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Tuesday 8 March 2011
Sunday 6 March 2011
I hearby christen sundays as face mask days!
This morning I decided I would do a face mask and give my skin a bit of TLC. I used this one from Neals Yard Remedies.
I always use things on my face from either NYR or lush...purely because they both use completely natural ingredients in their products. If you are going to use something on your face and body the idea of it having lots of nasty chemicals in it is not in the least appealing to me! I guess its sort of the difference between eating fresh organic foods and eating KFC or something every day, no? There are also the selfless reasons too; these two companies are both very ethical - lush's products are all entirely vegetarian, and NYR uses organic ingredients. Yes they are slightly more pricey - the face mask I used cost £25 (Christmas Present). However it's such good quality and very good value for money...I would estimate I get about 25 uses out of each pot, which averages out as £1 per face mask...not bad!
Anyway, this morning I used this Rose Antioxidant Face Mask from neals yard, and boy does my face feel lovely and soft and pampered now. It's put me in such a good mood. And also, reminds me that my body is worth taking care of. So often I neglect it because I think I'm not worth using nice products on. I used to moisturise my body every day, and now it's as if some part of my brain tells me that if I moisturise, that means I am accepting myself, which I don't. Weird or what. This mornings little pamper session has made me vow to myself to take better care of my body in the future, because it does deserve it, and because it feels good, and because it makes me feel so much better about myself and puts me in a much better mood!
So join me for face mask sundays and inject some positivity into your day :-)
xxx
I always use things on my face from either NYR or lush...purely because they both use completely natural ingredients in their products. If you are going to use something on your face and body the idea of it having lots of nasty chemicals in it is not in the least appealing to me! I guess its sort of the difference between eating fresh organic foods and eating KFC or something every day, no? There are also the selfless reasons too; these two companies are both very ethical - lush's products are all entirely vegetarian, and NYR uses organic ingredients. Yes they are slightly more pricey - the face mask I used cost £25 (Christmas Present). However it's such good quality and very good value for money...I would estimate I get about 25 uses out of each pot, which averages out as £1 per face mask...not bad!
Anyway, this morning I used this Rose Antioxidant Face Mask from neals yard, and boy does my face feel lovely and soft and pampered now. It's put me in such a good mood. And also, reminds me that my body is worth taking care of. So often I neglect it because I think I'm not worth using nice products on. I used to moisturise my body every day, and now it's as if some part of my brain tells me that if I moisturise, that means I am accepting myself, which I don't. Weird or what. This mornings little pamper session has made me vow to myself to take better care of my body in the future, because it does deserve it, and because it feels good, and because it makes me feel so much better about myself and puts me in a much better mood!
So join me for face mask sundays and inject some positivity into your day :-)
xxx
Saturday 5 March 2011
Every Rose Has It's Thorn
I know I did a quote from this Poison song a few weeks ago, but I was watching old episodes of glee today and their rendition of this came on...this line in particular really hit home and struck me that it might be a good blog post.
We all have days where we can only see the negative in ourselves. Be it our appearance, our personality or relationships, sometimes we just feel like crap. I have days where I just feel so miserable and weak and like I am such an inadequate person and should be stronger than I am...but recently I have tried to remind myself that this isn't how I feel all of the time. None of us are perfect, we all have days when we are a bit of a naff person to be around, but that doesn't mean we are any less valid as a person. Roses are possibly the most beautiful flower in the world, and yet ever single one of them has at least one thorn. Does this make it any less beautiful? Of course not! In fact, when we look at a rose, we don't even notice the thorns as we are too busy looking at the wonderful flower. So it is with our imperfections. Someone doesn't look at us and see the negatives, the things wrong with us, our flaws, our weaknesses...instead they see the positive attributes, and all the lovliness. No one searches for the worst in us, they all just see the best. Roses symbolise love. Yet they are not perfect. This should remind us that we are loved, and CAN be loved, despite everything. One of the things that happens with my depression is that I get so focussed on how much of a rubbish friend or sister or daughter I am being, and how nobody must get anything positive out of me and I just drain from people. This is ludicrous! My family still love me to bits despite my problems and struggles.
My mum once told me that I was her little flower. She says I just needed to be loved and nurtured and taken care of, and that one day I will blossom into a beautiful person. I like that imagery, it gives me hope and makes me realise that just because we are covered in thorns or weeds, it doesn't mean that a wonderful person isn't still there underneath.
