'DoYouYoga' 30 Day Yoga Challenge: Day 3

Today was Day 3 and I'm still on (top of?) this challenge which makes me very proud. 

The exercises were all about posture and probably the nicest ones so far. 
My favourite pose was what I can only call the train pose (it probably has a proper name, so apologies if I'm offending anyone): You had to stretch out your right arm and your left leg, then bring them back to the center of your body, hold for a bit and stretch out again; repeating the process with your left arm and your right leg. Imagine one of those steam trains. Now imagine its wheels moving - yep, pretty much like that. 

It was A LOT of fun because it was something you would just never do in your day to day life. It also made me realise that whilst I am inflexible as anything (downward dog *ahem*, I will master you eventually), I have quite a good balance, surprisingly. 

Have a great day (and for those of you celebrating, it's nearly Christmas!!!) 
xx

'DoYouYoga' 30 Day Yoga Challenge: Day 2

Good morning everyone!

This morning I completed Day 2 of the Yoga Challenge. 

The focus was on opening up the muscles in the chest and shoulders and I can tell you - it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be! 

The poses involving pulling back the shoulders were tricky, but came a lot more natural to me than the downward dog which we had to hold for quite some time. My heels are yet to touch the floor but at least I managed to fully straighten my legs whilst doing the pose today which was very painful and almost impossible yesterday!

I briefly stopped halfway through because I felt a bit silly, but I replayed the bit of the video I missed and then completed it. 

I still have to constantly remind myself that it really doesn't matter that I'm not very good at the poses, but it's only Day 2 of the Challenge and I could already feel some improvement which is incredible. 

Have a good day xx

'DoYouYoga' 30 Day Yoga Challenge: Day 1

Since going to university, I haven’t really exercised all that much. I like to think that this is fine due to all the walking up the stairs, running to and from lectures and generally being out and about. Now that I’ve come home for the holidays, I’m literally not moving though. And that doesn’t feel very good. It makes me feel guilty and sluggish, especially since so many people around me have started going to the gym regularly. I know that this kind of exercise is not for me: I used to play tennis when I was younger and I enjoyed it because I liked the rules and the logic behind playing it. For me, exercise was secondary to having fun which is why running on a treadmill for the sake of running does not appeal to me.

This is why last year, I started going to yoga classes. I did enjoy it, but I felt very embarrassed because I am not flexible at all. (Seriously, I can’t touch my toes, not even anywhere near) Everyone was so lovely and I’m sure that they weren’t judging me for not looking elegant or doing the poses very well, but I felt really self-conscious and just not comfortable doing yoga with loads of other people around me.

So I decided that I would try watching youtube yoga tutorials and do some exercise at home. I stumbled across the youtube channel 'Do You Yoga' and found a 30 day challenge that they uploaded.

So here we go – Every day,  I will write down my experience with this challenge. Let’s see how this goes...

Day 1

The challenge started off with the downward dog pose and some exercises for your lower back and hips.

I could immediately feel how inflexible I am; I could not do the exercises and poses very well and had to often find my own variation of them. However, the instructor seemed so lovely and explained very early on that everyone is going to feel these poses a little differently and there is no real ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

It was nice to really stretch and do something different to my body and I like to think (or maybe imagine) that some poses already came a bit more naturally to me by the end of the video.

I definitely learnt that I have a long route ahead of me in terms of flexibility and maybe being able to reach my toes one day (ultimate life goal here haha).

It can only get better though and I’m looking forward to tomorrow :)

Have a good day xx

Last week blues

Hello and Happy December!!

I have been terrible at blogging, not so much because I have forgotten that I had a blog, but simply because I have been very busy: I hadn't quite realised how much more work the second year would be as opposed to the first year of university. Also, I don't think that I took last year serious enough in terms of studying, so I've really tried to make more of an effort lately. 

