Inspiration Boost

I went through a phase where I wasn’t blogging because I believed my life was lacking fun, interesting and exciting experiences worth blogging about. Since moving and probably also since the onset of summer, I’ve noticed my life abuzz with fun, interesting and exciting experiences very much worthy of blogging about, yet I can’t seem to find the time.

Recently I’ve been pretty on the go. Work, small travel, nights out, days away. Which is fun, of course. But it hasn’t given me a lot of time to sit back and reflect on the happenings that I’m right there living. Previously, I was bored af, waiting for my life to change, but wasn’t investing any time reflecting on my feelings and thoughts about it all.

So either I’m bored and believe I can’t blog, or fulfilled and decide I still can’t blog. Different equation, same result. But I think it’s time to change the answer.

I always wanted my blog to be a place of inspiration. And although inspiration means different things to different people, to me it comes down to this: what makes me FEEL good, what makes me FIND the good and what makes me want TO DO good things in the world. Those feelings of good inspiration when your eyes light up and your stomach gets some butterflies and your palms get a bit sweaty (if you know me, then you know it’s more than just a bit sweaty) and you find yourself thinking “Let’s do THAT!” yeah. That kind of inspiration.

I slowed myself down this weekend. Like, A LOT. And it felt soooo good. Saturday I didn’t do much of anything. Classic iced coffee walk, a few pics on the gram, and then, I pressed pause. No people. No plans. No particular direction. And I noticed myself doing a few things in particular that got me thinking “man, I’m chilled out” or “damn I could really put some words on a page right now”. Very simple, super mundane things that really just allowed me to reset, reflect and roll in the inspiration.

Here

They

Are

🙂

RECONNECT WITH OLD BOOKS

I hope this isn’t a situation only I’ve been in. Those books that you always enjoyed reading, always kept you turning the pages and made you excited to think about reading them. Maybe the only reason you stopped is because you packed them away in a whole box full of books and moved three hours away to a new city (okay, beginning to sound like a very specific situation only related to me…). But getting back into an old favourite that I still don’t know the ending to, is a unique sort of comfortable. Like yeah, you’ve met before and know quite a bit about each other to feel at ease, but there’s still more to learn. Cue those little stomach butterflies when the characters you forgot about, start doing the things you’d hoped for.

MAKE A PLAYLIST

Music has a way of lifting us up when we’re down, lifting us even higher when we’re already up, or plummeting our emotions to such a lowly state we aren’t even sure if a song exists to help them back up again. But, sticking to the former, my playlist game has been off the chain as of late. Songs that I need right now in this moment somehow just seem to find me, and in turn I’m able to find more songs that are similar and just as feely. And when I make a whole playlist of these songs, songs that soothe my mind and sing to my soul and remind me to always find the good, I feel calmed and accomplished. I think I’ve made a new playlist on Spotify every week for the past month or two, which means I now have playlists to suit every mood, perspective, vibe or jive that I’m going through.

INSPIRE YOUR EYES

As my day of deliberate dullness (yesterday, and I loved it), came to an end, the Chromecast for the TV started it’s typical slideshow of photos from various artists and photographers from around the globe. These photos seem to have no particular theme, rhyme or reason (to be honest I really don’t know how they work or where they’re coming from) other than to act as eye inspiration. A slow slideshow of aerial shots of beaches and deserts, landscapes of cities and countrysides alike, and a mixture of classic and contemporary paintings. The slideshow was actually more captivating than the show I’d been watching, and I left it on for about an hour as I continued to build another playlist on Spotify.

SHOWER

Even if I don’t need to, a small, quick shower (doesn’t necessarily have to include hair washing, amirite girls?) often revitalizes me, clears my head and resets my train of thought. It literally and metaphorically freshens me up.

ONE SMALL ACT OF ORGANIZATION

I collect fridge magnets. I collect them from places I visit, big or small, cities or countries. And after my trip to Europe in 2016, the collection has become quite vast. Since moving into our new apartment, the fridge magnets haven’t actually been ON the fridge, but instead ON TOP of it, in a small shoebox, each one carefully wrapped in tissue paper and taped up. It’s been there for two months and serves no purpose other than to collect dust. Finally last night as the Chromecast slideshow continued and my chilled out playlist filled the apartment, there was a total sense of ambiance and calm. A perfect moment to… unpack a box of fridge magnets and meticulously organize them on the side of the fridge, apparently. To each their own lol.

These five little things are small, but act as an inspiration boost.

Feel the good, find the good, do good things in the world.