University - What it means to be 'Clever'

Hey guys! Long time no see!
I hope that those of you who are in the northern hemisphere like me have had a wonderful summer and break!

Today, a thought occurred to me, well a string of thoughts to be precise.

When you want to apply to university for courses that typically have higher grade requirements, it often feels like more and more and more is expected of you, as if talent in many areas and being a gifted individual is something that you can always choose.

That you have to be part of a sports club, that you've done well in your student council at school and actively take part. Perhaps you're even Head Boy or Head Girl!

I feel like I'm growing more and more towards disliking this image a lot because it shows blatant disregard for those who are more talented in those areas and work hard to get to where they are. I feel like it disregards those who aren't gifted as well as talented and makes them look more inferior in comparison and that is never the case! Never!

I just wish that more people would be given the opportunity to study at amazing institutions without having to be book smart because there are so many different ways of being smart and it feels like society is still stuck in tradition, where book smartness is almost always a ticket to get to places you want to go.

And where does it leave you when you've been told and have been book smart your entire life but you're not this perfect individual who's done everything under the face of the sun and done well in it? How is society supposed to make you feel, like you've somehow failed just by being yourself and doing what you can and what you're comfortable with?

Though I guess it can depend on where you set your eyes. There will always be a place for book smartness and all rounders in the most prized institutions but what I've grown to love in my search for my ideal university is that generally, you can find a place where you are the best candidate and where you're the one they want to pick for all of your flaws.

To end, if you're like me and you're trying to find a place for you, remember that you are invaluable being yourself and comparing yourself to other people or to a set of expectations that an institution sets doesn't determine your value as a person.
Cherish yourself. You're amazing, I don't know you and I know it.

I hope I can speak to you guys soon! Onwards and upwards!
Have a wonderful time, doing what you're doing and if you'd like to find out what I've been up to, I daily blogged the entirety of my summer on my side Tumblr blog!

<2

A First World Realisation

Hey guys! I hope that you're all well!

So today, I think I realised a truth that I hadn't actually quite faced up to before, that my relationship to Twitter really isn't all too healthy for me. It's quite similar to many addictions that you can get in modern day times where notifications become things you can't ignore and I've realised that I hate it. A lot.

It stops me from being present with my family and in many ways it's very inorganic. I've recently started talking to an internet friend of mine who I've known for about two years now and talking to her irl was much different to talking to her online. The challenges are different but I must say I think I much rather prefer spending time with people face to face than I do with my phone.

I absolutely love my internet friends and the support that they give me but the nature of our friendships is so completely different to irl. It's no wonder that people tend to freak out a bit when they meet their internet friends irl because they're so afraid about the difference in the experience they're going to have.

Internet friendships are awesome, don't get me wrong and they certainly function well in their own capacity but I think I've definitely become overwhelmed with the amount of time I spend trying to be in more than one place at one time. I know and now acknowledge more that when I'm talking to friends, perhaps they should be the only people I'm talking to.

The internet is so bad for being in the present moment and I've got to say I don't blame my friends who take ages to reply because who wants to be sucked away from the present? Organise a time and spend that quality time with them. Don't spread yourself thinly everywhere and expect it to work well because it's simply not the way we're supposed to function.

So that's all. I hope that you guys have a wonderful day and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed!

'Tolerating People' - NOPE

Hey guys! I hope that you're all well!

Last weekend, I went to a wedding. As is customary in my faith, there was a lecture and it was probably one of my favourites of all those I've heard over the years because it was so mindful. I loved it!

One part that really stuck out for me and that struck a cord was the phrase that we often use in 'tolerating' other people which, if you think about it, isn't really ever the way to go. If you ever want to improve yourself, the thing that you should strive towards is realising that other people are much like yourself and are therefore different and diverse and a whole universe of variables within themselves.

They have as much right to do what they'd like to do as you do and therefore you should strive towards accepting and celebrating everyone to some extent at the very least because you can get so much joy from that of others. You don't have to perceive loud people as annoyances, you can join in on their joy from afar and benefit. You can take so much goodness from other people, if only you try.

This concept of tolerating other people is also not something you'd really want in a relationship, especially one which is with someone who you may see as a life partner. In those sorts of relationships, it's always about patience and compromise and seeing that diversity and the differences between yourself and accepting them. With the length of these relationships, it can be hard because the person you knew from years ago isn't the person you connect with today but that's just the nature of the beast and being able to be thankful for them is so important.

Hank uses nature to describe what happens
when two different environments collide

This also reminds me of this video from Hank Green a few months ago. What it taught me is that
diversity is really something we should celebrate and the place where two different areas cross together and meet can make an area of astounding beauty and excitement. Use places where you differ from other people as a way of forging even more lasting connections through empathising and growing beyond yourself and your bubble. It's so possible and it's incredible what you can get!

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post, thank you so much for listening! I hope that you have a wonderful time doing what you're doing and I'll speak to you very soon indeed!

Impressions of one another

Hey guys! I hope that you're all doing very well indeed!

Very recently, I had a discussion with a friend of mine about one of the cons of knowing someone for
a long time and that's that sometimes if you change, that isn't really taken into account or fully accepted by someone who's known you for a long time. This isn't always consciously done at all but when you're stuck in a way of doing something for a long time, it can easily become the image that is associated with you and that's hard to shake off.

It can sometimes be that you're childhood friends and that when you mature it can be kind of odd to realise as someone looking in from the outside as someone's who's been there but who hasn't undergone the changes. It can feel like people are always going to stay the way that they are but it's always important to be present and to treat people with respect and dignity, especially if they're trying to break a habit that's been with them for years and become a different person to the one everyone knows.

Sometimes it's not always even necessarily that you're unhappy with the way that people know you, you've just made even more improvements to make yourself an even better person and you want other people to know that.

In this way, it's always important to be present and to be aware of the person that you're connecting with today because we're all ongoing projects and we're all changing, for better or for worse. We should always treat the person that we meet and treat them with respect.

It is important to be wary, having said that, that we always do so because not everyone in the world is open minded and therefore to make sure we don't hurt other people we treat everyone in the best way possible.

Thank you so much for listening guys! I hope you have a wonderful time doing what you're doing what you're doing and I'll speak to you very soon indeed!

Gratitude and Happiness

Hey guys!

I hope that you've all been well, it's been a while!

Today, I read this blog post from Marc and Angel who I love to read because their posts are always about life truths that can really change your life. They're simply and utterly amazing.

What it reminded me about was the fact that being thankful for everything that you have can make you such a happy person. This is often because you can find ways of taking the goods from what could be on the surface a bad situation and it can leave you feeling so much more fulfilled because you've taken from it rather than let it take from you. It's wonderful!

Being thankful also makes you happy because it makes you realise that you have so much right in this moment. For many of us, we take a lot of things for granted and only stop to be thankful when those things are taken away from us. This can include our health as well as our wealth but also the people that we have around us.

