A handwritten letter

Word by word this letter bring bang and endless stream of memories. I write it 3 years ago while I lived in Oxfordshire and worked as a volunteer. It reflects the transformation I went through from being lonely and afraid to being happy and confident. I miss those days.

Since those sentences flowed from my mind to the paper a lot of things have happened and I’ve had many important lifelessons. I learned that I could do almost anything if believed in it. I figured how to be independent from my parents. I woke curiosity for trye things I did not previously belived I would ever have an interest for. I think it was the best year of my life so far and I would not change it for anything. All the challenges, conflicts and temporary pains were all worth the freedom, joy and growth I experienced those 12 months. It was incredible.

I’m not sure if it means more to me to read it now or for my family to read it bacck then. But I do know that its a shame that handwritten letters is a dying art. All the love and soul put into them, can never really be captured in the digital form. I hope the art of handwriting will never die.

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Homegrown food

Have you ever grown your own edible plants? I can assure you it is a surprisingly satisfying feeling when you can harvest your own herbs or vegetables and eat them within a few minutes. Basic botanics and gardening is skills abyone should have. This an important lifelesson as well including the health benefits if eating those greens. I can list many other good reasons to grow your own food, including the sustainability of it if you do it right. To me its a challenge and a project of creativity and DIY. I first needed to problemsolve for the lack of a good pot and a good location for the plants ro grow at all. First I tried the garden, but without much long since ai was to lazy to water them all the way down there. So after a few other attempts of finding better alternatives I found this basin in the shed and decided to try. Due to the south facing window tmthere the back stairs is a great place to grow these plants. Now they are doing great and I am planning to expand the “garden”. Try it out for yourself.

Developement

As anyone who follows my blog here I’m increasingly interested in personal developement in all its shapes and forms. I constantly think about it and I frequently blog about it (when I blog).  You can read all of my posts on the subject on the page right here: Personal development

In order to grow and challenge oneself, inspiration is always needed. On a bad day this inspiration can be extremely hard to find. Personally it helps me with word prompts. My mum has these so-called “Angle cards” with positive and inspiring words. For one of my personal projects I decided to make a digital edition of those in a “Word generator” that gives you a random word from a chosen list. I recently blogged about it and you can read that post here: Playing with programming. I think it’s tremendously important to allow positivity in to your life and these words can help you do so.

Now I’ve taken the next step: Sharing it! I added a new background with a lovely sunset/sunrise picture and that’s basically it. Try for yourself in the Online edition and let me know which word you got. unfortunately the save button does not work in the online edition, but otherwise it works exactly as intended. What are your thoughts on this idea?

 

This must be sustainable living!

We must protect the earth we are living on, because we need it! Human beings are trashing this lovely blue planet and that is such a shame. My studies at university seemed to igbite the passion for sustainability within me. But being raised in this wealthy country with all the luxury of modern technology and common western practices, turning sustainable seemed like a huge revolution was needed. Instead I decided to take smaller steps like cutting back meat consumption and growing own edible plants was my beginning. I already did rarely drive by car, sorted my trash and was decent at limiting food waste.

Even though I know we all love comfort and I know humans are sceptical of change I believe that the concept of sustainability should be universal very soonand spread to alk sectors. We should all be considerable and use our incredible amount of knowledge to live in homes like this: https://youtu.be/5voBFW1fQPs

I find these earth ships incredibly inspiring and feel like those are the future! The building of such a home has used so much technology wich is for the most part built on fairly simple science. It makes it seem silly that it isn’t more common. Especially when considering the low maintenance costs in both time, money and effort for those things. Some of the installations, like the ventilationsystem and sewage, is so low tech, simple and efficient that I barely understand the rareness of them. We can all learn some important lessons from the creaters an inhabitants of these earth ships. They have some honorable values I believe!

Anyways I strongly encourage you to check out the video and the subject of earth ships in general! I hope that one day I can live in a home which is equally sustainable! Watching the videos also make me want to try and build one myself. What do you think about this? How do you implement sustainability in your life?

Playing with programming

This semester I am challenged with the course “Introduction to programming” at university. This is rather difficult and takes a lot of effort, but I love to play with it. Here is a snapshot of one of my personal projects.

This little program loads a list of choice and picks a random word on that list.

I got “Innovation” this time from my list of positive words to inspire me during the day.

My thought here is to be able to implement all sorts of lists and then get a random word from this list. I’m thinking my next nove could be to have the jar of challenges in a digital edition. Adding to or removing from the list is super easy, so adapting it to own needs is super easy. If anyone has a suggestions for a purpose this generator could serve, please let me know! Inspiration for meal planning? Who to do the task? What dancemove is nekt in the routine? All ideas are welcome!

If you wanna have fun with programming I recommend trying out “processing” since it is easy to set up and you will get going swiftly if you set your mind to it! Enjoy

Perfect day

Today’s challenge according to my jar was to illustrate a perfect day. So here comes my quick sketches of what that day should contain:

The picture aint the best quality, but I hope the points come across.

Jar of challenges

How do you improve yourself and nurture developement? You challenge yourself! Thats why I made my jar of challenges! The purpose to pick a paper everyday and do the challenge on it. In my jar all of the challenges can ve performed more or less anywhere by anyone. If you can read, have phone and maybe pen and paper then you are good to go.

You can make the same yourself and adapt it to your preferences. Get some inspiration on pinterest, they have an unlimited amount of ideas for any interest! Want a photo challenge? A blogging challenge? DIY? Decluttering? Anything is possible! Be brave, be ambitious and challenge yourself!

