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!

BEDA Day Twelve! The Ego's Greatest Lie - Part 2! :D

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

So today we continue through the wonder that is my favourite video at this moment in time which is from Matt. You can check it out by looking at my previous blog post and following the links as I'm afraid I don't have linking capacity at the moment! Also perhaps read that first because I'm going through it chronologically so it'll make more sense if you start from there!

Now, onwards!

The ego loves to separate, as we Discussed before but the main problem we also face is the fact that we end up being separated from the world despite the fact we're intrinsically part of it. Madness. Jim Carrey makes the point in his commencement speech that our need to fit in in today's society makes our true selves practically invisible.We live a lot for building up this image of ourselves to show the world but in doing so neglect our true selves which is linked yo everything and has nothing to prove. It has no need to separate, it has no need to label because it simply accepts everything in the world because it's connected to it all.

Salvation isn't something to look for because it's something that you have within yourself and with that comes a joy with no opposite. Things around you can bring out the joy and increase it but it doesn't ever deplete inside you.

The joy comes from knowing that you don't have to resist the world and be afraid anymore. It comes from living in the possibility that everything is connected and everything is peaceful and joyful and full of energy. You don't need to struggle to survive and you don't need to be remembered because you're already valuable - you don't need to prove yourself to anyone.

You step outside the ego and into the present moment with your mind and soul and all is well.

I hope that you guys are enjoying these awesome ideas as much ad I am! Feel free to tell me what you think as well as Matt! I shall continue  In two days time but in the mean time, have a lovely weekend and I'll see you tomorrow on my side Tumblr blog!

BEDA Day Ten! The Ego's Greatest Lie - Part 1 :D

Hey guys! I hope that you're all having perfect days and whoo for the upcoming weekend!

So on Tuesday, my good friend Matt uploaded what is probably my favourite video of his to date - a 15 minute video about mindfulness and presence and joy from being, the inspiration and ideas from which I wanted to share with you today!

Before I start, if you do get the chance to sit down for 15 minutes and just experience the video first hand, I would highly encourage you to do so because it's brilliant and completely and utterly KABOOM inducing. If you don't have that much time and you'd like to hear what I took from the video too, please continue reading!

So the first amazing point that Matt raises in this video is all about interconnectedness and how whether you think about it scientifically or perhaps on a more spiritual level, we're connected to literally everything around us. We're connected to each other through the fact that we share the same genetic make up and we've all evolved from the same ancestors but we're also then connected to the beings all around us because we're all part of life and we've all come to live here on this planet after so many years. You can go back even further and then see how we're connected to the earth just through the fact that all of the world and life originated from the origin of the universe which we consider as the Big Bang and so we're all connected because we all came from that. The earth and all the life on it, all connected.

Then you have the less scientific explanation which is in many ways satisfying because we're all connected because we're all just living together on this planet and we're all aware to different degrees of the reality of life and being. We share our days together and though we may not all necessarily be similar and interact in the same way and all, we're all here together. Some people would then also attribute this to God and how diverse His creation is and how he's created us all from the same source and how humanity is just the most aware of His creation.

Believe what you will, in essence, we're not really separate from anything much at all.
We are everything.

Now what we do, the majority of us without even realising, is that we allow our egos, our minds, the  parts of us that we present to the world to make us believe that we're separate from everything. We love to label other people and other creatures and everything that we come across and we rate ourselves in comparison. We can put ourselves on pedestals because we think we're so much more superior because of all that we've achieved but we all come from the same place, the same origin and therefore we all have the same intrinsic value. We're all equal in creation. KABOOM!

I think I underestimated how much I'd be writing about this subject and therefore, if you want to go and watch the video, I would thoroughly recommend it because I've literally only covered the first two minutes today and I don't really want to take more of your time than 15 minutes would! I shall however, be continuing this discussion from now on here and going through the points in this video in the days to come so do look forward to that!

I absolutely love this subject, as does Matt so I hope that you guys can feel the same sort of joy and awe from these facts - or if you don't and you disagree, I'd love to hear what you think perhaps in the comments if you'd like!

Just to finish, a quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson:

'We are a part of the universe, we are in the universe, and perhaps more than both those facts, 

the universe is in us.'

BEDA Day Eight! Cosmic Laughter from tAoP

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

At the moment, I'm reading a book called The Art of Possibility (tAoP) by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander and I've loved it so much. It's a book that presents 12 practices about how to bring creativity into your professional and personal endeavours and for me, it presents many truths about life that you hadn't started to consider before. These truths make my mind blow and every time my mind blows, I have affectionately term it a 'KABOOM!' moment :D

So today, I wanted to share with you an anecdote from the book and which is part of the chapter called 'The Way Things Are' and it's all about cosmic laughter which is a concept I have grown to love.