It's become so important to me to try and be thankful today, in the now, because quite often things we have today can become things we had, like friendships or any close friends. People can slip through our fingers because we're too busy looking the other way or worrying when there's so much now to see and be thankful for. Here and now. Not yesterday, not a week ago, not tomorrow either. Now.

So, I challenge you, stop for five minutes everyday and just be thankful for what you have and what's happened to you today. You wouldn't believe how much a bit of reflection can add to your joy and leave you feeling so much more content than you could've believed to be possible. I've tried to do this by both daily journaling as well as daily blogging on my side Tumblr blog everyday through summer. If that's something you'd be interested in reading, please do go and check it out! I would encourage you to do the same, even if it's an appreciation tweet or just a moment out of your day when you become truly present.

It makes all the difference.

I hope that you all have a wonderful time doing what you're doing and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed!

What is Love?

Hey guys! I hope that you're very well indeed!

So today, I got drawn into watching even more Soul Pancake videos, particularly this one entitled 'What is Love?' which I absolutely loved. What I love about this kind of video by Soul Pancake is that they don't ever script their videos, or that's the impression you get, but they ask people of many races and cultures and ages and genders and it makes all the difference. It makes it feel so authentic and if you get the time, I would highly recommend you watch the video!
What is Love?

For today though, I'd like to explore some of the answers that the people gave in the video when asked the question 'What is Love?'

When watching the video, the one that stood out for me as the one I resonated the most with was

'I've been married 55 years and our main job is to look after each other and see to it that we are our best selves, so to speak.... To me, that's love!'

This really spoke to me and what I believe in because like what some of the other people said, love is also about accepting the other person for who they are, it's a two way street, it's about doing things that you wouldn't normally do because you want the other person to be happy. But it's not just about accepting another person, for me it's what the man said, it's all about helping each other up and being a mirror for the other person to show them their beauty and their flaws but to help them improve and become even better.

A man even gave a definition where he said; 'The condition or the state where the happiness of another is essential to one's own'  and that too spoke to me.

Quite often, we, like the people in the video talk about love and loving other people but we don't always explore what that means for us. We don't talk about what it means if we truly love someone and how that affects how we act and how we feel. We don't always realise the meaning behind our words and the weight of the concepts of which we speak. It's not something easy to do but with reflection, we can achieve so much more.

On a final note, another idea I loved from this video was, if you consider anyone like you're family, like your own flesh and blood and as close to you as that, that's love. In many ways I love this because it means accepting someone as like you and as part of you and your story and your world. You can't choose your family but in this sense, you can. You can choose who makes up the fabric of your world and who you would stretch yourself for to make sure that they're happy. You have that choice.

I hope that you guys find this video as inspiring and thought provoking as I have! It's less than five minutes long, I'd definitely encourage you to watch it!

Have a wonderful time doing what you're doing and I'll speak to you very soon indeed!

The Book of Life - Loved it

Hey guys! I hope that you're all well!

So today, on a friend's recommendation, I watched The Book of Life and it was incredibly beautiful for a number of reasons. Before I begin, here's the synopsis of the film to give it some context :)

'Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart, embarks on an adventure that spans three fantastic worlds where he must face his greatest fears.'

From here on, I'm going to tell you what I loved about this film and I will warn you from here that there are spoilers - I tried to signpost them all but it got a little ridiculous so I'll just warn you from now - SPOILERS AHEAD! :)

The first thing I loved was the fact that Manolo, the main character, follows what he wants to do fully. When it comes down to it, he follows what he believes to be right and doesn't use brute force and doesn't kill the bull though that's what his family has traditionally done for generations. He also finds out that no-one before him in his family has followed their passion for singing but went on to become bull fighters as all of their family were. The fact that he follows his passion and does the right thing ignites the spark in his own family and in his best friend, Joaquin to be selfless and honest is what I love. He uses his own strengths in both singing and in bullfighting to do what he feels he should do and to win because he is right and not because he's somehow cheating.

This theme is also explored because both Joaquin and Manolo are in love with Maria and the three of them make up what is very similar to the Three Musketeers. Both Joaquin and Manolo try and impress Maria but what I love about Manolo and why I think he does end up with Maria is because he takes her as she is and enhances her independence in comparison to Joaquin. She loves to fence, is also very good at kung fu and also spurs the town of San Angel where they all live, to stand up and defend the town they love so much. Manolo dances with her to defeat the evil pirate guy who wants to destroy their town and in doing so, they both fight him together. Joaquin when trying to impress Maria, accidentally falls into the trap of telling her that she should be someone who's the stereotypical housewife - evidently not a role that fits for her.

What I did love about how Joaquin grows as a character is the fact that at the end, Manolo goes into the town's largest ringing bell which had fallen from its place and which covers himself and the evil pirate as the evil pirate detonates many bombs all at once. Manolo in fact, survives because he was given a special green medal that the evil pirate wanted from Joaquin which grants the wearer the ability to not be hurt by anything and therefore everlasting life. This therefore means that in doing the selfless act, he survives but what we also find out is that Joaquin was going to go in too and that he was willing to sacrifice himself without the medal for the good of the town.

Manolo with his honesty and bravery was able to light the spark in Joaquin to encourage him to be brave ('never surrender!') and to do the right thing, even if meant danger for him. I think that's what I really loved about this film.

If you guys do get the time, I would highly recommend watching it! It's also immensely humourous and I'm sure that you'll enjoy it :D

I hope you all have a wonderful time doing what you're doing and I'll speak to you very soon indeed!

The Serenity Prayer

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

This post was inspired by this lovely little youtuber here whose video about Giving Up Power has inspired this post, in part :)

In this video, Liz talks about what is known as The Serenity Prayer which at a glance, I thought I'd never heard of but I'm sure we all have at some point in our lives:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

What Liz talks about in her video is the fact that all of the things mentioned take courage.

You always need courage to be able to accept that some battles, no matter how fiercely you want to win them, that you have to back down and just them be the way they are. I think that this is immensely important because you can come to so much peace within your life when you stop trying to go against the current, which I believe is a topic I've discussed before. 

Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between battles worth fighting and battles that don't need to happen and where surrender is the best course of action but having the courage to look within yourself and without to search for the truth, no matter how hard it is to accept which in my current life situation, is definitely advice I need to take myself.

For me, distinguishing between circumstances around me that I believe are good for me and that don't need to change as well as recognising factors that are influencing my life more than I might expect is pretty hard. Life is never really black or white but what I'm learning in the most clumsy way possible, is that you've got to try and get the best that you can out of the life that you have and of the cards that you're dealt.

To everyone, you're a human being. That pretty much entails being flawed. 

Immensely so.

So don't be so hard on yourself, it's hard to know when to do things and when not to but just so long as you're ready to accept the consequences of your actions and you know that you've settled it within yourself, don't worry. 

And if you're not doing what you know to be right, maybe think again because you may not have the chance to put it right if you leave it much longer.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! Have a most wonderful time doing what you're doing and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed!

p.s. I'm sorry about the dodgy formatting, copying and pasting here doesn't work out too well :(

A Trick of the Mirror - You

Hey guys! I hope that you're all fine and dandy!