We all have days where we can only see the negative in ourselves. Be it our appearance, our personality or relationships, sometimes we just feel like crap. I have days where I just feel so miserable and weak and like I am such an inadequate person and should be stronger than I am...but recently I have tried to remind myself that this isn't how I feel all of the time. None of us are perfect, we all have days when we are a bit of a naff person to be around, but that doesn't mean we are any less valid as a person. Roses are possibly the most beautiful flower in the world, and yet ever single one of them has at least one thorn. Does this make it any less beautiful? Of course not! In fact, when we look at a rose, we don't even notice the thorns as we are too busy looking at the wonderful flower. So it is with our imperfections. Someone doesn't look at us and see the negatives, the things wrong with us, our flaws, our weaknesses...instead they see the positive attributes, and all the lovliness. No one searches for the worst in us, they all just see the best. Roses symbolise love. Yet they are not perfect. This should remind us that we are loved, and CAN be loved, despite everything. One of the things that happens with my depression is that I get so focussed on how much of a rubbish friend or sister or daughter I am being, and how nobody must get anything positive out of me and I just drain from people. This is ludicrous! My family still love me to bits despite my problems and struggles.
My mum once told me that I was her little flower. She says I just needed to be loved and nurtured and taken care of, and that one day I will blossom into a beautiful person. I like that imagery, it gives me hope and makes me realise that just because we are covered in thorns or weeds, it doesn't mean that a wonderful person isn't still there underneath.
Friday 4 March 2011
Lush is where it's at!
Today I am deviating from the usual quote - mostly because I want to do a post about the lush bath I just had, and try as I might I cannot find any famous/motivational/inspirational quotes or song lyrics with anything about a bath in them.
So...fridays are my super long day, leave the house at 6.10am and get back at 7.10pm. I am always so tired when I get back, and tonight I am home alone, so I decided to run myself a niiiice long bath to relax into. I love love love lush baths, and I would have two or three a day if I could! I do have one most days, sometimes two if it's a particularly bad day, and they are such a good mood lifter. Having a bath is one of the only things that enables me to relax and switch off, and it reminds me to look after my body. I get so excited picking what to have - if you are a lush virgin, you MUST go and check out the website - immediately!
www.lush.co.uk
Last year it became a ritual of mine to have one of the bath ballistics called 'ne worry pas' from the retro (retired oldies which everyone loves so you can still get them online)
The idea is that you whisper any worries that you have into the little hole and watch them fizz away!
Anyway, I digress...today I had my absolute favourite bubble bar: flosty gritter. Unfortunatley, it has been discontinued and not appeared on the retro section of the site, so I have been saving it for real emergency cases. Tonight was definitely an emergency case if ever there was one: long day, home alone, panicked about work... enter flosty gritter. Here is a picture of the bar
And here is a picture - not by me - of it in the bath
It's a sensual vanilla and lavendar bath, and it foams up like you wouldn't believe, and also there is lots of glitter! (Beware, you only need half the bar). I also like the name of flosty gritter - apparently it was named in a half mocking way at a Japanese employee who kept calling the 'frosty glitter' 'flosty gritter!'. cute or what.
I feel so positive and happy and refreshed after a bath, definitely something to do when you are feeling a bit miserable. A few more of my faves are: phoenix (retro) - good for when you want a fresh start, twilight (ballistic) so relaxing, amandapondo (bubble bar) combined with tisty tosty (ballistic) both smell of rose, sakura (ballistic) creates Japanese cherry blossom in your bath, space girl (ballistic) shaped like a flying saucer and smells of palma violets, ma bar (bubble bar) mmmm chocolatey, fizzbanger (ballistic) very uplifting...the list goes on and on.
I must love you and leave you now
xxx
So...fridays are my super long day, leave the house at 6.10am and get back at 7.10pm. I am always so tired when I get back, and tonight I am home alone, so I decided to run myself a niiiice long bath to relax into. I love love love lush baths, and I would have two or three a day if I could! I do have one most days, sometimes two if it's a particularly bad day, and they are such a good mood lifter. Having a bath is one of the only things that enables me to relax and switch off, and it reminds me to look after my body. I get so excited picking what to have - if you are a lush virgin, you MUST go and check out the website - immediately!
www.lush.co.uk
Last year it became a ritual of mine to have one of the bath ballistics called 'ne worry pas' from the retro (retired oldies which everyone loves so you can still get them online)
The idea is that you whisper any worries that you have into the little hole and watch them fizz away!