The anecdote is about Roz and this is what she said:

As you can see, cosmic laughter is a wonderful thing because it's the moment at which you realise that by changing a small parameter in your mindset towards a task, you can stop meeting resistance and start being able to tackle the problem. You see the obvious which is in front of you that just wasn't clear to you before. This then allows you to surpass whatever was stopping you making progress before by allowing you to stop seeing it as an obstacle and rather just a slightly different surface on which you have to learn how to glide.

Cosmic laughter for me has been wonderful because it's made me feel so much better about situations that I had previously dreaded or had previously thought of negatively. For example, my previous blog post on this blog about not being replied to, if you make the assumption that the person you're talking to is deliberately ignoring you in order to make you feel unworthy and bad, you're bound to feel sad or dejected if they don't reply. However, by removing this from the equation, you can suddenly make conversation so much less of a personal affront and just a gift of presence wherever possible which I think we can agree, is much nicer! 

Moments of cosmic laughter can also be when you realise that you've placed assumptions in places where they're simply untrue, like Roz's assumption that skiing didn't include ice and this allows you to open up so many more possibilities about what the truth actually is rather than your assumption.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! If you've ever had a moment of cosmic laughter, please do let me know in the comments below because I'd love to hear about them! I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope to talk to you soon!

p.s. my good friend Matt made a video about the same topic here so if you have two minutes to spare, definitely go and check it out!

BEDA Day Six! 'I'm sorry, I can't be present with you right now'

Hey guys! I hope that you're all as well as ever and Happy Monday to you all! :D

As I was thinking about what I could talk to you about today, I remembered a feeling I had recently when I was talking to a friend of mine and waiting for a reply. I often get this feeling when I'm having a really good conversation or when I have something you really want to talk about, but the reply doesn't always come as fast as I'd like it to. If you're anything like me, this can feel quite disheartening but I was struck one day by a mindset you can have in those sorts of situations which can make you feel a ton better and that's what I'd like to share with you today!

'I'm sorry, I can't be present with you right now.'

Presence is probably one of the biggest gifts you can give anyone and knowing that and being able to recognise the gift when it's given to you is also something to work on within yourself. But that's a gift that can be consciously given and we all know what it's like to be having a conversation with someone who isn't really into it. It's practically like you're drawing blood from them. You can clearly tell they're just trying to not appear to be rude but still giving you the shortest replies and I guess what that made me realise was, a friend who isn't replying is actually being immensely kind.

Instead of having a half hearted conversation, by not replying they're telling you, 'I'm really sorry I can't be present with you right now,' and in that way, they're respecting you even more by only talking to you when they can give you their full attention. That feels pretty magic I'd say! By seeing every interaction you have with other people as exchanges of gifts of presence, you can really appreciate another person's presence. It's a way of not really expecting anything because it's a gift and it can be whatever size. Your return gift can be proportionate but receiving the gift in the first place is amazing and can lead to lots of happiness!

I hope that all of us are able to appreciate the gifts of presence that we can give to one another and not feel so disheartened when we don't get to spend as much time as we'd like with the people we care about the most. All that means is, the time we do get to spend is so much more valuable and that smaller amount of time with the maximum presence is much more worthwhile than half hearted attempts which don't really show what we truly mean to one another at all.

I hope that you guys took something from this post, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments, if you'd like! I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll catch you very, very soon!<2

BEDA Day Four! Paul Roth's live shows!

Hey guys! Good Morning! I hope that you're as well as can be!

Today I wanted to talk about some of the awesome positivity that I've come across during these past couple of months on the internet. One of these awesome things has been Paul Roth and the Google Hangout live shows that he's hosted on YouTube, the concept of which just fascinated me a lot. This is because it works quite a bit like YouNow but as it's in Google Hangouts, you can have multiple people on screen and that fact makes it magic!

I must confess that I haven't been able to go to all of Paul's recent live shows but that's just part of the magic. For example, on the 21st of March which was Paul's second YouTube anniversary and he held an eight hour live show along with his friends on Google Hangouts via Live YouTube. Literally, because it was that long I got an hour in the middle and the last ten minutes but I can tell you those people are amazing and may not have all been able to come together had it not been for Paul.

They talked about a lot of interesting subjects including YouTube related subjects such as big content creators like John Green as well as VidCon which is the largest YouTube gathering if I'm not mistaken which takes place in June every year in Anaheim, CA. That wasn't just it though, they also talked about a ton of different issues and concepts and ideas such as vegetarianism, glasses and swing dancing and that's literally just to name a couple of the subjects from the first couple of hours!

The dynamic amongst all of the small youtubers was both jovial, respectful and just plain open. It was something I've never experienced before and it just opened my eyes to how you can really build the community on YouTube just by knowing of smaller youtubers and engaging in their content. Their content often holds a whole sea of value even if it's hidden a lot further out of view compared to other larger fish in the pond and their content. It made me feel so much more included too because it's amazing knowing that when you interact with these people, they're much more likely to remember you and you're much more likely to be able to make friends with smaller youtubers than larger ones.