So today, I've been inspired by this little beautiful video by Dottie James aka thisbedottie on YouTube. Before I delve into why I absolutely loved this video, Dottie makes awesomely beautiful poetic videos, usually no longer than two minutes long but that are packed full of wonder and stories and imagination. She conveys meaning without feeling heavy and makes you think in an entirely different way. Definitely worth a look if you've got a spare few moments!

So onto this video - A Trick of the Mirror.

I loved this video because it explores the opinion that you are not your physical being, you can't express your determination completely in the colour of your hair or your passion for the extraordinary in an eyeliner wing, to quote the video.

The most truest expression of yourself and reflection of who you are, comes from what you put out to the world. It comes from, the impact you have on the people around you, from siblings that you love to tease, to friends that you try and make laugh and cheer up, to the creative stuff that you put out. Your stories and your imagination and your art. Those will always better represent you and who you are compared to your physical qualities.

Having said that, you can express yourself through tattoos and through other forms of self expression that visibly manifest and these can bring you closer to showing the world and sharing with the world who you are.

I absolutely loved this video because I think it brought me right back down to earth and to the reality of how things are in many ways. There are many things that you can't change about yourself but that doesn't necessarily mean they shape who you are and represent your personality and who you are from the inside. It's what you choose to put out to the world and who you choose to be to the people around you that shows your true colours. And that's what ultimately matters and what you should keep in mind.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! I'd love to hear what you think :) Have a wonderful time doing what you're doing and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed!

What Does It Mean To Be Human?

Hey guys! I hope that you're all well!

Today, I've been inspired to make time to blog from this video which I would thoroughly recommend you go and watch. It's ten minutes of mindfulness, KABOOMS, 'soul-stirring' stuff as a friend of mine left in the comments and in a different light, some well and truly beautiful editing.

John Green inspired this video with his video and talked about the fact that being human isn't really something we can define because often by trying to define what it means to be human, we cut off part of mankind like those who are less fortunate than us in different ways. If we say that communication is what makes us human, what about those of us who are unable to read and write? What about those of us who aren't blessed by the ability to hear or to see or to talk? Are they somehow less human than the rest of us?

The conclusion that John comes to which I find so beautiful is that we're human because of our empathy and our belief in each other's humanness and being. At the same time, this means that perhaps being human is something that we kind of have to aspire to because being that kind and empathetic towards those around us isn't always something that we do and therefore we should always try and become better.

So before I start on the video this post is therefore inspired by, I'd like to say to John, I agree with what you're saying! Quite often, we wouldn't know if we were right or wrong without someone else to help us to understand that and therefore we cannot quite become ourselves without learning from other people and that's incredible! Thank you for your video!

So onto the video this post is inspired by. This video talks about how being human isn't really something that should be defined because we're all so different and yet we're all still human. We don't somehow stop being human because we don't conform to society or to the expectations that we create by trying to describe what it's supposed to be like being human. Just by being, we form a part of humanity and what it means to be as a collective consciousness and just being part of creation in general and that is so powerful in itself.

We have the choice to be however we want to be, how we are human and how we express that being within us. We all have dark and light within us but we are able to shape how that expresses itself outside and how that makes us our version of human. The fact that we're aware of ourselves and the fact that we have that choice and that we can define ourselves from that choice and how we make it is mindblowing.

The other part of this that we all have to remember is the fact that we're never really not a part of creation and humanity because of this being that we share with one another. Because of the fact that we're all intrinsically valuable in the fact that we all have this choice and this opportunity to create meaning in our lives. We can all express ourselves differently, often depending on the society that we grow up in, the inspirations that we have in our lives from friends and family to more well known characters. We all are human and we all contribute to what it means to be human.

Pretty sure that the video is definitely a lot more eloquent than I am and covers a lot more bases which I'm sure that you guys can enjoy much like I've done. Definitely go and check it out here!

I hope that you guys all create wonderful meanings, whatever they are and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed :D

Sharing Passion

Hey guys! I hope that you're all as well as ever!

One thing I've learnt from my friends both recently and over the years is that it's never difficult to be passionate about more than one subject or about more than one thing. My best friend for example is one of the most talented mathematicians as well as artists that I've seen and that shows that you don't have to be bound to one passion. You do you and you go forward with what interests you.

What I've been learning recently through The Art of Possibility as well as through a friend of mine is that it's perfectly possible to be passionate to some degree about everything. To see a project that is promoting something absolutely awesome and something new and something that's going to do amazing and positive things in the world and to feel excited about it and to want to see it go forward and do well.

I don't think it's the easiest thing to do, as I've found myself, but I think this is for a couple of reasons. For one, your ego doesn't often like to see other people doing well because that can lead it to believe that it's not going to be remembered and can make it jealous. However, as always, that doesn't have to be the case because honestly, where would we be if those who had the ability and the resources didn't help people with new ideas? Where would we be if we couldn't share our passions with one another, if we couldn't get excited with our friends and share our successes and help each other through failures? Where would the world be?

I think another reason can also be because, especially when you're young and you're not so sure about what you want to do, it can sometimes feel intimidating to see other people who are so passionate about something because it can feel like they've got a direction to go in which you don't have. It can feel like you're going to get left behind whilst they go on and use their passion to create their success story but that's also I think, derived from the ego. The ego wants to see that end goal, believes that money and fame and success in the end that passion can bring but it also tends to forget that these success stories come from teams of people, not just from individuals.

What I love about sharing passion is the fact that it can ignite in you passion that you never knew that you'd find, never knew was buried there, perhaps never even knew existed. By not being afraid to share passion with someone else, to share their success and their ideas and to appreciate what they see in their work and where that rocket fuel comes from, you can really build your own character and ideas. But you also have to remember, you can work with them to produce a success that you can share together. Sharing someone's dream is never a bad thing because it just means that this dream is so much more likely to happen because you get to be a part of it and to support that dream.

There's so much awesomeness that can be achieved by sharing passions and dreams and if you don't think you've found what you're passionate about, don't be afraid to share other people's passions. You'll find your way soon enough, whether that be finding your own rocket fuel from seeing the light that burns from other people's or finding someone with whom you want to share your rocket fuel.

Don't worry. Trust the process.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! I'd love to hear what you think down below or wherever you prefer! I hope that you have a wonderful time doing what you're doing and I hope to speak to you very, very soon indeed!

Why Not You?

Hey guys! I hope that you're doing as well as can be! :D

Today, I've been inspired by both an awesome friend and also an awesome video from a speech by Jim Rohn entitled 'Why Not You?'

Let's start off with the video. Jim challenges us as the viewer to go home today and to ask ourselves 4 questions.

First of all, why? 
Why go so far and learn so much and put yourself out there more and more than ever?
Why try and earn and share as much as you can, meet as many people and touch them both physically and with your actions as much as possible?
Why become the best version of yourself as is humanly possible?
Why try and do it all and see it all?
Why take on so much responsibility?
Why give that much away?

