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