Anyway, I digress...today I had my absolute favourite bubble bar: flosty gritter. Unfortunatley, it has been discontinued and not appeared on the retro section of the site, so I have been saving it for real emergency cases. Tonight was definitely an emergency case if ever there was one: long day, home alone, panicked about work... enter flosty gritter. Here is a picture of the bar
And here is a picture - not by me - of it in the bath
It's a sensual vanilla and lavendar bath, and it foams up like you wouldn't believe, and also there is lots of glitter! (Beware, you only need half the bar). I also like the name of flosty gritter - apparently it was named in a half mocking way at a Japanese employee who kept calling the 'frosty glitter' 'flosty gritter!'. cute or what.
I feel so positive and happy and refreshed after a bath, definitely something to do when you are feeling a bit miserable. A few more of my faves are: phoenix (retro) - good for when you want a fresh start, twilight (ballistic) so relaxing, amandapondo (bubble bar) combined with tisty tosty (ballistic) both smell of rose, sakura (ballistic) creates Japanese cherry blossom in your bath, space girl (ballistic) shaped like a flying saucer and smells of palma violets, ma bar (bubble bar) mmmm chocolatey, fizzbanger (ballistic) very uplifting...the list goes on and on.
I must love you and leave you now
xxx
Thursday 3 March 2011
You haven't failed until you quit trying
I read this little gem of a quote today and it really hit home....I haven't posted on here for a while because I have been struggling horrendously again at the moment. In fact, I can't remember a time when I wasn't struggling. My degree is really suffering, and so is everything else, and I must admit I found it hard to think of anything positive at all to post on here. Enter the quote of the day 'You haven't failed until you quit trying'. And I realised something...I'm not ready to quit trying yet - hooray for that! And even better, that means that I haven't failed yet - double hooray!!!
I know that this blog is supposed to provide inspiration and happiness, but I really think that some comfort can be provided in me just explaining a little about how badly I have been doing lately. This isn't to spread misery and dispair, trust me that's the last thing I want to do, but because I know that if it were me reading this blog, I would take comfort in the fact that someone else is having a rough time too, and I would feel less alone. Their strength would give me strength. And so I hope my words can be for any of you out there struggling at the moment...
Well where to begin....my depression has come back with a-vengence, and my binge eating too. Not that they really ever went away, but I seem to be able to 'keep them at bay' some times better than others. I was alone in the house last week while my mum and sister went away for half term, and I didn't leave the house for the entire week. I missed a weeks worth of lectures - which, in a maths degree, is a hell of a lot of lectures! I missed my second test so far this term, and my second missed assessment hand in. I didn't see anyone all week. And oh boy did I binge. This week hasn't been too much better despite the return of my mum and sister. I am drowning in work, and all the time my mum is telling me to seek help etc, but I just don't have the energy. I have my dissertation draft in next week, and 3 tests, and I am so far behind in lectures I just don't see how it will be feasible. The only silver lining is that I only have 4 more weeks left ever - but its not actually silver lining, as that means 6 weeks until my exams which are 80% of my degree. And not only do I have to revise, I have to pretty much learn the material from scratch. I really don't think I can do it, I really don't...but on the plus side, I haven't quite given up just yet. Oh and to top all that, my brother is getting married in 8 weeks and everyone is preparing and excited except me...I am still gaining weight...
But, as I keep saying, I am not going to quit trying. I have been searching far and wide for some self help groups recently. I am finding it harder and harder to discuss things with friends and family, partly because I hate leaning on them so often for so long, partly because I hate them constantly seeing this weak version of me, and partly because, quite simply, a lot of the stuff they just don't understand. Anyway, I have found a depression self help group I am going to try, but they only run every fortnight. I have also decided to try an eating issues support group. *takes deep breath and hopes no judgement is passed*...I have decided to go to an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. I have been considering it for a while, and all the literature I have read and advice I have seeked has just served to convince me that my bingeing problems are exactly like an addiction. I don't adhere to the treatments which claim the bingeing needs to be 'phased' out. For some that may work. But for me, food is like alcohol is to an alcoholic. I need to try each day at a time, and not give myself any excuses like 'I haven't done it in a while so I can today'. Food becomes all consuming for me; walking into a shop feels akin to an alcoholic walking into a bar...there is so much temptation everywhere. and oh my desperation to be ABLE to binge some times throws my moral compass right out the window. I have stolen (from my family), both food and money to get food, I have spent money I don't have and got into trouble with the bank, I have spent money which was given to me to get my doctors note...etc etc. This isn't me! I know someone who has had similar problems to me: anorexia, depression, binge eating, and she goes to AA meetings and has done for years and says that the strength and support is invaluable. So i decided to look for a local AA or OA meeting, and found one not far from here on a saturday morning - perfecto. I am going this saturday, and I am going to see it through. I am also going to go to the depression alliance self help groups fortnightly, but the next one isn't until the following weekend.