This then leads onto the second question; why not?
Why not see how much you can learn, how much you an earn?
Why not see how many skills you can develop and what kind of person you can become?
Why not see what kind of influence you can have and how many people you can motivate and inspire?
Why not?

Jim challenges us to take this personally - we're here until it's our time to go, so seriously, why not?

And from that comes question number three: why not you?
You've got the brains, you can make decisions, you can change your life, you can make your dream come true, you can become anything you want to.

And then the last question: why not now? There never was a better time.
Take the time now to not let your dream die and to constantly fuel it, constantly give it life, kindle it and watch it grow into a blazing fire. Breath your spirit into it until it becomes a fire that burns everywhere around the world.

Now I want to take the motivation and the truth behind that video and combine it with the idea of resistance that we often have against what is. We resist things that put us into discomfort that are disliked by our ego because it's hard and not easy and the ego doesn't want to have to be in that position. But you have to remember from that speech is it's only possible if you're willing to go as far as you can go, to do more than what you've done before, to not be afraid of discomfort and of failure.

It's so much harder said than done, believe me I know but what would happen if you accepted the discomfort and accepted the challenge? What would happen if you went into your work towards your dream, expecting hard work but being fully committed to doing it and completing it and achieving that goal? Where could you end up? Anywhere you want. Anywhere.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post and could relate to it! For me, the ideas of both being the driving force of change in my life is coupled with the fact that I'm personally often so afraid and unwilling to put hard work in. You know you have to but you resist it and resist it and it creates so much stress. But imagine if you weren't afraid of putting in the work and getting a bit tired and worn but seeing the results? I'm incredibly excited to try it out and see where it leads me!

Just before I go, this channel here does a beautiful compilation of numerous both motivational and thought provoking speeches with mind blowing graphics which is where this speech was from so I'd definitely recommend checking it out! There are others too but we'll get to those some other day.

I hope that you're all doing well and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed!

Staying in One Room..... For Ages

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

So a few posts ago, I talked about the internet being like a house with many rooms and today, I want to share with you a new experience that I've had in this house that is my relationship with other people on the internet and something I didn't realise before.

So in the past couple of days, I've made the most awesome new friend on the internet through Facebook and awesome for a couple of reasons that I'd like to share with you before we go onto the crux of our discussion.

Numero uno, I actually know the guy irl and he's two years younger than me. We went to the same middle school and now because we're at the same high school, we can share a lot about teachers and about experiences and about the town that we live in. I've not been able to do that with someone on the internet in ages and it's been so refreshing! Numero dos, because he's younger than me, I've been able to offer him my advice and experience about exams and it makes me so happy being able to reassure someone who's going through what I've been through and being able to help. Always a wonderful feeling!

Now onto the crux of what I've discovered and that is, he replies so quickly! I don't think I've ever held out such a long conversation with such rapid responses in ages and don't get me wrong, the conversation is wonderful but whoaaaaaa. Breathe. First of all, I don't want this to come across as me complaining because honestly, everyone's different when it comes to social media just like how we're all different in our vernacular in real life. But what I've realised, especially with the socially packed day I've had, is that breathing space is so important, to have time to just relax and absorb what's happened.

Having constant awesome conversation doesn't really give you time to appreciate it because you feel like you have to respond and keep it going. I know with some of my best internet friends, I love being able to come away and just have the few things that we talked about going through my mind and not having to worry about forgetting them or not being able to process my stance on them. That breathing time just to be organically with yourself, as you would be without the internet or at least without the presence of other people is so important. I know that if I try and sustain the conversation, I will end up becoming more and more introverted because I'll crave that alone time more and more.

There's definitely a balance to be struck somewhere in the middle. Social media can be really unhealthy because it creates an environment that wouldn't happen irl, as I discussed in my other blog post. I think generally, it's really important to not be afraid offending someone and just take a break to be with yourself.

I don't know if this comes from some sort of fear of silence? I was talking about it with a friend of mine and I guess on the internet, you don't necessarily always get organic silences like you would irl. You don't have the physical cues to go off of about if someone wants to say something or if they're thinking or doing something else. It's a whole different ball game!

Finally, you guys all know this but I know with me, I'm such a big culprit of this and it's just having a lot of exciting stuff to share. If you're talking to someone and they have to do all of the listening then it's not a conversation, it's a monologue. But listening's not just not talking, it's taking it in and being excited and interested and I think it takes a lot more than you might originally think.

But anyway, what do you guys think on the topic? I'd love to hear it :D
I hope that you guys all have wonderful days and I'll talk to you very soon indeed :)

What can you give your friend?

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

I've wanted to write this post ever since I saw a specific video from Soul Pancake and the awesome Julian and their series 'The Science of Love'. This video specifically intrigued me from it's title (of course) which was 'Can Men and Women Be Just Friends?' which of course is probably one of the most asked questions ever. But when I watched the video, what intrigued me most was how the pairs reacted to one particular set of question right at the beginning of the video and whether you have a friend of the opposite sex who you're close to or not, I honestly thought that it'd be great to share with you guys!

So right at the beginning of the video, each of the partners were shown a velcro board with qualities on it and they were asked to place inside the circle what they thought they needed from the other person in their friendship. That, of course, was the easy part!

Afterwards, the partners were then asked to consider what their partner needed out of their friendship and for many of them, they hadn't actually consciously considered this before! This led to it taking more time than you might've expected from good friends! However, it was also nice in some ways for them to be able to take the opportunity to actually consider the question because so often in friendships, we're so much more concerned with what we're getting out of it and if we're having our needs met, but what about the other person?

The awesome thing about this video is that they then brought the couples together and put together two Venn diagrams - what they each had thought the other needed and what they actually needed. So you may both think you need say, emotional support or flattery or an ear to complain to, but is that all you need or what you really gain from the friendship? I think it's really important in all friendships, to really think about what it's like from the other person's point of view because then you can really begin to appreciate how you can help the other person and not just how they can help you.

I think it's so easy to lose friends from being unintentionally selfish - we all do it sometimes I think, but that's our choice. Do we have to continue in that vain? No! But it's our choice if we acknowledge the other person and their needs and how much we want to develop the friendship. This would help make it sustainable in the long term and help to make sure that the give and take is equal. It shouldn't be imbalanced because that isn't really fair at all, but until you realise that, will you be able to address it?

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! I would thoroughly recommend watching the other videos in both the Science of Love series and also the Science of Happiness because I learn a lot from them and find them really thought provoking. I may even blog more about them in the future so do stay tuned! I hope that you all have a wonderful time doing whatever you're doing and I'll speak to you very soon indeed!

P.s. I loved this still from Julian at the end - I feel like he's a cross between Colin Morgan and Thomas Brodie-Sangster - anyone else see it? :D

Teachers + Interwebular Discussions

Hey guys! I hope that you're all well!

So on Monday I had the most awesome discussion with my French teacher about the internet and whether it necessarily takes over your life. This was completely related to my work which is rather odd but it did lead to some awesome discussion!