Family

It’s been ages since you’ve heard from me I know and I am sorry. Those of you who follow me know that my family situation has changed a few months ago. It has been hectic, chaotic and emotional since that, but now it seems like it has calmed down a bit. At least it is enough calm and under control that I feel like sharing with you this story in this blogpost.

Some events and emotios you will never get over, but you will just learn to live with them. I believe grieve is one of them. Sometimes I let the tears run, sometimes I just focus on something important. If I didn’t make an effort I would just be eternally miserable. But I choose to be happy, because I believe I deserve happiness.

For my brothers birthday I wanted to give him something special, something personal. I chose to go with the same concept as for my mothers gift back in April, but adapt it to a template and a style that suits my brother better. So here you see my newest peice of art inspired by he’s Zodiac astrology sign, Leo.

Even though it was belated more than intended I am glad it is finished now. At some point I almostgave up because there were so many tiny details to complete and I ran out of unique ideas. But I’ve learn anything in life it is to not give up, run away or hide from your fears. To be strong, to move forward and to be your best you need to face the world and take it head on! This doubt about the drawing was obviously just a reflection of my general mental state. University is a huge challenge especially the group work. I hate having others depend on me in terms of acedemics! Maybe in all areas of life, but when it comes to education it seems even worse. But life is a long line of challenges, opportunities and wonderful memories and it is up to you to make the most of it. So here’s the cliche proverb of the day: Carpe diem!

Unexpected

Life is full of suprises. Some are more pleasant than others. I always do my best to smile my way through whatever challenges I might face. Easy enough sometimes, but in some cases it’s almost impossible. I want to be strong and I need to be strong especially now. Even though I’m an adult, moved out and have my own life I still feel a bit helpless now. I am still hopeful for the future though. It will bring many more pleasant moments. I’m surrounded by people who will always have my back. I love them all and I know they love me too. My situation now is unexpected and new to me. But I will learn and I will grow with this experience. I know there is going to be a bright future ahead of this mess. My father made his own decision and we cannot change that. He have said his final goodbye and now we must let him go and accept that he is no longer anongst us. I will miss my dad, my hero and my supporter in everything.

He was loved and respected by a lot of people. Serveral bouquets of flowers have already arrived at our door. We have all the support we need and we are together in this. I will be challenged on my patience with my mother and brother now. All the decision we are facing is quite a bit to handle. I’m trying to accept their sorrow, frustration and helplessness, but at the same time I easily become agitated because of their passiveness, indecisiveness or the speed of which they are doing things. I need to control my temper and grow ny patience and ability to listen. Now I see that this is one of my very most important challenges here and now. The practical stuff will be sorted somehow at some point. My actions and communication with my family will only work, if I make it work. Please let me have the strength to be the best daughter and sister in this phase of their lives. 

Freedom from limiting beliefs

I am fortunate. I am privileged. I am lucky.

I grew up in a loving family and I have always been loved unconditionally. I grew up in a wealthy country and I always had everything I needed. Whatever I did, whatever challenges I faced someone was always there to support me. All the options have always been right in front of my feet. I can decide on any career I want, go anywhere I like and be with whoever I love. I have the right and the power to make any decision concerning my life. I am not held back by anything but myself.

I am free and most likely so are you. The only thing that can hold you back is if you tether yourself to limiting beliefs. Do not convince yourself that you are not good enough, not capable or not worthy of something in life. Of course you are good enough! Maybe not right now, but you will be if you set your mind to it. Dare to dream big and go chase those dreams. Don’t hold yourself back it will only cause you misery. Every goal can be reached if you just break it down to small bits and take action one step at the time.

When I use the term limiting beliefs what I mean is beliefs that somehow prevents you from growing and pursuing your dreams. I learned about this in the INFJ Purpose blueprint course. One of my most dominant limiting beliefs is that I can not do anything that my parents will disapprove. Even though I moved away from home and I am taking care of myself without problems I need their approval for almost everything I do. I get scared if I do something they might not like and I feel guilty. subconsciously many of my decisions are based on: Would this make my parents proud? And I know it is a bit silly for a grown woman living by herself to worry about her parents thoughts on her. But that is my tether: My belief that I can do something that does not make my parents proud.

Now you might ask: How do I escape my limiting beliefs? First you need to recognize them. If you do not accept the fact that some belief of yours is in fact limiting you, then you will not be able to conquer it. Next step is to find proof that it isn’t true. Find examples of something happening to you despite that belief, something positive. A common limiting belief is the fear of rejection. You do not ask for what you want because you are afraid that you will get rejected. Look for situations in your life where you asked for something and did in fact get it. Even if it is small things. Then move to the bigger ones. Also recall situations where you did get rejected, but it wasn’t that bad. Again start with the small things. Maybe you asked to pay with your card but they said they only took cash. Was that the end of the word? Of course not, then you wouldn’t be here. You’ll start realising that your limiting belief is in fact not true at all. You can then challenge yourself to do these things that scare you and goes against that withering limiting belief. Of course it should be meaningful to you, not just disprove it. For example I would not do something just because I think my parents would dislike it, but I would do it because I believed it would make me happy no matter what my parents think.

You will find yourself relieved to get rid of these limiting beliefs and start building empowering beliefs instead. Limiting beliefs is no. 5 on the list of 15 things you should give up to be happy I like this list a lot and try my best to follow these 15 pieces of advise. I am more succesful in some areas that others. I few of them overlap a bit as well, but I believe it is just to make sure it covers it all. I find that whenever I am uncomfortable, restless, sad or angry it is due to me holding on to one of these things on the list that I should just let go (unless I’m sick and that is luckily rare). So unleash yourself from the tethers and live a happier and more fulfilling life.

via Daily Prompt: Tether