My Own Happiness Project

     I'm reading a book right now called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Don't worry, this isn't going to be entirely a book review in case you're not into those kind of blog posts (although, I would like to start doing more of those on this blog.) However, I would like to talk about it with you for a little bit.
     I have heard about this book before via YouTubers. (Meghan Rienks, maybe?) However, I really had no idea what the book was about. At the time of finding out about this book, I was probably not into self-help and mental health as much as I am now. (Joys of pre panic attack life.) I was actually at a flea market when I got this book and picked it up solely on the title, not really knowing anything about it. The Happiness Project - doesn't that sound like something everyone should read? I would let all of you borrow it if I could.
     While I'm not even half way through this book, it has already had a major impact on my way of thinking. Like The Fault In Our Stars, for me, this book has definitely given me a new perspective on how I should live my life.
     This book travels through the steps and monthly resolutions to complete Gretchen's Happiness Project. Rather than making resolutions at the start of the year, she sits down each month and writes down her resolutions that she wants to accomplish during each individual month so as not to overwhelm herself with an array of unrealistic goals.
     Most people take things day by day. Whatever happens, happens. But what's wrong with a little planning? Like Gretchen, the ideal way to set goals is to do a monthly plan rather than a list of 20 things at the start of each year that you'll forget about in the first month of the year. New Year's Resolutions only last until January 2nd in most cases. If you sit down on the first day of each month making a list of about 5 simple, but important, things that you want to change or improve in your life, wouldn't you have more motivation to accomplish them? I would.
     Make your monthly resolutions things that you will better your mentality and, well, happiness. If something is stressing you out, get rid of it or get through it. Don't make your resolutions materialistic things such as "buy a new car" or "upgrade my phone." Sure, those things will make you happy in the beginning, but sooner or later, you're going to want a newer car or a newer phone and, once again, you will be unhappy with the one that you have.
     Mental health is so incredibly important to me and it's so sad to know that there are so many people in this world who are genuinely so unhappy with their life and constantly anxious about every little thing (me.)
     My hope with my own happiness project is that focusing on happiness rather than anxiety will eventually help me to lessen my anxious tendencies. I am going to start my own happiness project promptly on May 1st. No, it might not be at the start of the year, but I encourage all of my readers to do the same. We've only missed 4 months of the year, there's no need we can't start now.
     On the first day of each month I will post my 5 monthly resolutions right here on this blog and I encourage you to do the same in the comments. I would love to do this project with all of you.

Only we can control our own happiness. xx

Love: A Terrifying Topic

     My friends and I are having a pretty deep conversation right now about love and I just wanted to share our combined thoughts with you. Not like any of us are experts on the subject or anything. It is, however, we've each agreed, a very scary but beautiful thing.
     Love seems like the most important thing in the world while you're in it, but then what? Once it ends, you feel like you'll never be the same. Your world completely transforms. You're used to constantly having someone there to talk to and once that's gone, what's next? You begin to isolate yourself and you wake up one day having about 4 friends? Not fun. Yet once you're in it, you're also transformed. You feel like you've been transformed into the best version of yourself that you've ever met. You feel constantly happy all the time. You never want it to end.
     Why can't we experience this more often? We love our friends and family; why don't we feel this certain bliss all the time, then? Because it's normal. It's expected. Obviously you love your friends and family, you have no reason not to. They're always there; they always have been there from the very beginning. So when someone new comes into your life and you begin to learn every tiny detail, you fall. The wall is torn down and you finally feel, for the first time, that you can trust someone else, you let them learn every tiny detail of you. They'll learn things about you that you will never know about yourself; you find a soul mate. This person is literally an extension of who you are. You make each other better and you're constantly there for one another. The only thing greater than being loved is loving someone else. One of the cheesiest sayings I've heard is "When you fall in love with someone, everything about them becomes beautiful." When you let yourself get to that emotional level, it becomes true. Tiny little flaws make up who we are and when you find someone that believes your flaws are not a vice, keep them. (Thanks to my friend, Vanessa, for assisting me in plowing through the thought process of this paragraph.)
     Some people fear that they'll never experience love, or will never love again. That's an even scarier thought. What if one day I wake up in a studio apartment at 30 years old, utterly alone? I'm sure everyone at my age has that thought cross their mind at least once...a day. We all want the storybook, fairytale, Noah and Allie, Augustus and Hazel, Troy and Gabriella, Cinderella and Prince Charming story. Hmm, a high school couple in the drama club who both have cancer, survive the cancer, go to prom together where one loses a shoe, and then live into their 80s where they have to tell each other their love story all over again. Excuse me, someone bring the Oscars back, please? I'm sorry to say that that is not likely. I always get frustrated, though, when people say "You'll find someone!" How do they know? I'm almost out of high school, and then what? Am I magically going to meet my future husband in the wonderfully romantic grocery aisles of Target? Maybe if it's Alex from Target.
     If there's any advice in this big old spiel of me just stating my feelings, it's what the image above says: love as much as you can. Don't spend a day not loving. If you live a bitter life and never open yourself to the idea of it, then I'm sorry to say, you will end up alone. Don't keep a wall up; let someone knock it down. Or maybe, knock it down yourself. The first step to being able to love, is loving yourself. If you don't love yourself how can you be capable of loving another person? Just something to think about.