Like for example the fact that internet addiction can be seen as a very bad thing and in many cases, it really can be. But what a lot of adults fail to see is the fact that people can often be brought together across the internet by things that aren't necessarily internet related like events happening across the globe as well as films and TV shows and books! The internet isn't something that takes you away from enjoying life because in many ways, to make friends on the internet you have to be active in the rest of your life.

I know that for many of you that would be blatantly obvious but also the opposite, like for example the fact that I love blogging about YouTube videos. Without YouTube being on the internet, I wouldn't necessarily have as much to blog about and that shows that of course, there are definite internet connections that can only be made through content on the internet. What I love about my life is the fact that the internet can play such a big part in my life and yet still not take over. I have that flexibility and I don't have to be attached to it all the time.

Thank you guys for reading this post because it doesn't necessarily feel relevant but the fact that it does have an impact on us and the way that adults then go on to perceive us and our relations to the internet made me want to write about it. The internet is too broad to not have real life integrated into it and when you meet other people, it's much like meeting irl - you can't say that internet friendships are somehow less valid than irl ones because they still require the same skills.

Anyways, I hope that you all have wonderful days doing whatever you're doing and that you're able to be present and at one with everything :D

The Many Roomed House of the Internet

Hey guys! I hope that you're all having wonderfully present days!

This little analogy sprung into my mind when I was considering the phenomenon that is communicating to people all across the internet and how that compares to in real life. The main thing that struck me was the fact that on the internet, it's very possible to be talking to more than two people all at once and to be having completely different conversations. I've done that with around 3-4 people all at once and it can be quite overwhelming at times!

But what really struck me was the fact that we would never be able to do this in real life. You'd never talk to that many people about different things all at once, talking to that many would only work if you were all in one group being a part of the same conversation. This led me to think about how if you were to do this in real life, it'd be almost like each conversation taking place in a different room and how if you wanted to talk to that many people about different things, it would never happen. You'd never be able to up and leave a person in one room to go and continue a conversation from before with another person in another room. It'd be so immensely rude and diabolical in real life and impossible that the fact that this phenomenon is possible with the internet is quite amazing and definitely a big change from how we're used to operating in social situations!

This was brought on because of me trying to get hold of a friend who I usually talk to around the same time everyday. What made me sad was the fact that they felt like they weren't doing very good multi-tasking because they weren't able to switch their attention from the group of people in one room with which they were having a lot of fun, to me, in a completely different room with a different atmosphere altogether. I didn't like the fact that somehow not being able to be in two places at once and give two different sets of people the same amount of presence was somehow bad because it's not really how things are supposed to operate. I just felt bad that they felt like they had to leave the other room to visit the room I was in when really, I didn't really have to be there at all. I could leave the house or had I known they were entertaining others, not come at all and not create that thought in the back of their mind and make it harder to enjoy that social occasion.

All in all, what I gained from this was the fact that if we're going to try and use the internet to communicate, we do also have to understand how much differently we have to operate ourselves and the parameters we set ourselves because of how much differently it works to in real life. We shouldn't feel like we're somehow failing because we've not managed to align our parameters to how much we can handle to the reality of how much presence we can actually realistically give. Multi-tasking in real life is much easier because the tasks are things we can see and are tangible and can be understood. People aren't always the same and having to get your head around that, especially with the phenomenon that is the internet, can be quite a hard balance to strike, especially when you're trying to live your real life reality at the same time!

I hope that this made some sort of sense guys! I'd love to hear what you think on the subject :D I hope that you all have wonderful weeks and I'll speak to you very, very soon indeed!

Meditation, ASMR, the Big and the Small, All my mind today!

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

Today my mind's full of what I believe to be very awesome stuff so I'm just going to spill it all out and I hope that you can take some value from it!

Recently enough, I started using headspace.com after the recommendation from Taylor (ItsRadishTime) during her VEDA videos and honestly, having Andy to be able to talk me through how to meditate and how to be a bystander in the traffic of your thoughts has been immense. I've learnt about how I can just not worry about the thoughts and just not focus on them and just simply be. It's much too awesome. When I'm writing this, I've just finished Day Four of the Take Ten program where you take ten minutes to meditate every day for ten days (not necessarily consecutively) and I end up finishing so refreshed. I've still a while to go to be able to apply that calm to more of my life but it's been the one thing that's really helped me learn what value meditating can have. The combination of the physical relaxation and awareness in order to combat the rush hour that can often be the contents of our minds is too awesome. You can get the app and also use it on your computer. I'd definitely recommend it!

Leading on from that, I really want to become better at just appreciating every single moment. I feel like I'm becoming better at being present but actually being with my being and leaving my mind and my ego behind is something I have yet to crack. To leave expectation, to leave despair, to leave all that the mind believes is true in order to just have the joy of being left. That's something! I honestly think I'd be able to benefit so much more from every day life as well as the relationships I have with people around me if I was able to just take things as they come. Living in the present and not in the future is so much easier said than done but I'm looking forward to the struggle and hopefully overcoming that barrier. Just leaving the noise of my mind behind in favour of silence.  Being able to appreciate the loud and the soft and not necessarily feel better or worse for whatever situation I find myself in but just being joyful because I'm being.

On to another little topic - ASMR - which Dodie did a video about yesterday. It's such an odd yet cool concept - how listening to someone whispering can give you tingles and just make you feel really warm and fuzzy. The science of it is something I have yet to understand but the fact that you don't have to necessarily have any rational stimuli to feel relaxed and calm is wonderful! I definitely want to find more people who do that sort of thing but here's her video if you want to give it a go!

I know I've already covered a lot this blog post but one final thing: I realised why quite often I feel almost envy/jealousy towards some of my friends and that's because I don't adopt a growth mindset in many situations. My ego leads me towards believing that the gap between us and our abilities is great and that what they can do is somehow unattainable. No Mr. Ego, that is not the case at all! Adopting a growth mindset opens so many doors to you because you realise that - and here comes one of my favourite things ever - with constant effort comes exponential growth. If you keep putting the work in and keep persevering and if you don't drop the ball, you can only move onwards and upwards. That's the only way you can go. The Only Way.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! It went all over the place but there have been so many stimuli in my life at the moment and so much inspiration that there are so many places I want to go and so much I want to achieve. The growth mindset, meditation and truly being in the present and not in the future or the past and persevering. That's what I'm aiming for! Have a great one and I'll speak to you very soon indeed!

A Secret to Happiness - Soul Pancake!

Hey guys! I hope that you're literally having the bestest days ever!

I watched the most beautiful study today from Soul Pancake's very own The Science of Happiness series. It has been scientifically proven that an overall contributor to how happy you are is how much gratitude you show.

Hence the video: 'An Experiment in Gratitude' 

What they did was got a bunch of volunteers and got them to take a test which would tell the experts how happy they were. They were then asked to write a letter to one of the biggest inspirations in their life and why they'd been inspired so much.

