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