Treasuring Myself

I'm the kind of person who is selfish. Not in a nasty sort of way but I tend to focus on myself a whole lot in terms of my mental state(I wish I was one of those Italian mothers who cooks masses of food for her family and runs around making sure their every need is taken care of and doesn't even worry about her needs in the slightest). But I believe that the best way to help others is to firstly help yourself and frankly I don't believe I can start forming relationships with others if I don't have a good relationship with myself. Anywho, this brings me to my favourite book as of now: Treasure Yourself by supermodel superwoman, Miranda Kerr. A book written for young women(although I see no real age boundary) about how to make the most of what you've got, which Miranda believes is a whole lot. I guess it's about realising your potential. To me it's almost a bible for life but of a non-religious kind as it's basically about how to be a good person and contribute to this place we all like to call home; Planet Earth. One of the analogies Miranda uses is the book is that every lady on the planet is a flower, each slightly different than the next but all still equally beautiful in their own unique way. A rose is just as beautiful as a daffodil. This, along with a day's worth of free time at school due to statewide testing that I was not allowed to participate in, led me to doodling in a journal about what sort of flower I was. This is what I came up with:

I really wish I had a vase of tulips in my room right now, they are simply the symbol for me, Shivi. I think this was a really powerful exercise and I think I'm going to google tulips a little further. Miranda uses so many other analogies and self evaluation question exercises in her book but most powefully she uses powerthoughts or affirmations which are simply statements you repeat to yourself about life/positivity/happiness/etc which are like exercise routines for your brain. Go check out the book and the other beauty products Miranda is selling here.

The Scholarship Fiasco.

I got some really gut-wrenching news the other day in an email "Unfortunately your scholarship application is too late. I am sorry that you have missed out". Thinking about it, I think in the next couple of hours I progressed through the seven stages of grief, for my loss of a scholarship...


Stage 1: Shock and denial
I re-read the email several times and just sat looking at the computer screen in complete disbelief- this was my worst nightmare.


Stage 2: Pain and Guilt
Then the tears started flowing and I ran to my favourite crying spot- my mother's ensuite bathroom. Gosh, I was such a mess! At the same time I was also thinking to myself "Why didn't I just do it earlier in the year?!"


Stage 3: Anger
Then the rage flowed through me and went a little like this... 'Stupid EF! They stuffed up once again! It's all their fault! They told me I had until November! RAWRRRRRRRRR!'. Something like that anyway...


Stage 4: Depression
Then I started to feel awful and was in a complete slump and felt like my life was taking a turn for the worse. I'd just had my high school graduation the day before and was already feeling sad that a big part of my high school journey was over and that university is getting closer. This news just made me feel even worse as the exchange was something to distract me from my troubles and instead it just added to them. Plus I felt all my effort was wasted and the quote "if you work hard you will succeed" was a load of balony.


Stage 5: The Upward Turn
The crying stopped.


Stage 6: Reconstruction and Working Through
I knew I had to do something about this whole scholarship thing and since the lady who sent me the email was one of the head staff in charge of EF in Australia I knew I had to go higher so I started searching for other places of contact internationally. I told my mum about it all and she's contacting the head office in Australia about it, although they've yet to return our calls(last time we had a problem with EF we had to phone twice to speak to someone about our issue and it looks like we're going to have to do that again). If we don't get a good response from them we're contacting the US office or even the Swedish office as that is the country the whole program stems from. I am thinking of posting my application to one of those offices to see if they think my application is still worthy.


[I should probably add here that I emailed the Sydney head office earlier in the year about the scholarships as I'd received no further information on the topic since being accepted in the program. One of the staff members said as long as I sent it in before the end of November that it would be fine. I even emailed a couple of weeks ago before I started writing the scholarship to check it was still by the end of November but had no reply. I've still yet to find out when this mystery deadline actually was.]


Stage 7: Acceptance and Hope
I'm starting to feel okay about it all now as I know that all that I can do is contact some of the other EF headquarters that are 'higher up the ranks' than the Australian one and if nothing else make sure that the Australian staff get 'told off' so that this never happens again. 


I am still very hopeful that my application will be considered and that I may be lucky enough to get some funding. They are only partial scholarships of up to $2000 but when I need to buy a new laptop, video camera and winter clothing any extra money is going to be of use.