Then came the twist; they were asked to call the people they'd talked about and read what they'd written to them. Just imagine if you were asked to do that yourself! It's the most beautiful video to watch and I would thoroughly recommend it!

To come to what this showed - after they'd spoken to the person or for those for whom this wasn't possible too - they all took a test which was pretty much identical to that of the first but worded differently enough that they didn't realise. What they found was that those who hadn't been able to talk to those who they'd written about but who'd still written a letter showed between a 2% and 4% increase in happiness. Cool beans.

What was even more interesting was that amongst those who had spoken to that special person had shown between a 4% and a 19% increase in happiness - even more intriguingly, those who had the highest by the end were often those who had started off at the lowest.

Moral of the story? Expressing your gratitude will make you a happier person and quite often, the worse you feel, the larger impact it'll have. How freaking awesome is that?!

Just the fact that this has been scientifically proven just made me the most joyful human being today and I'd honestly love to try this. Sharing what you love about the world and for the people that impact your experience of it, directly or less so and showing your gratitude for it. So incredibly beautiful. I'm never not in awe of how awesome life is.

In terms of gratitude, I just want to take a moment to be thankful for the fact that this post here that your brain is processing, is my 100th post. That's a pretty cool number! Just having the time and capacity to do something I enjoy and love is just phenomenal so thank you thank you thank you! Much happiness :D

I hope that you guys all have the most wonderful time ahead, in the present moment and all of them to come and that hopefully, I get to speak to you soon!

Uncontrollable Invisible Barriers

Hey guys! I hope that you're as well as ever!

Today I was struck by Paul Roth and his new bonus video which he released for the end of VEDA and it affected me for a number of reasons, some of which perhaps more than others. Before I go on, trigger warning for depression. I don't intend to go into specific detail as such but please be warned before you go on.

It's easy enough to say that you often don't know if someone's suffering from a mental illness because many people on a day to day basis learn how to cover it up. (This isn't necessarily because they don't want other people to know but just a coping mechanism for themselves - keep busy and it's much easier to keep at bay.) But then what happens if that person's a YouTuber? For me that struck me hard because though I can't claim to know Paul in a close sense at all, it just went to strike home just how randomly it feels like mental illness can strike. It doesn't discriminate between the different groups in society, it can affect anyone and I think that was a really important realisation that happened for me. It's not that I was ever in denial, no not ever really, but I think as with anything, it only becomes really real when you experience the truth first hand.

Paul's video also gave me further insight into the difficulties that people with depression face. It's easy enough to down play mental illness or to forget it's every day impacts for those who suffer from it when you're not the one who has to deal with it first hand but Paul referring to the month as 'lucky' when from the outset he appeared so collected was definitely something that hit me. It just demonstrated for me that we should never not appreciate the work that people put into any project and the willpower that they exert against forces that aren't in their control to do what they want to do. My hat comes off to all those people and to everyone to some degree because in any creative endeavour, you will always face some sort of hardship whether that be doubting your own abilities or the qualities of your work to even working out how you want to express yourself to actually carrying out that expression. Working past that even against forces which you literally have next to no control over is beyond my comprehension.

Art in all of its forms is a journey and the strength and perseverance that it takes to stay on track is more than it's usually given credit for. When you then factor in mental illness as a road block that is completely and utterly out of your hands, especially in the mornings when you have to often face it head on and get yourself out of bed and busy, I can't fathom just how hard it must've been.

It made me appreciate the amount that I take for granted and the amount of happiness I wish I could share with  more people. That's not to say these people are never happy because I don't believe that's true but I wish that I would be more appreciative of the relative high I experience a lot of the time that they don't have the privilege of. I don't believe anyone should wish to have a mental illness because it's one of the largest struggles you can go against, but in some ways it feels like there's no way I can fully appreciate the highs I go through compared to their lows.

This picture isn't directly linked to Paul but I feel
like it represented for me in a very brief moment,
a glimpse into depression.

All I guess I want to end with is the sentiment that I feel so lucky that I've been blessed to not have a mental illness nor have anyone close to me suffer with one either. I just hope that from now onwards I can appreciate my own happiness more and even during times when things aren't really going up or down, to be happy that I have that balance and that not everyone is as lucky. That's the one comfort that I can take from this, the wake up call and the personal reminder. The last thing I take from this is that creative endeavours, no matter how small and no matter how insignificant it feels like they are or how small it feels like the intention is, it's important and everything has value.
That's always, always, always something to remember.

Appreciate everything.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! If you did, I'm glad! Definitely go and check out Paul in general because he's an absolutely marvellous and inspirational human being!

I hope that you all have wonderful weekends and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed!

BEDA Day Thirty - A Story

Hello!

Today we supposedly end a chapter in the story that is this life on this blog, this compilation of thoughts, the random splutters of life, the thoughts that ramble on through tappings on a key board. Today we end and celebrate BEDA and VEDA 2015 and the immensity that it's been.

*bows head in silence*

BUT this is just the beginning of a new adventure! This month I've made so many new acquaintances, wrote about topics I never knew I felt passionately about, shared stories and anecdotes and loved every moment in which I've been present. And there's not much to say it won't continue!

It's rather odd thinking that we make friends through increasing our presence with one another and making it more meaningful, yet with BEDA and VEDA, we only do so for a little while. It seems almost backwards which is odd. We make friends and then we don't see them as much anymore.

I'm looking forward to seeing how these frienfshios will progress and how we can all still be close and share connections over longer spans of time. There's so much variety that life has to offer but many things don't change and those are the things we must cherish.

Ride the wave of change but appreciate every single turn that you take. You never know where you're going.

Thank you for being present with me this month! I look forward to more in the future though the exact whenness we shall have to see! Take Care of yourselves and have a wonderful one, whatever you're doing! :D

BEDA Day Twenty Eight - Impermanence and Acceptance

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

Here's a random late night thought for you from a little sleep deprived Zainab.

Friends well and truly come and go and it's really touch and go. You don't control other people so it's not something you should ever worry about, especially if you've just been yourself and treated them with respect. Living in the present moment means accepting what is now and that also means that you're thankful for everything that is reality now without becoming falsely attached to the past and the future. Now is really all we have, many moments put together in a long string.

Accepting the fact that some of your best closest friends may not be so in a moment which isn't reality right now is daunting. It's hard to not get attached but it's well and truly worth accepting that like the rest of life, things change and move on.

Definitely a topic that's been on my mind that I may have already blogged about, who knows? A topic and subject I want to try and implement more in my life, hence more emphasis.

I hope you all have a wonderful day and I'll catch you very soon indeed!

BEDA Day Twenty Six - TED talk wonders!

Hello guys! I hope that you're as well as ever!

A quickie today about a ted talk which is this ( http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goleman_on_compassion) from Daniel Goleman on why we're not more compassionate. Before I dive in, the website which I've included allows you to download talks like these onto your phone which was basically my revelation for today. TED talks are immensely inspiring talks from experts about inspirational mind blowing topics ranging between 10-20 minutes long. Definitely would recommend if you ever have time to kill where you'd love to have something meaningful to do!

