Tag Archives: positive mind

The Presence Present.

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Image by @sjanaelise via Instagram.

Image by @sjanaelise via Instagram.

It’s like, you know when you’ve set yourself up for a ‘Nanna Nap’, not any old nap, but a strictly-18-minutes-only-snooze. You set your alarm for the precise amount of time, and as you slowly allow yourself to drift into a heavenly slumber, you start thinking about everything you have to do as soon as the alarm goes off.

You start to panic wondering if you should just pack it in and ditch the nap altogether, but no, “I deserve and NEED this nap” you tell yourself. But before you commit, you look back at the clock once more, “Alrighty,15 minutes to go, I’ve got this!”

And then the little devil inside chirps up again:

“Hmm is it snack time yet?”

“Surely it’s snack time, hmm, I’m hungry.”

“What will I have for a snack?”

“I think we still have some Pad Thai left, tat will be yum.”

“Lol what am I thinking, I’m trying to be healthy. I saw some bananas, definitely a smoothie.”

“Smoothies, yum! Good idea Shee! I wonder what else I could put in this magical smoothie.”

“Ugh STOP thinking about your damn smoothie, NAP! You have like only 14 minutes left now.”

“Ok so let’s get this straight, as soon as the alarm goes off, I’m going to sort out this, call her, text him about that, clean this, wash that, the list goes on to the tune of “My head is a Jungle”.

“Ok, one last look at my phone for the time before I 100% promise to nap.”

“2 minutes left, What? Seriously? Noooo!!”

The above example is 100% accurate in my world, and following the whole one-sided dialogue, I am always malnourished of the miniscule 18 minute doze I so desperately needed, I often opt instead for a huge cup of coffee, with a side of guilt for

  1. Spending almost a quarter of an hour thinking about a damn smoothie I now don’t even want.
  2. Spending 18 minutes being completely useless, and most of all,
  3. Not having the nap I promised myself.

So I bargained a simple nap, a slice of solitude and relaxation for just a moment, but instead, I polluted every last second of it.

And looking back, I’m a classic for polluting the good by not being totally there, for being less than present and not completely embracing whatever ‘it’ is.

It’s the ultimate sabotage, the purest form of self-betrayal and one, which is way too common today. In an effort to reduce this epidemic, i’ve come up with some simple solutions to some of life’s most pressing issues, hear me out:

You want an ice cream? Then go bloody get it, and grab a double scoop in a waffle cone while you’re at it. And annoy the ice-cream girl with asking for at least 5 samples. This is your time to shine, don’t hold back!

You want to go to the beach? I don’t care that you are in a mode of self-imprisonment due to a forthcoming exam tomorrow – tomorrow is going to come whether you got to the beach or not, so why not just go.

You want to move out? Do it! Sure Mum will be sad, but she’ll still be able to show you love in the form of sending 2000  “are you alive” texts a day. Plus you’ll be home every Tuesday for Spaghetti anyway.

Moral of the story: do what you want – only if you do it with a twist: BE THERE.

Actually show up mentally, physically and emotionally. 

Embrace your salted caramel gelato with every delicate lick, squeeze the sand between your toes with extra vigor and splash around in the ocean because you can. But most importantly, do not be afraid of making the decisions that seemed so huge and adulterated when you were young – because you are older now, and it is time.

So in the words of my favourite Real Housewife, Jackie Gillies:

Shine Shine Shine!

Love, S.

A passionate discussion on passion, not pashing.

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There’s a lot of noise at the moment about passion.

Passionfruit has always been delish, and Passiona a somewhat refreshing beverage.

But take away these suffixes, then your’e just left with little old passion. Just. Left. With. Passion. A 7 letter gem that shapes a lot of what the mystics call their ‘life-purpose’, what the entrepreneurs label their ‘calling’, and what I like to call, something bloody massive I just cant decide on.

I mean, personally, I want to be a writer, a dancer (currently I’m perfecting the moonwalk), a surfer (thanks Blue Crush), a corporate bitch, a band-member, a hippie who lives in a combi in Byron and sells handmade jewellery, a yoga instructor, a Buddhist monk, a mining magnate, Miranda Kerr… basically, everything under the sun.

I guess in my fiasco of options, I am desperately just trying to define my, wait for it… PASSION.

As I learn more about the said, 7 letter-er, I can safely say the two of us are slowly becoming friends.

Motivational books will tell you to “follow your passion” if happiness is what you truly seek, but thanks Confucius, how am I meant to follow something when I don’t even know what it looks like? There is no road-sign, no Google answer, not even a Wikipedia article that precisely tells me what my passion is. So, your notions of living a purposeful life are really of no help to me at all, not unless you help me find it anyway.

So I assigned myself a James Bond mission to get to the bottom of the P word. What I found was surprisingly simple.

What. Do. You. Love. 

But here’s the catch, you have to limit it to 10. And list them in order.

These are your passions. Voila!

A 10-point list could very well include:

·      Cheerleading,

·      Shopping,

·      Travelling,

·      Eating McDonald’s fries,

·      Being with friends,

·      Reading,

·      Watching the Disney Channel,

·      Playing in the pool,

·      Playing with dogs,

·      Being in the sun.

Please note these are the Top 10 ‘passions’ of my 12 year-old sister.

So enlighten me, how on earth is she going to make a career out of being a dog-loving, junk-food munching, cheerleader? Truth is, mate, she’s not.

So as an informer big sister, do I tell her to discard all these fun things because, well honey, that ain’t gon’ pay the bills? 

Nope, I tell her to lap them up, do these things, and do them often!

Do them for as long as you stop loving doing them, and when you do, find something more fun and enjoyable to replace them.

Because they are your passions.

(P.S she later argued, telling me that people actually can make money being a cheerleader, enough for a 50-cent cone anyway!)

I think what we get caught up in, is thinking that you have to find passion in a job or career, but truthfully, that would be condemning your crazy passions into a tiny hole and saying, ‘don’t move, breathe, or smile. No fun allowed’. Passion is so much more multi-faceted. 

Sure, we would all love to be Oprah, or Kelly Slater, doing for a job what we LOVE, but let’s be realistic. Don’t think that if you are not able to land your dream job on Getaway, that you are going to live in misery, you can be as happy as Pharrell, even if you are the toilet cleaner at Flinders Street Station on a Saturday night.

But “how” you scream. I’ll impart my wisdom with you, it’s all about how you spend the remaining 77 hours of your week (considering a 35 hour work week and 56 crucial beauty sleep provisions).

That my sweet child, is where you live your passions. Read, dance, bake, write, sing, play, laugh and laugh some more!

Even if you just spend half your free time doing the things you love, you have already outbid your day job. Kapish?

So basically, yeah. Homework for this week, list your ten passions, and sacrifice Game of thrones to play out your own fanstasy!

I would love to hear your thoughts on the passionate topic, and what activities and things come up in your Top 10 list.

 

P.S Take a leaf from Janey’s book, this gal is one passionate painter!