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!