Just knowing that you can do that and you can learn so much from everyone together is a reason why I am now almost permanently emotionally vested into trying to make sure that I go to as many of Paul's live shows as possible! I also do hope that I've shown you why they mean so much to me!

If you'd like to see some of them, you can go to Paul's YouTube channel and see them!
If you don't have the time to see them, make sure you subscribe because when he schedules a live show, it comes up in your sub box and I'm sure you guys would love to be able to go too!

Anyways, I hope that you all have wonderful days and I shall see you here very soon indeed!

p.s. If you didn't catch the other half of the list of VEDA vloggers I'll be watching this month, definitely go and check them out here on my side Tumblr blog!<2

BEDA Day Two! 3 Vloggers I'm watching this month!

Hello again guys! Great to see you again so soon!

Today, I thought I'd talk to you about some of the awesome awesome awesome awesome people that I'll be watching every single day for the next  month! What I love about these people is that I've grown to know them so much better because they're small youtubers who I never would've known or dreamt about watching until a couple of months ago.

What I've learnt more about YouTube is that the smaller youtubers are those who make the most videos out of all the videos that are uploaded onto YouTube. They're the majority and they are the ones who make so much  more content combined in comparison to the bigger fish. The way I've come to know them is through themselves and through the support and communication that they have within themselves and I'm so excited to share them with you! As there's quite a bit to say about all of them, I'm going to be doing three on today and then three more tomorrow on my side blog :D

1. Paul Roth
Paul has grown to be one of my favourite vloggers, mainly because of the fact that he loves to talk about poignant issues to do with the rights of everyone. Literally everyone, from women to people of various sexual orientations to even talking about films and books and TV shows, the variety is so large that you can definitely find something that you can relate to on his channel. You can also keep informed about issues you weren't aware of and that element of education as well as the way he takes apart the issues surrounding a topic is just awesome. I'm incredibly grateful to have found Paul and to be a Paul Talker and to have found so many of the other smaller youtubers through him! Definitely go and subscribe to him if you'd love to keep up to date with current affairs and also, live shows! But that's a whole other topic for another blog post!


2. Matt Palka
I think I'd be lying if I didn't say that I'm looking forward to seeing a month of Matt's face. Matt does videos based around the truth about ourselves and the truth that he sees in the world around us whether that be in everyday life or in a video or TV series or book that he's reading. His first VEDA video was on the Walking Dead finale, for example and I'm really looking forward to seeing what
else he comes up with! He's also got an incredible talent for doing 3 minute one take videos which I'm sure many other vloggers are rather envious of because heck, how many of us could talk unedited for that long?! His videos are always jam packed with awesome food for thought and he's definitely one to be watching this month!


3. MellyTheNerd
Melly is another small youtuber who I've found through Paul and whose first VEDA vlog was a 7 minute long one take which I highly enjoyed and admired! I have to admit I don't really know her well either but she sounds like a very committed and enthusiastic youtuber who I'm really looking forward to seeing every day! Whooo for finding out more about new people and sharing new ideas! Definitely go and check her out too!


So that is a small list of people I'll be watching this month and I do hope that if you're doing VEDA or if someone else you know is doing VEDA who I haven't got on this list, definitely do let me know and I'll be sure to check them out! Have the most perfect of days and I shall see you tomorrow on my side blog for more awesoe people I'll be watching this April! Take Care! :)

BEDA BEDA BEDA BEDA Day One! An Intro :D

Hey guys!

I've missed you all so much and hopefully this month should have us seeing each other a lot more regularly!

As you can tell from the title of this post, I'm doing what has affectionately been named 'BEDA' as a blogging version for 'VEDA' - Vlogging Every Day April turned Blogging :D

I've been inspired by creators on YouTube who like myself, aren't always consistent with their content uploading. Their videos for the first day of VEDA have shown me that I shouldn't find excuses or rather just overestimate how long a blog post will take and just do what I love!

I absolutely love writing and I hate to think that I'll fall out of the habit or the comfort I get from knowing I can read something or find inspiration somewhere in my life and just know I can open either one of my blogs and gush. Gushing about things that make me enthusiastic is one of my favourite things I do!

So, for this month I shall be posting one blog post every single day for the whole month of April!
Just to also add, this could be either on this blog or on my side Tumblr blog which I tend to use for more inspiration type shtuff but that's not to say that the content here couldn't be equally so!

So stay tuned and I'm incredibly excited to be getting back into writing!
*excited squeal and jump*

I look forward to seeing you around! I'm sorry I didn't actually start this on day 1 but better late than never, am I right? :D

Have the  most perfect day and I'll catch you either here or on my other blog (or maybe on both, who knows?!) very, very soon! (Perhaps even today because I need to do two today because it's technically the second! Exciting times!)

p.s. If you guys know of any vloggers who are doing VEDA that I should check out, please do feel free to leave them in the comments below or tweet them at me (@AyyLaLaLaLa) - I'm hopefully going to be talking about vloggers who inspire me as well as videos that are especially touching so I'd love to find more!<2