Ginseng Oolong

More than a year after I bought this tea set and ACTUAL Chinese tea from Beijing(when I went there on a tour with my school) I have finally used it for the first time. I bought the tea and teapot as a gift for my mother and once the Ginseng Oolong tealeaves started to brew, all the memories started to come back; the hustle and bustle of China, the smog filled skies, the seahorses on a stick, the cheap gimmicky Chinese souvenirs, the Chinese french fries and just the general atmosphere. In particular it brought back the memory of the Chinese tea ceremony I went to with other students from my school. The ceremony was just so relaxing and beautiful and was held in this small room with ornate chinese drawings covering the walls,glass table and chairs. We tasted all these delicious teas and they told us all these interesting facts about tea in China such as the fact that you're meant to drink tea out of the miniature cups in three sips - which is very hard when it is boiling hot! Plus at the end we had the opportunity to buy things from the tea store next door which sold all these handmade clay teapots. I specifically remember one which looked similar to a pumpkin and another that had three life-like clay frogs attached to the outside.

It's school holiday time at the moment and I've been inspired by the lifestyle section in our local weekend newspaper to get fit and healthy before Christmas as they're having a 6 week week get fit/healthy guide. I try to eat healthily but I just find myself pigging out when I haven't organised meals and I definitely don't do any exerecise so there is most certainly room for improvement. I think what's really going to help is filling in this health contract that you have to re-write each week where it states what your goals are and you have to sign it at the bottom. I'm also going to be writing a health diary where you record how you're doing each day and how you can improve. I'll let you know how it goes once I get into the swing of things :)

Back Again

Well,well,well. It's definitely been a long time since I wrote a blog post, over a month! I think my aim now is to post at least 4 posts a month, which is one per week.

I've recently just hopped on the Etsy bandwagon. Incase you don't know it's just another version of Ebay but instead they only sell handmade/vintage items and craft supplies. But one major difference I've noticed with Etsy is that pretty much all the items are of extremely high quality plus scammers are extremely rare and photographs of items are quite often very professional looking. They have some really original products on the site so I'll share some of my currents favourites:

Blackboard Ring




Temporary Barcode Tatoos




Lego USB



Just made my very first Etsy purchase today. A little pricey as it's being shipped from the States but it is so adorably sweet that I think it's worth it. My mum and I always seem to be clueless at what to make for dinner so we usually resort to something either ever so boring or just plain unhealthy so I decided to buy a Mini Meal Planner to help me plan and anything that is pretty definitely is a huge motivater for me. In the planner you can fit 8 weeks worth of dinners in and when I run out I can just photocopy some more!

Good/bad habits

I recently read this really good article in a magazine about breaking bad habits and also,forming new ones. I have lots of bad habits but I didn't want to overwhelm myself with bad habits to tackle so I focused on two small ones. The main points the article went through to break your habit were:
- Find the underlying problem that causes the habit to happen
- Look at all the positives of breaking your bad habit
- List how you will tackle the habit and stop doing it
- Think of a reward you can give yourself for breaking the bad habit

The first habit I want to break is, always forgtting to take my fish oil tablet in the morning.
Underlying problem: I'm always in a rush in the mornings and then I forget it
Positives of breaking habit: tablets will make me healthier, ensure I get my daily dose of omega-3's and keep m bright and alert for the day.
How to tackle: make sure not in a rush in the morning, put a note on the fridge to remind me to have it each day.
Reward: I get to use my pimple spot cream if I take my fish oil tablet(extremely weird reward but it works for me, as I definitely don't want any pimples!)

Speaking of fish oil, they now have some new-fangled fish oil tablets in the stores that are eco-friendly and I LOVE anything that is good for the environment, so as soon as my fish oil tablets run out I'll be buying these new ones. They only use small fish varieties that are not endangered and have a faster reproduction rate,and it's all done in controlled fisheries.

The second bad habit I want to break is not drinking enough water.
Underlying problem: I just don't make time for it and forget it and prefer other drinks more.
Positives of breaking habit: My skin will be less dry, I'll be more alert and refreshed throughout the day, less stressed and have many other health benefits that I don't know about :D
How to tackle: Have a glass of water every morning, bring a bottle of water with me when I leave the house each day, have a glas of water when I come home and have a glass of water with my dinner.
Reward: I get to drink my water out of these really pretty glases we have but when I have normal beverages I have to drink them out of plain glasses. For some reason pretty things appeal to me!

After seeing this water count iPod App I really want an iPod Touch. You just tap one of the empty glasses each time you drink a glass and try to finish 8 by the end of the day. It would be a really great little incentive!

Snippets

Sorry about the absence of posts everyone but I thought I'd tell you what I'm up to.
I've recently started writing for an online magazine called Snippets from an amazing modern crafting site,Cut Out + Keep, the magazine usually writes on a variety of topics not just crafts so there is definitely something for everybody. My last article I wrote for the magazine was the "Top 10 Tips to get Organised", I probably should actually use some of the advice I gave :)

{Courtesy of Editor, Cat Morley}

Yesterday I spent the morning writing my second article for an upcoming issue with the theme "Summer Holidays". You'll have to wait and see what the article is about but I will give you one clue, it's to do with food.