Now, compassion according to Daniel is something that is actually very innately wired within is, something which we actually would act on a lot more if we didn't get so preoccupied with ourselves and our problems. We naturally want to connect to the people around us and share their experiences and relieve their pain but only if we can be that present with someone else and not cause them to become 'pizzled' (puzzled and pissed) when we shut them out with our technological devices which are supposedly more important than the human in front of us. Lies.

Compassion also relies on our ability to make our exchanges more about the other person and less and less about ourselves or about less meaningful though important subjects that of course carry importance. Seeing how my we can use the word 'you' in our conversational questions is a good measure of this and how much we're then able to take forward and use to become more aware and considerate.

We're also gkod catalysts for change within each other because we can raise each other's awareness of problems and make it easier to help and to change. When we start doing things because we want to help others and not because of the image and status it'll give us in the eyes of others is the time when we'll truly benefit and really, in a sense, become our most human.

I could go on for longer but that'd be spoiling it! I hope you all have had wonderful weekends and I'll catch you very, very soon indeed!

BEDA Day Twenty Four - Cast Your Vote

Hello guys! I hope that you're as well as ever!

So today, I had the pleasure, or whatever you'd like to call it, of attending a Q and A session with my local Conservative candidate at my school. Before I go into specifics, I'd like to just give you all a background into what's happening in my country at the moment.

As I hope you all know by now, if not now you shall know, I live in England and right now, we're two weeks away from the five-yearly General Elections where everyone 18+ who has registered to vote gets to vote for the political party that they would most desire to see running the country for the next five years. This works by voting for the candidate of the party who represents your constituency so your local area, in parliament.

In our country, there are two main parties who represent the right wing and the left wing respectively which are Labour for the left and the Conservatives on the right. Today, we had the Conservative representative for our constituency come into our school at lunch so we could fire our questions at him about university tuition fees which tripled during this government (which was Conservative aka Tory dominated) as well as other matters of politics. Before I say what I thought of today's session, I feel like we're immensely privileged to be able to do this because it gives us a bit more of an every day and closer flavour for what politics means to us in our lives. Often as youngsters, it's very easy to become distanced from politics, especially when you're nowhere near a General Election. This time, I'm one year too young to vote but knowing people in the year above who really want to find the match for them as well as my enthusiastic peers has made me realise that perhaps now is the time to get understanding and pushing for what I believe in.

Anyway, in spite of the fact that my constituency has typically been Conservative for many years, being in a publicly funded school that is more socialist, the candidate wasn't perhaps the most welcomed man ever. Teachers and students alike quizzed him about what the point was about increasing tuition fees. For us, those who get into good universities will come out of uni with £30,000-£40,000+ debt and we don't start paying it off until we start earning above £21,000. It then gets striked off 30 years later so you basically pay as much as you can when you're earning enough. Many of the teachers had the concern that they were still paying their tuition fees off 10-20 years after having finished their degrees and their tuition fees had been much less. Is there a point in us being charged so much  money if many of us will never live to pay it all off?

Then this led onto the thoughts about housing and the fact that if we can't find jobs even after being qualified people with humungous amounts of debt, how on earth will we get onto the property ladder? Where's the money going to come from to pay for a house and potentially a mortgage when we're lumbered with university debt? He accepted that we needed more houses but then wouldn't accept the validity of perhaps having a mansion tax in order to raise money to make more houses which could be a use for that money (p.s. that's a Labour policy!)

And then finally, he voted against a bill to help deal with Climate Change and honestly, I wasn't sure where to stand on that one. He claims a lot of things, being a scientist and having 'looked at the facts' and I really want to see the evidence and to see why he thinks he can claim that global warming isn't happening and isn't causing climate change. It just seems like a rather large facade that no one should  be pulling off everywhere around the world if it's somehow simply untrue. It seems almost impossible that we should all be running around worrying and being taught that we should be making changes if that isn't the case.

Overall, today I've learnt that it's always good to question your beliefs and find out where you stand and why. Question other people and understand where they stand and why and then forge your own belief system and don't build up so much an ego that you can't be open to new ideas but know why you believe what you believe and don't be afraid to speak out about it, especially if you can make changes to the world around you.

I hope that you guys somewhat enjoyed this post and that you have wonderful days! I hope to speak to you very, very soon indeed!

BEDA Day Twenty Two - Day Dreaming! :D

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

I've been thinking about day dreaming lately and whether, in terms of being present and living in the moment or even planning for the future, whether it holds value at all. What I found is, it generally doesn't which was rather thought provoking for me because it feels like I'm a compulsive day dreamer about situations that often have a very small likelihood of ever happening.

However, since I've come to the conclusion that day dreaming isn't really productive at all, I've realised that my life without daydreaming is so much better, simply because of the obvious. I now spend less time thinking about things that could and would've been and this means that it's easier for me to accept what is because I don't spend so much time thinking of all the other possibilities.

It also makes it easier for me in terms of the future because I don't spend so much time letting my imagination turn the normal people around me into horrific or terrific people just because I'm not present. I don't like how often we become inclined to begin labelling other people around us if we're exposed to their flaws. I know that I wouldn't want to be seen in a negative light by other people who I trust or don't know that well when they don't know me well enough to know the values I live by. Letting your ego make assumptions because you're not present isn't a good use of time at all.

Finally, even more evidently, I'm even more present and happier for it! I get to enjoy the moment in all its glory rather than letting the cloud of random unuseful thoughts surround me. It's so much more refreshing and joyful, especially when you're doing something simple to be able to just be joyful rather than allowing your ego to subconsciously swirl unfounded thoughts and feelings around. Enjoy the little, quieter moments because they're everywhere and are such blessings.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post and are having the bestest days ever! I shall hopefully see you very soon indeed!

BEDA Day Twenty - Doing What You Love! :)

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

A number of different interwebular discussions and VEDA videos got me thinking about how important it is to do what you want to do regardless of what anyone else thinks.

There are a number of reasons for this opinion.

For example, a big reason why we often don't try new things is because we fear looking ridiculous and that's a whole load of nope. If you want to try something, you're bound to start off bad before you get better and if beginners were experts that fast, wouldn't more people be doing it? :)

Also, we fear the opinion of other people and that shouldn't count at all because what makes their opinion more important than the excitement and the drive that you have for that thing? If they don't want to support you doing something you love, should you really be giving value to what they're saying, especially if it's unconstructive? No! If you let other people dictate what you do in life, the only person who's losing out is you. They'll move on with their lives but you'll be left with regret and that's not really something you should let hang around, especially if you can do something about it!

Finally, something I got from this video was the fact that you, my friend, are an awesome human being, in your entirety. Of course, there isn't really anyone at all who's perfect but you, you're special and you should know that. Everywhere you go, you create something, you can create goodness and be a big part of someone's day, someone's story and you could even inspire someone when you feel like you're at your lowest. Being is wonderful, you reach so many places without even realising.

