Motivational Monday: Your Guide To Self Love

W O R L D K I N D N E S S D A Y

Hello Lovelies,

I hope you have had a good start to the week.

As today is world kindness day, I really wanted to talk about being kind to yourself.

Sometimes life gets busy, and we forget the most important thing; being kind to ourselves. Its very easy to get swept along in the stress of life and to take that stress out on yourself, whether thats with negative thoughts or behaviors.

Today I thought I would put together a Self Love Guide for anyone to refer back to when life gets a little tough, and you need a reminder of whats truly important-being kind to yourself.

1)Take Care of your body

Eat well, Sleep well, Exercise when you can. Pamper yourself; take a shower, do a face mask, curl your hair <3

2) Build Positive Thoughts and affirmations

Its true what they say...practice makes perfect, so get practicing and son positive thoughts will pop into your head without you even trying.

3) Expel any negative thoughts and replace them with positives

its so easy to begin thinking negatively when your stressed or down. They key is to replace these negative thoughts with its counterpart positive-

"IM GOING TO FAIL" Straight away switch it up with "I WILL BE A SUCCESS"

4) Find an amazing quote book and read one evryday

Personally I find a positive quote book is the key to picking me up when I'm down. Taking the time to read some motivational quotes is the best pic me up and makes you evaluate, what you need to change to make sure you are at your happiest.

5) Don't Compare yourself to others

I honestly believe that no good can come from comparing yourself to someone else. No bodies lives or way of thinking for that matter are the same. So why compare yourself to someone else. You are individual and thats amazing-go be you everyone else it taken. Also how boring would life be if we were all clones of each other.. err no thank you!

6) Remove toxic people from your life

This one is so tricky, but really important when we are talking being kind to yourself. Toxic people arent worth your time or energy and boy do they take up A LOT of it.

7) Live in the moment

The way children bumble along in the moment is so refreshing and something that those of us trying to adult should really take note of. Stop worrying about what happened yesterday, or whats going to happen next week and start living for today!

Initially for todays post I wanted to share a quote that has become so important to me in the last two years. Arguably I've made decisions that are questionable to people outside of those who understand me and know exactly what I've gone through. I've chosen to leave a degree at a university I love, to move away from friends and to teach myself an A-level. These are all huge choices to make. But they have led me to a place where I finally know I'm on the right road and this makes me so so happy. I'm doing what I love and no amount of other peoples thoughts and opinions can change that or make me question my choices.

So today I encourage you to...

Go out of your comfort zone, make choices for yourself and inspire others to do the same!!

Have an amazing Monday everyone <3

1. If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it.

2. If you don't ask, you wont get.

3.If you do not step forward, you will always be in the same place.

4. You are not the first and you certainly wont be the last.

Today I was having a conversation, and was reminded of a saying my Grandad has drilled into me from a young age 'if you dont ask you wont get.' Occasionally, when we get tired, have a bad day, or week, we begin to feel demotivated, and can loose sight of our end goal. I find that reminding myself of these motto's whenever I feel this way, helps to reassure me that I got this and that I should do what ever I can in my power to achieve the goals I have set myself. If you haven't set yourself goals then I highly recommend that you do, go for a variety of long and short term, it helps you to have motivation. Even if you dont succeed as quickly as you would like, if you keep focused, one day you will achieve them and when that day comes the sense of achievement and self-worth you will feel will be completely worth it. Not only by living by these rules will you feel content and have purpose in your life, you will also never have any regrets, and know that you are doing everything you can to be the best person that you can be.

Choose Happiness Motivational Monday #4

There are two quotes Im focusing on this week. It has been a particularly busy week and both seemed very appropriate.

So this quote is perfect for my motivational Monday post this week. The week has involved, moving house, cracking my ribs, revising for exams and writing my academic development.

It hasn't been the easiest week of my life to say the least, but it has taught me so much about my own strength and also the strength and kindness of those around me.

My parents have coped and led our house move with such calmness and enthusiasm it is truely inspiring. We have all only ever moved once and my brother and sister had never moved before so to say it was an adventure would be an understatement. I dont think any of us quite anticipated just how much packing was involved or just how much stuff we actually owned.

It became even more of an adventure when on the morning of our move with only 4 hours sleep I managed to fall winding myself and cracking my ribs. My mum was onto NHS 111 straight away despite our desperate packing situation! My sister was the next Savior and kindly offered to come to UTC with me in the ambulance so I wouldn't have to go by myself. From this experience I not only learnt that my sister is a star but also that in order to be a good nurse I should never leave a patient to struggle (we were just watched by my nurse as my sister tried to move the wheelchair with the breaks on, and then struggled to get my coat off me due to my lack of movement!)

I then learnt that I have the best, best friend on the planet; who came out to get me from hospital, lent me clothes and let me stay at her house, even though it was her birthday and she had places to be!

I often find it very easy to look at what other people have and want it for myself, forgetting all the amazing components of my own life. I think it so important whenever I see someone achieving something that I want, to remember I can achieve just as much as they have and that I should feel pleased for them and to use them as inspiration to reach my own goals. This gives me confidence to achieve and also allows me to practice compassion which I believe is highly important. Jealousy is such a soul destroying emotion that often leaves upset, replacing that feeling with one of happiness for the person and aspiration for yourself is so much more positive in so many ways. I would advise anyone who feels like they want something someone else has to switch to this way of thinking!

It is also important to consider that they will have had their own adventures and learning experiences to get to that point, that you may not know about, therefore remember that the grass is always greener on the other side and that although things may look great for someone else it doesn't always mean they feel great or that it wasn't tough for them to get to that position.

Happy Monday everyone!

For today's post I wanted to share this quote with you all.

An Image from my first 10K run in a year, a huge step for finally being strong enough to run that distance.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine , as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

(Marianne Williamson)

It is such a beautiful quote and one that I feel is hugely important to spread. Its message not only tells us to love ourselves but to use that self love to empower others. I love the referral to childhood, when we dont have a care in the world and act as we like. Its so freeing when you finally reach a point in your life when you start asking yourself will this make me happy and if the answer is no you have the confidence not to do it, and if its yes then you just go for it with everything you have to give.