As I'm writing this, it's my last week of lectures for this term which feels absolutely crazy. 
My professor ended today's lecture with 'see you in 2015', which - frankly - blew my mind. Is it just me or does 2012 feel like yesterday?? As it is the last week of term, I think a lot of people are experience something like 'last week blues', a term which, yes, I totally just made up. It is true though, that everyone is tired and run down, just wanting the studying to end to fully indulge in the festive season. 
It is also the time of the year when a lot of people get ill. I have been very lucky this term, because I miraculously managed to avoid catching Freshers Flu (apart from three days of feeling a bit sniffly, but I don't count that), but for the past two days I've pretty much been in bed the entire time with a cold and a sore throat feeling sorry for myself and all the fun I am missing out on. That is probably the worst thing about being ill - knowing that you COULD do so much with your time. I could have gone to a christmas market today. But you know what, instead I'm in my room watching youtube all day and totally not doing anything productive with my life. Thrilling. What is even worse though is how dysfunctional I get. I had forced myself to go to a lecture this morning, because I did not want to have to catch up that much over Christmas and on my way back home I decided to do some food shopping. That really was not a brilliant idea. The supermarket was super busy, I could not open the plastic bag you get at the self-checkout because my fingers were too cold, so I tried to squeeze my entire food shop into my uni bag, making it very heavy so I could not carry it on my shoulder. I then had to carry it with both hands just in front of my body, which - probably - made me look a bit stupid. 
On a more serious note, I really dislike this tendency to feel sorry for myself when I have a cold. It is really not the end of the world. I know that. I know that in a few days, or a week (or however long it will take me to feel 100% fine again), I will look back at this post and frown upon how whiny I have been. 
Future me, if you're reading this: Stop being too vain/lazy to put a scarf on. Put it on properly as well, don't just decoratively let it hang around your neck, because that is not going to keep you very warm. Most importantly though, APPRECIATE that you are feeling good. 

Brb, back to bed xx

Autumn Music - Songs I have been loving

Hey everyone!

Today is going to be a very quick, fun kind of post about the music I have been loving recently. I feel like because we are going into autumn, summer tunes will only leave me feel a bit nostalgic, so a bit of change is in order.
(The songs are in no particular order, I merely jotted down whatever came to mind)

Hozier - Take me to Church
No words needed. Just listen.

Fall Out Boy - Centuries
I am no full on FOB fan, but recently I have been listening to a few of their songs. This is their new one and it is rather challenging at first. There is so much going on that I still cannot make my mind up. Yet, I couldn't not mention it. Have a listen yourself.

Paramore - Still Into You
I do not usually listen to many Paramore songs, but I've truly fallen in love with this one. It is so cheerful, yet serious in a way. It makes me happy.

Ludovico Einaudi - Experience
This piece could be regarded as the odd one out, but I know that I will listen to it a lot. Einaudi's pieces have always been some of my favourite ones to play on the piano because you can really put your own thoughts and emotions into them.
'Experience' is simply beautiful - I don't have any more words for it. Please check it out if you're looking for something thoughtful and calming.

Sia - Chandelier
Still in love. Every single time I listen to it, I feel like there is something new about it that I hadn't noticed before. It is such a powerful song.
If you love Sia's voice and are looking for something a bit slower, then check out 'Big Girls Cry'. It is very sad, but perfect for when you are having a bit of a down day.

You me at Six - Room to Breathe
Great song for when you feel like you need a bit of rock in your life.

Dotan - Home
Wow. I don't know what I love about this - his voice, the lyrics, the melody? Probably a bit of everything. All I can say is that it has been stuck in my head for ages.

Alt-J - Every Other Freckle
Again, a bit unsure about this one. Ever since listening to Alt-J for the first time, the band has been growing on me. They are very unique and I am still getting used to their style.
I have kind of fallen in love.

So these were the songs that I have been loving recently and will definitely be part of my autumn playlist. Please leave any recommendations you have below. I would love to know what you have been loving xxx

"You can't start the new chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one."

Hey everyone!

It has been a while, but here I am, back with a short blog post J

A few days ago, whilst taking a break from my preliminary reading for the second year of university, I stumbled across this quote:

“You can’t start the new chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”

Sadly, I have no idea who this is from, but I really like it.