Iloveyou<3

Exploring Your Hometown

                                

     I know a lot of people take their hometown for granted. I used to do the same. All I could think about 2 years ago was getting out and going somewhere exciting. Now, I'm starting to see the beauty of the city that I live in. Though it still may not compare to Brighton, England or New York City, it's still very beautiful. 

     I've finally gotten to that age/that mood, whatever you want to call it, where I appreciate little moments way more than sitting home watching tv/videos. A couple of weeks ago I was staying with my grandparents for the weekend and my grandpa and I just decided to drive around town looking for spots to walk along the water to kill time before my grandma was scheduled to get off work. Being honest with you, that was one of my favorite days of this past month. It was nice just to be able to walk around places that I love, surrounded by beautiful scenery, talking with my grandpa. And over winter break, my cousin and I went to the beach at like 10:00 pm and waited for my brother and his friends to meet up with us. We were on the beach until 1:00 am just throwing a frisbee around and having loads of fun. No technology needed. Although we did have a speaker playing music.
     That's an ideal day for me. Just being with people I love, doing the simplest things. We don't even have to go shopping or spend any money whatsoever. I'd be happy just driving around town all day with someone I love next to me. Whether that be close friends, family, or a boyfriend, if I had one. There's so much to do where you live if you just explore it and appreciate it. You might see something beautiful.

Reese's Spreads - My Newest Obsession!

      If you're obsessed with Nutella, then chances are you'll fall in love with this as well. If you like peanut butter, of course. This genuinely tastes like eating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups out of a jar and I couldn't be happier. Nothing sounds better than that.
     This is great to pair with pretzels, apples, pita bread or pita chips, anything like that. Or get creative! I'm sure you can come up with wonderful recipes to bake your own goods too! (Share these recipes with me if you happen to try some out!) I am going to be devasted once my jar runs out but I am sure to buy more! Happy eating. :)

This product was sent to me to test and review by Influenster.

A Message To 21st Century Teens

 

     This is the time where I throw out my seemingly unpopular opinions of my own generation. This isn't as random as it seems. I have been wanting to write something/film a video about this topic for a while now but I've feared the feedback (let's just pretend I get feedback, okay?) Today in my choir class (again, random) we were discussing, long story short, how the current generation of teenagers functions.
     It's no secret that my generation doesn't seem to be able to function without technology/social media. I'm not going to lie, I am also guilty of this most of the time. However, I will slightly toot my own horn and say that I genuinely do not believe that I am as bad as the others. I look around at kids in my classes who are constantly on cell phones. I look at the teacher struggling to grasp the attention of the distracted teens, and it just breaks my heart. We are constantly searching for different realities, being oblivious and unfocused on what is actually around us. I have teachers who are retiring this year, or teachers that I have become close to over my high school years and I want to be able to hold onto the time with them as long as I can and listen to their countless, irrelevant to the class, stories while I still can.
     I have never seen so much disrespect to teachers since being in school, let alone high school. One would think that as we get older, we would get more mature, however in a lot of cases at my school, many kids make the opposite transitions. The things that I hear teens say nowadays in casual conversation would get me slapped when I was younger. The most heartbreaking thing is watching the sweetest teachers just stand there and take the disrespect.

     This post wasn't meant to be storytime of how much I don't understand teenagers. I want to target this post to all of the adolescents who hopefully will not beat me up for writing this.

Respect your teachers. They're just trying to help you. Let them do that to the best of their ability.

I understand being a teen is really hard. (Trust me. Spoiler alert: My next post will be about anxiety and panic attacks.) But taking all of your personal struggles out on other people WILL NOT SOLVE ANYTHING.

Getting massively drunk/high/insert other bad choices here at your cute little freshman parties doesn't make you look cool. It makes you look like an idiot.

You don't need 50 friends to be happy. If you have about 3, you're golden.

As difficult as it is, at least try your hardest to enjoy high school. Most people only get to experience it once.

Your teachers are a lot more fun when you're not mean to them. They're human beings with feelings too.  Once you get to know them, they're pretty cool people.

Step away from the Internet for a while. Pick up a book. Go out with friends or family. It does a lot for the anxiety levels. (I say this from personal experience. This is another look into my next post.)

Don't walk as slow as you can in the halls. You will make everyone around you hate you.

Also don't make out in the halls. You will make everyone around you hate you even more.

Don't try to grow up too fast. This is not your time to "make mistakes and do stupid things." It should never be your goal to make mistakes. You have your whole life in front of you and there's an entire world out there that most of us have not seen yet. I want all of us to get to experience it. Take things slow. So many beautiful, amazing, and terrible things will happen to each and every one of us in our lifetimes and I can't wait to witness every moment for myself.

I just want this to make an impact on one person. Because I know if I stood on a stage in front of my whole school and said all of these things (which would never ever happen) it would end in roaring laughter. But hey, I tried!

None of us are guaranteed tomorrow and it would be a shame to be told "you have one week to live" and know that there are some people who have no interest in seeing all of the wonderful things that life has to offer.

Maybe I've watched The Fault In Our Stars too many times, but it is a good life and it sucks that some people don't get to experience it for very long and the ones who do, don't appreciate it.

If this has put you in at least a mildly good mood, it would make me really happy if you could send it to someone and try and spread it around to reach as many (specifically teenagers, but really whomever) lives as possible.

Alright, have a nice night.