The other videos that inspired this was this one from Paul and this one from Taylor because heck is she also an awesome human being for doing something I wish I had the courage to do!

I hope that you all have a wonderful day and I shall speak to you, very, very soon indeed! :D

BEDA Day Eighteen! Getting Up and Carrying On

Hello wonderful people! I hope that you're doing swimmingly :D

Today, I want to talk to you about two videos which combined together made me feel both empathetic and inspired and they're this one entitled 'I'm So Done' from Mel and this one entitled 'Picking Up The Ball' from Blake.

I really resonated with Mel's video about the pressures of school because my exams are getting closer and closer and I'm soon to restart school after the Easter holidays and I'm hoping and praying that I'll be able to deal with the pressure. At the same time though, I totally loved Blake's video because of the fact I think a lot of students in my position or in a similar position can really relate to failing sometimes when it comes to school and often when it comes to trying to become more productive, particularly in terms of revision. It's really easy to feel disheartened when you find it hard to finish the work you've set yourself or when you're just not feeling up to working and I think what's definitely important is to have that balance between the two and this is where for me, the two videos integrate very nicely indeed.

What I want to make sure is that I don't get to the stage where I'm 'done' and that's not to say that being done is a bad thing as such but I know that when I'm done, I've completely ground to a halt; I've dropped the ball and I've not even attempted to pick it up again. That's where I don't want to get to because the only sure way of failing is by not doing anything at all. Sure, for many of us there's still a lot of work to get done but that won't get done if we stop altogether. Being slow and steady and improving your productivity as well as giving yourself time to breath is a really important balance to strike and that's definitely something I want to achieve over the next couple of months to come.

It's also, I think, a case of not letting pressure get to you but trying to learn because you want to and enjoying the process as much as possible. Once doing work becomes daunting, it becomes harder and harder to do but once you realise doing a small bit every day and enjoying it and working through it is something that's very achievable, you're much more likely to succeed.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! Definitely go and check out Mel and Blake because they're both a) very, very awesome human beings who make awesome videos and b) they're both doing VEDA so lots of awesome content to check out! I hope that you have a wonderful day and I'll speak to you very, very soon indeed! :D

BEDA Day Sixteen! The Ego's Greatest Lie - Part 4! :D

Hey guys! I hope that you're all feeling mindful and wonderful :D

I'm so excited to be doing this series and I hope that you're enjoying it just as much as I am!
If you haven't read the others of this series, these few posts are inspired by this video by my good friend Matt which you should definitely watch if you've got some time on your hands!
It's all about mindfulness and the power of the ego and how we willingly allow it to affect our daily lives and the way that we view the world around us. Magic stuff!

I feel like today may be the last one so here goes!

Just a few points I want to add from yesterday about joy. Joy brings us to love everything that we encounter in varying degrees and a wonderful metaphor that love when you're mindful and joyful is like the light of the sun, which isn't conditional and selective, but touches everything everywhere on our planet. :) In the same way, the love of oneness with everything isn't conditional either. That connection and understanding and inherent goodness brings out joy. :D
By being present in the moment, you open up that portal to appreciate life around you and this just brings out the joy that is inherently inside you.

On a side note from the video itself, appreciating whatever you have is so important, especially as society advances and advances and advances. What you can achieve is often dependent on the tools that you have at hand and so many people in the world would never have ever dreamed of having what we have. It's so vitally important to take opportunities with both hands - you don't know how lucky you are to have been presented with them in the first place <2

Our final point to end on is inspired from a quote by Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now which I definitely want to read at some point where he says 'The challenges of life are supposed to make you more conscious, not more happy.' and I think that's so true because of the fact you become more and more aware of how life works as you face more challenges and as you come up against even more resistance from your ego. You become more and more mindful and more aware of the fundamental life truths. That's ultimately the most important thing because as we discussed yesterday, the ego loves to work on dualities to judge your days upon like happy and sad and good and bad whilst the central self, the being is the part which holds that joy within you which is unconditional.

You don't have to live with the perpetual discomfort that your ego will quite happily provide you with. You can step outside this calculating self of yours that loves to label and to condemn and to discriminate and separate and you can bring out that joy of being and interconnection with all that is. Once you find that, that is unshakeable.

I hope that you guys have enjoyed this series and I would love to hear anything that you've thought on the topic! Definitely go and watch the video if you get the chance and just appreciate the joy in the truths that are present :D I hope that you all have a wonderful day and I shall speak to you very, very soon indeed!

BEDA Day Fourteen! The Ego's Greatest Lie - Part 3! :D

Hey guys! I hope that you've all had the best weeks so far!

So, onwards we go on our appreciation of mindfulness and the biggest lie that our ego loves to tell us from this video here from my good friend Matt. Definitely worth a watch if you have fifteen minutes to spare!

The amazing thing about the ego is that it also creates the dualities we have in our daily life, most common happiness and sadness. If you think about it, these all depend on circumstance. But with joy, there is literally no need for you to have anything at all to feel the joy of being. And with that you get this unshakeable peace because you know that wherever you are, whatever your life situation, you don't need to be happy to be joyful. 

From there, you get this love for all that is. All that is, knowing that everything is connected, everything is full of energy and everything is full of joy of being. This means that with joyfulness, you can love all that is whether that be your enemies or your friends or anything around you in life. You just love everything to differing degrees and that's up to you I guess! Without the ego labelling everything, you can pretty much love everything however much you'd like! 

Loving your enemies knowing that they're unconscious and overcome by their ego is so powerful. It just means that you're so much more in control I guess in many ways. You're not driven by your ego, you don't need to survive or overcome them because you're equal and you're going to take whatever comes at you with as much understanding and comprehension as possible. You're going to feel your way into an action in contrast to feeling your way into an action. They only let you see the armour that they create for themselves, the false self rather than the true self. That true self loves everything and is joyful and equal amongst all creation and the part that you love. 

Enlightenment and salvation is much like success - it's a way of being rather than a destination. 

When you face crisis with your being rather than your ego, you open up doors that allow you to accept the facts of the situation that is presented in front of you. This is in contrast with resisting what's happening, sometimes being in a state of disbelief and frustration and anger - again survival being a key aim of the ego - but by accepting what's in front of you, you open that door to opportunity and that's really important. You can gain so much from crisis but only if you take anything and everything that's in front of you. You can't gain success by ignoring facts and by resisting.

To tie off today, you can see this in media! Isn't that awesome? :D

You can see it in video games and in movies because they either preach becoming  more mindful and more accepting or showing what happens when you close your mind to the truth in front of you. 

My favourite example from Matt's video was from How To Train Your Dragon - through realising that dragons have inherent value as well, Hiccup helps the Vikings become a mindful and accepting civilisation and this is much better than the society they started off with, full of war and anger and fear - an ego driven society.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! I really loved this video so please do go and check it out. I think I've probably got at least one or two more posts in me from this video - the topic is so large, especially with the amount Matt covers in the video! Have a wonderful time, whatever you're doing, being joyful and mindful and present and I'll see you here in another couple of days!