Like a lot of people, I tend to reminisce quite a lot, alongside imagining comebacks (preferably when I’m under the shower) and over-analysing conversations which, in most cases, don’t need to be analysed at all. I blame this on the fact that I think too much  – my driving instructor once asked me what exactly was so complicated about turning the steering wheel because I kept thinking about the how and why and if instead of simply doing it. (One time, he also held his right arm out of the car window because I forgot to indicate. I definitely remembered afterwards!)

Anyways - because I reminisce that much, I am always in two minds about change. On the one hand, I get terribly excited about anything new, which is why I enjoy studying in London and its vibrant atmosphere that much. At the same time, I don’t like letting go of things – as much as I was looking forward to going to university, I had enjoyed my time in sixth form which left me feeling quite nostalgic for a good while.

Whenever I catch myself feeling down about things that have changed, I try to think about the alternative. Yes, school was nice, being around a set group of friends felt comforting and okay, there was not that much responsibility and independence to deal with. But would I like life to stay like that forever? Without moving on to many more, exciting things to come? Hell, no.

To put it in the words of the quote, re-reading the last chapter of one’s life is comforting and it feels secure. It can never get you anywhere new, though.

To remind me of that, I made the quote my phone and laptop background.

Fake it till you make it, eh?

Speak to you soon and I hope you have a wonderful week

xxx

My summer job: Working in a supermarket

Hey everyone! I hope that summer has been good to you so far :)

I'm really sorry that I've been rubbish at blogging lately. I was SO determined to stick to some sort of schedule and that clearly failed, but I have an excuse. Therefore, it's okay.

Recently, I started working in a supermarket. If I'm honest, I imagined such a summer job to be easier than it actually is - despite what you may think it involves a lot more than just dragging milk and butter across the scanner.

First up: Product names.
I'm sure that most of you will think that after having lived on this planet for a while, you would be able to name most things.
Well, at least I thought that.
Believe me, the first week of working in a supermarket is like learning a completely new LANGUAGE. I'll just take bread as an example - to someone who is not used to seeing such a variety, most of them look exactly the same. 
Sadly, the computer doesn't do 'round brown bread' or 'square white bread' as a product option. Neither does freshly baked bread allow you to stick a scan code on it. All that was left to do was therefore to randomly exclaim a bread name I remembered hoping that the customer would nod.
Needless to say, that rarely happened. Most of the time, it resulted in the customer looking at me a bit bewildered.

Same dilemma with fruit and vegetables: have you ever heard of the sharon fruit before? I hadn't. Also - as ridiculous as this may sound - if essentially all fruit and veg that you are going to see is contained in some sort of plastic bag, then it suddenly becomes very difficult to distinguish peaches and nectarines and cucumbers and courgettes. This is even more so the case if the supermarket sells all sorts of variations.

Yes, you do get used to it, but the beginning is hard. I had to constantly embarrass myself by asking 'what this is' or having to ask a colleague for help because I 'could not find something on the screen' (which is basically a synonym for 'not knowing what the hell it is'). In fact, even the concept of asking a colleague was tricky at first - who exactly was I meant to ask? I didn't really know any names yet.

The next big hurdle for me was cigarettes. I don't smoke, so less well known brand names don't mean a lot to me. In everyday life, that is hardly very problematic, but if you are confronted with a thousand different packs of cigarettes having to find this particularly sized, coloured and flavoured one having no clue where to look first, then you cannot help but feel a little bit helpless. Common situations such as an impatient customer shouting at you asking if you are blind does not help you find his cigarettes any faster. It just makes you feel stressed.

But yes, you also get used to that. (I managed to find a pack of cigarettes today WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING because I knew where in the shelf it would be) It was a proud moment.

It really all comes down to experience and practice. I can now confidently say that I know what most products are called and if I don't, I no longer feel embarrassed but instead laugh about my lack of knowledge and ask the customer or a colleague.
You cannot get used to rude people though, but I will save this for future blog posts.

In the meantime, I challenge you to all give the next cashier you encounter a big smile. If they are anything like me after several hours of work, it will make a big difference to their mood :)

See you soon!
xxx