One final thing I have decided to do, which I won't say much about as I realise that religion isn't for everyone, is attend the monthly 'healing mass' at our church. I am a Catholic and already go to church each sunday, but on the first tuesday of every month our church has a healing mass, and I have decided to start going each month.
Anyway, just thought I would update you...and remind you that no matter how much we fall down, or how often, the most important thing to do, and the most amazing sign of our strength is that we keep picking ourselves up.
love to all
xxxx
I know that this blog is supposed to provide inspiration and happiness, but I really think that some comfort can be provided in me just explaining a little about how badly I have been doing lately. This isn't to spread misery and dispair, trust me that's the last thing I want to do, but because I know that if it were me reading this blog, I would take comfort in the fact that someone else is having a rough time too, and I would feel less alone. Their strength would give me strength. And so I hope my words can be for any of you out there struggling at the moment...
Well where to begin....my depression has come back with a-vengence, and my binge eating too. Not that they really ever went away, but I seem to be able to 'keep them at bay' some times better than others. I was alone in the house last week while my mum and sister went away for half term, and I didn't leave the house for the entire week. I missed a weeks worth of lectures - which, in a maths degree, is a hell of a lot of lectures! I missed my second test so far this term, and my second missed assessment hand in. I didn't see anyone all week. And oh boy did I binge. This week hasn't been too much better despite the return of my mum and sister. I am drowning in work, and all the time my mum is telling me to seek help etc, but I just don't have the energy. I have my dissertation draft in next week, and 3 tests, and I am so far behind in lectures I just don't see how it will be feasible. The only silver lining is that I only have 4 more weeks left ever - but its not actually silver lining, as that means 6 weeks until my exams which are 80% of my degree. And not only do I have to revise, I have to pretty much learn the material from scratch. I really don't think I can do it, I really don't...but on the plus side, I haven't quite given up just yet. Oh and to top all that, my brother is getting married in 8 weeks and everyone is preparing and excited except me...I am still gaining weight...
But, as I keep saying, I am not going to quit trying. I have been searching far and wide for some self help groups recently. I am finding it harder and harder to discuss things with friends and family, partly because I hate leaning on them so often for so long, partly because I hate them constantly seeing this weak version of me, and partly because, quite simply, a lot of the stuff they just don't understand. Anyway, I have found a depression self help group I am going to try, but they only run every fortnight. I have also decided to try an eating issues support group. *takes deep breath and hopes no judgement is passed*...I have decided to go to an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. I have been considering it for a while, and all the literature I have read and advice I have seeked has just served to convince me that my bingeing problems are exactly like an addiction. I don't adhere to the treatments which claim the bingeing needs to be 'phased' out. For some that may work. But for me, food is like alcohol is to an alcoholic. I need to try each day at a time, and not give myself any excuses like 'I haven't done it in a while so I can today'. Food becomes all consuming for me; walking into a shop feels akin to an alcoholic walking into a bar...there is so much temptation everywhere. and oh my desperation to be ABLE to binge some times throws my moral compass right out the window. I have stolen (from my family), both food and money to get food, I have spent money I don't have and got into trouble with the bank, I have spent money which was given to me to get my doctors note...etc etc. This isn't me! I know someone who has had similar problems to me: anorexia, depression, binge eating, and she goes to AA meetings and has done for years and says that the strength and support is invaluable. So i decided to look for a local AA or OA meeting, and found one not far from here on a saturday morning - perfecto. I am going this saturday, and I am going to see it through. I am also going to go to the depression alliance self help groups fortnightly, but the next one isn't until the following weekend.
One final thing I have decided to do, which I won't say much about as I realise that religion isn't for everyone, is attend the monthly 'healing mass' at our church. I am a Catholic and already go to church each sunday, but on the first tuesday of every month our church has a healing mass, and I have decided to start going each month.
Anyway, just thought I would update you...and remind you that no matter how much we fall down, or how often, the most important thing to do, and the most amazing sign of our strength is that we keep picking ourselves up.
love to all
xxxx
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