Yoga and Well-being

Hello Lovely People !

For the last year every so often you'll of heard me say things such as " I really want to get into yoga" or "I went to yoga on Friday and really enjoyed it so I'm going to go every week". I'll only give you one guess to work out which half of that statement was true ( spoiler alert , it was a lie that I was going to go back ). However it wasn't that I didn't want  to go back it was that I simply wasn't dedicated enough to make the effort to keep going back, plus ... it kind of hurt. Yoga is hard work and I'm inflexible and very good at comparing myself to others. So I gave up.

However a few weeks ago I was talking with a wonderful woman who focuses a lot on yoga and well-being. She told me that yoga is about listening to my body and learning to give it what it needs. If the hardest pose is hurting my body then I need to stick with the less advanced and build up my strength. That conversation about looking after and listening to my body as a way to increase my mental and physical well-being inspired me to change my eating habits ( I've become vegetarian and gradually transitioning to vegan , let me know in the comments if you'd like to read some posts about that ) , focus on mindfulness and start doing yoga .

As a way to keep me focused on Yoga I'm starting a series called "The Yoga Diaries" and if you have any better ideas for names for the series I'd love to hear your suggestions in the comments. It's going to be an honest documentation of my journey with yoga and mindfulness. I will share new poses I've learnt, breathing techniques, resources and how my strength gradually ( hopefully ) builds up . These posts will be up every Friday. I will be also be posting on another happiness and well-being based post on Tuesdays as part of my new posting schedule. If there are any posts that you'd like to see as part of these please let me know !

I can't wait to start this journey with you ! I'd also love for you to leave your suggestions for amatueur blogs ( under 1000 followers .. preferably under 500 ) that posts about well-being, positivity and health ! I really want to start reading more blog in that area ! I can't wait to read your suggestions.

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :)

Lots of love, Marianne xxx

Catch Up Time !

Hello there !

So ... what have you missed ?

Over the last month, I've done a lot of missing you guys and your awesome blogs ( I have some serious catching up to do ;) ) , I've done a tonne of revision, sat a lot of exams and more recently, had some lovely days out with my girlfriend who bought me this gorgeous promise ring !!!!

I've also spent a lot of time looking up possible university courses and visiting open day. As boring as all that sounds it's actually giving me a real sense of excitement and optimism for the future. I've also taken a real interest in how fitness and nutrition can affect your mental health, I'd love to talk more about this topic on my blog so let me know if that's something you guys would be interested in. Also I'd love any recommendations of health and well being ( mental or physical ) blogs that I could read so if you know of any please leave them in the comments !

So essentially; exams are over, I'm happier and I'm feeling fresh with motivation to improve my happiness and well being and hopefully help you guys improve yours ! I'm feeling extremely optimistic about the summer and have lots of exciting posts planned for "Don'tBurstMyBubble" including a "Day Self Love Challenge" and posts focusing on health and lifestyle changes you can make to improve your mental state. If there are any posts that you guys would like to see in the near future then I'd love to hear from you !

I hope you're all having a lovely week and if not, I really hope it gets better.

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Lots of love, Marianne xxx

You Can Increase Your Mental Well Being

Hello !

Some days life feels great, like sunshine and smiles and kittens. But other days it's just a bit rubbish and that's okay too. But today I wanted to share some ways of you to increase your general well being in little ways that could really benefit your mental health!

• Hydration - We all heard it over and over again, all the way through school " Drink more water, it's good for you " and I don't know about you but my usual response was " yeah ... that's great, but have you tried chocolate milkshake recently ? " . But over the last few months I've realized just how much upping my water intake does for me ! Not only is my skin clearer, but I'm way more focused and I feel better in myself :) 
• Smile at EVERYONE - Seriously, I mean EVERYONE ! Channel sunshine, there's plenty of misery in the world, bring something new :) Just telling the person how serves you on the check out to " Have a lovely day " and giving that stranger you met eyes with in the street a smile, you'd be amazed at the lovely responses you get  !
• Stretch in the morning - When you get up, stretch out like you would when warming up to do exercise, I've found this really helps me feel less sluggish through the mornings and much more ready to go so I'm more productive which is always a good thing. 
• Accept and move on - This is something I've been using a lot lately , sometimes I get stressed or someone does something and it's really ( I mean REALLY ) not good , but at that time I react so badly you might as well of just killed off the whole human race. In these moments I'm trying to take a deep breath and say " Okay, that has just happened, I'm really sorry . Now it's over now so what can I do to improve the situation ." and I've found it really helps leave me in a much calmer and more reasonable mind frame . 
• Give your body the nutrients it needs - If you feed your body on rubbish, what is it going to use to make you feel good ? You're not going to have energy if you don't give your body food with lots of vitamins that you need to make energy,are you ? So try taking vitamins regularly and eating lots of fresh fruit and protein :) 
• Self date - Taking your self on a date and treating yourself like the brilliant person you are is a wonderful way to practice self love, if you want some more ideas for this then I wrote a post ideas that you can find here . 
• Do what you love - Find something you're good at and love and find something you're bad at and love , do both <3  

If you want to increase your well being but doing it all at once is too difficult then every month in my 'What's Been Wonderful' post I let you know one simple thing that I'm going to change over the coming month to improve my life ! If you'd like to join me in that challenge then you're very welcome :) 

Let me know in the comments what you do to improve your wellbeing :) 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Lots of love, Marianne xxx

Gratitude!

Hello !

Recently, I've noticed a lot of the American and Canadian Bloggers that I follow, Talking about celebrating Thanksgiving. In England we don't actually celebrate Thanksgiving so I didn't really know very much about it so I asked Crystal ( You can find her lovely blog here ) and she explained to me that ( apart from eating lots of yummy food ) it's all to do with being with your family and thinking about all the things you're thankful for ! I think this is a brilliant thing to be doing because think how much happier you would be if you were thankful for ALL the little things we have in life. I thought about it and then I decided to make a list :)

Things I'm Grateful For :

• Cats ( They always calm me down and give great cuddles )
• Carrie Hope Fletcher and her endless positivity
• My dads humour and our inside jokes
• That taken aback smiley look that people do when I say "have a nice day" and they're not expecting it
• My best friend kindness
• People who comment nice things on my blog
• Everyone being different but no one being completely alone ( whatever they think )
• Smiling
• My physical health
• Hope
• Authors writing books that make me think ... or make my heart melt ( I'm not picky hehe )
• My boyfriends heart and mine being made of the same thing... I'm not sure what that is exactly, I assumed glitter ;)
• Doctor Who

These are just a few off my list ! A while back me and my best friend decided we wanted to improve our general well being in a few ways and one of them was to start a gratitude diary. We really wanted to use an app because It's easy to forget about a notebook and I always set my alarm before bed so I would always have my phone to do it :)

Then we came across Grid Diary. Grid Diary is a brilliant app, it takes about 10 minutes each night to answer 10 questions that I've set myself ! Some of mine are things like: What are 3 things you're grateful for ? What are three things you appreciate about yourself ? What are 3 good things that happened today ? I even use it to keep track of if I've meditated that day !

I've been using the app a few months and loving it so I had to share it with you guys because I knew you'd all love it too ! I think it would really help to boost your positivity and well being and when you look back you have a very long list that you've built up of good things about yourself and things you're grateful for :)
 

Let me know in the comments, five things that you're grateful for and if you've tried using this app. I'd love to hear what you think of it !

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :)

Lots of love, Marianne xxx