June 8

Fab Friday Frenzy:

I have a rare day off today, and I have already made the most of the morning by taking a brisk walk to the local park. This is one thing I really miss when I am working every day, the early morning exercise. The park was beautiful, so green, birds whistling to each other, I said a silent hello to the big giant white ghost gums and Eucalyptus trees, so iconic to our Australian flora. Frequent green space experiences are crucial to my wellbeing. I love being in nature and crave the outdoors at times.

It has been really cold and rainy here in Perth. Quite strange, winter always comes as a surprise to our usual sunny warm pleasant days. I was on the couch last night, with a blanky, beanie, trackies, heater on, hot tea in hand, and only then I was warmish. Ha! I am certainly not suited to cold weather! Perth is rubbish at heating too, heating homes is an expensive exercise, and most of us prefer to put on a few extra jumpers than crank up the heaters and pay stupid amounts. 

I want to update you with a few of my intentions I made over the last few blog posts. Although at times I feel like I am talking into a chasm as big as the Grand Canyon, hearing only my own echo, I do on occasion hear some praise for my blog and response to my writing, and I love this! I write for my own pleasure, but if some one else can enjoy my words, then even better. We are a collective here, my aim is to inspire, myself and you! I aim to do this by role modelling, leading the best life I can, and sticking to my guns on my choices, decisions and intentions. So here were a few of the intentions I made over the past few months and the result:

Spend less time online:

I have consciously been trying to spend less time online with great success. I removed the Facebook App and a few dating Apps off my phone, which significantly decreased my screen time use. I also cut my subscription to Netflix, and cut off the internet at home. I have plenty of internet available on my phone if I need to use it. But mostly I do not even use all of that. Cutting Netflix and Internet saved me $1068 per year. That is 3/4 of my rates paid for right there. Boom. Win win. In the evenings when TV gets boring, mostly around 730pm, I take to painting or writing or some other chore around the house. So much better. Even spending some time to stretch and do some yoga and even dabbling in some meditation, which ofcourse we all need to do more of. 

Letter Writing:

On my last blog I put out a call to anyone who would like to be my pen pal! And with great success I made a new friend in Wales, I just posted my second letter to her (Hi Berni if you are reading this!!) and received my first letter back the other day. I was grinning from ear to ear reading it, I loved it! I discovered we both had quite a lot in common and I am hoping in time we can learn from each other, or simply enjoy the pleasure of receiving a hand written letter. Even the lady at the post office was impressed by my multiple letters, covered in stickers and beautiful calligraphic handwriting. I was proud! And it is a pleasure to write in my evenings. Would anyone else like to participate? Please only say yes if you know you could write back!

Decluttering:

I get much joy from throwing things away. I know it’s weird. But decluttering is the best! I had a really productive day recently and got stuck into the cupboards and nooks and crannies of my home, clearing out 5 bags worth of stuff to give away to the Salvation Army ( Second hand store). I also advertised 4 things on line to sell and I have already sold two of those things. So that was a great success. What can you declutter around your home, or even put up for sale? It is an easy way to make a little bit of extra money. I am already looking around for other things I can sell! 

Healthy Living: 

After a fairly debaucherous night out over 3 weeks ago, I celebrated a little bit too hard for my best mates 40th birthday. Well since that night I have not touched a drop of alcohol. And I have cleaned up my diet again too. And started taking supplements like Iron, St. Johns Wort, and some other echinacea super herb tablet which has kept me healthy and not winter sniffly ever since. I feel so much better! I really needed a bit of a detox and my body and mind is happier for it. I have also been practising some intermittent fasting, which is a good way to shed a couple of kg’s. Always a good thing. The benefits of fasting are many, and it makes sense. To give your body a break from digesting the constant stream of food we feed it, instead it can focus on shedding unwanted cells from other parts of our body. We are always regenerating, and I read somewhere in 3 years all our cells have basically regenerated. The Human body is pretty amazing!

Below is some paintings I did:

Recently I was at a friends house and I came across this book called SLOW by Brooke McAlary. It was all about slow living and appreciating the simple things in life. I skim read it while I was at her house, but it is one I want to get my hands on. As I get older I am more into the concept of appreciating the simpler things in life, nature, the outdoors, not stressing out, and aiming to be as happy as I can be every day. She spoke about the importance of decluttering, because stuff creates stress, my words not hers! And I get this! So this is what inspired the decluttering movement the next day. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in slowing your life down and appreciating the simpler things.

One more thing I want to write about is SELF CARE. Recently I had an experience which really highlighted the importance of self care to me. A week or so ago, I was feeling really stressed and anxious about a job I was in. It just wasn’t working for me. My mind was busy with some other things too, more personal, and it just all got too much. I realised I could not continue in this short term job option, so I quit. Ofcourse I struggled with the dilemma of saying no to a long term work option, but I came to the realisation that if I was stressed, anxious and depressed I really was no good to anyone, myself or the kids I was teaching. So in the end it was an easy choice to make. I returned to my original position the following week, and have returned to my usual cheerful happy self. Great result. It is so important to look after yourself. Check in with yourself and acknowledge if something is not working for you, make the necessary changes to reduce/eliminate the stress. Stress is so bad for us! 

I am flying out to Europe soon! I am planning to travel really lightly this trip and even thinking I won’t be bringing my laptop. Instead I will handwrite in a journal and maybe even just take photos using my phone. I want to fully immerse myself, meet people, enjoy nature and make the most of the rare chance to get overseas to travel. Anyhow, one way or another I will let you know how the trip was ofcourse! 

Hope you are well, and have enjoyed my latest post. Would love to hear from you! Any more pen pals out there? 

Anita xx