie revolution is the amount of of strong, powerful women that have made their way onto our television and movie screens and while the characters aren’t perfect and while they don’t always have the best story lines the fact that they have story lines at all is so much more than we used to have.

Women in media is a touchy subject these days some people are happy with what we have, some think that the characters aren’t strong enough and some people think that everything is so over analysed and that everyone should just kick back and enjoy.

I am of the opinion that well the women characters in the media we see are not perfect and they can be always use some more development just the same as the male characters.

Some people have accused me of supporting the fact that some female characters where barely there outfits for no other reason that to entice males readers. I held myself back from telling them that some women do actually like to wear tight clothes that show a lot of skin, these women exist why shouldn’t they be represented in media.

Why shouldn’t women who cry, who define themselves by men, who don’t like to be in relationships and why shouldn’t we show women who like to have one night stands? these women exist so why not show them in media?

 

 

Villains Victorias

Tags

Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Marvel, Netflix, Superheroes, Villains

So we all love Loki right? and when Daredevil season 1 was released Vincent D’Onofrio’s portrayal of Wilson Fisk had people raving about his character more than Daredevil himself! It seems in the Marvel Cinematic Universe the Villains might not always win their fights but their the ones with the best press (off-screen at least).

Netflix’s marvel universe does Villains really well with Wilson Fisk AKA the Kingpin, Zebediah Kilgrave AKA the Purple Man and now Cornell Stokes AKA Cottonmouth are three brilliantly written characters that were terrible people but complex and enjoyable fictional characters that add something to the plot and the aesthetic  that it wouldn’t have otherwise.

Now a lot of that is the fantastic casting done by Netflix. I doubt that Kilgrave would have been such an engaging character if he wasn’t played by the remarkable David Tennant.

But when you compare the Villains in DC and in some of the MCU the Netflix Villains are more complex, better written and more diverse which makes people get more attached to them.

Here’s hoping that Netflix continues it’s streak.