January reflection

Good afternoon all, hard to believe the month of January is over. This month feels like it was 5 seconds long, especially since classes started. It’s been an interesting month. From starting this new semester to my self-love challenge, and just being a very busy bee.

Normally at the beginning of each month, I make a list of goals I have for the month (my Feb goals will be live tomorrow) however, with the new year I just made my list of 2018 intentions. So, let’s see how I’m doing on my 2018 intentions so far!

 

EVERY DAY
> 1 hour of journaling//meditation//reading-  I suck. I’ve been doing okay at writing but the only reading I’ve been doing is my homework. So, I’m still reading and learning but nothing pleasurable so I need to work on that.
> 64 oz of water- I’m trying my best but I don’t think I get 64 oz. Most days I get 40 oz or so but I need to work on getting 64 or more
> Exercise: whether that be the gym, yoga, a walk, etc.- I’ve discussed my gym anxiety recently, but I have been going on walks and taking the long way to and from class so I’m getting moving!

EVERY WEEK
> Coffee//Lunch//Workout with someone… Ideally, a different person per week- It definitely hasn’t been a different person each week but I have been getting lunch and working out with people, usually, 2-3 per week which is good!!
> Write: My goal is to write weekly, maybe 3 times- Well this month I wrote every damn day! Next month though I’m going to cool it down a bit to have more lengthy and content-filled posts so I think 3 times a week is a goal for me next month!

EVERY MONTH
> Read one book: I read a book this past weekend. The 4 Agreements. It was super good, and next month I want to read the sequel. Might review it sometime this month once I’ve read book 2!
> Discover a new podcast series: I definitely didn’t do this one this month. I think it’s because of my constant writing and getting into the groove of school. If any of you have podcast recommendations, let me know!!!

How did you guys do on your goals this month?

❤ Alicia ❤

31 days of self-love challenge: Day 31

Wow, here we are. 31 days later. I’ve talked about great things about myself, not so great things about me, goals for myself, and so much more. It’s been a very eye-opening 31 days and I’ve loved posting about self-love, learning about myself, and reading your comments as you followed me along with this challenge. I hope some of you do this challenge as well and if you do tag me in a post or 2 so I can see what you’ve said along your way! If you want a list of all the prompts, here is a link to the prompt for each day!


Going forward, how can you commit to loving yourself every day?

There are a few ways I’ve thought of to love myself every day. The first one is to journal. I want to write about a good thing that happened to me each day to show that my life is actually pretty decent. I always say I’m going to do this and never do… so I have backups.

The next way I’m going to commit to loving myself every day is by picking out one part of myself that I love EVERY SINGLE DAY. Whether it be something about my body, mind, or otherwise, there is so much to love about myself, I just have to find out what it is.

The final way I want to commit to loving myself is to start posting more self-love posts here. I got AMAZING feedback from this challenge from so many of you and I know I loved it so I want to start writing about self-love more. This one won’t be something that happens daily but maybe weekly or monthly. We’ll see.

Thanks for following me on my self-love challenge, I can’t wait to see how all of yours go.

❤ Alicia ❤

31 days of self-love challenge: Day 30

What labels (negative and positive) do you assign yourself?

I’ve been thinking long and hard about this prompt and it’s been killing me. I never knew how many labels there are and how many I’ve assigned myself, even just for a short period of time. I hate labels if I’m being honest so I like that this really made me think about all of the ones I assign myself (and other people). It’s human nature to categorize but it can terribly mean how we categorize certain people. Anyway, on to my labels.

Positive Labels:

  1. Smart- I’ve always been decently good in school and I made Dean’s List last semester so I think It’s acceptable to use this one
  2. Funny– I’m always the friend who makes everyone laugh, with memes, bad jokes, and puns flying out of my mouth soooo I give myself this label
  3. Personable– This is not really something I think I am, but everyone always tells me I am. Even if I just met someone I can usually find something to talk to them about and make them less comfortable (I attribute this to my literal hatred of silence around new people so I’ll find ANYTHING I can to talk a bit)
  4. Strong- By this I mean physically and mentally, due to a lot of things but take it as you will.
  5. Liberal– Take this one how you will as well, some might believe this to be negative… if you do I’m sorry.

Negative Labels:

  1. Lazy– Everyone has those ‘lazy days’ but unless your last lazy day has lasted for the past 5 years… I don’t know what to tell you
  2. Annoying– I always feel like I talk too much and am the most annoying person ever and I literally won’t talk to people first because I feel like I’m being annoying.
  3. Awkward– Like I mentioned when I talk about being personable, I hate silence and I feel like my constant conversation starting and inability to make eye contact makes me awkward but who knows?
  4. Cocky– I brag a lot about dumb things sometimes and I feel like I’m cocky when it comes to things. Maybe I’m not.
  5. Crazy– Just sort of mentally on some things I don’t know.

I probably could have gone on and on for negative labels ( 😦  ) but I’ll stop there because I wanted them to be equal. Moving forward, I’m going to work on more positive labels for myself and embracing my flaws without labeling myself as bad for them!

What labels do you assign yourselves??

Alicia

31 days of self-love challenge: Day 29

What words or beliefs do you (want to) live your life by?

In my 2018 intentions post, I posted a few quotes that I wanted my 2018 to go by, however, I really want to live past 2018 by them as well. Here they are again as well as a little snippet as to why I have chosen them.

“She designed a life she loved” I discovered this quote during the summer of 2016. During that summer, I took a much needed break from social media AND dropped a lot of negative people from my life. I like this because I needed to create a life that I loved and because of this quote. I have been actively trying to do just that.
> “I just really want to be the warm yellow light that pours all over everyone I love” This is something I have also always wanted to do. I love making people happy and I really hope that my actions reflect my goal of making others around me happy. There is something so rewarding about seeing others smile because of you and I just hope that I can make as many people happy, even for the smallest amount of time, as I can.
> “You just have to surround yourself with people that have the same heart as you” Something I tend to do is to try and fix people. I know how hard it is going through shit and I want to help others and hope they do the same in return. Most of the time, however, it doesn’t work that way. I need to surround myself with people who put in effort in relationships and who can put in 100% when I can’t (because I do the same because that’s how relationships work) and it’s a struggle for me because I really try to see the best in people and it can totally backfire for me. It’s hard to tell especially at first how they’ll fit (if at all) into your life and I just really need to listen to my gut to see if certain people are worth keeping around or if I may be better off not starting things or removing them from my life ASAP

What words do you want to live by?

Alicia

31 days of self-love challenge: Day 28

Who are your role models and what qualities do you share with them?

I am not really a big fan of the whole role model thing if I’m being honest. To me, a role model entails that there is a person (or people) we want to be like. And if I’m being honest, I don’t want to be like anyone. I am myself and that’s all I want to be. There are bits of other people I like and would like to base myself off of, but nothing too notable.

However, if I did have to pick a role model, it would most certainly be Marilyn Monroe. I have been obsessed with her since I was in 8th grade when people told me I looked like her when my hair was curled. I have her on post-its, purses, wallets, posters, and I have quotes of hers all over everything. I think I look up to her because she was an incredible actress, human rights activist, and person in general but people just remembered her for her looks. She knew this, yet she kept doing what she loved.

What qualities do I share with Marilyn? We both struggle(d) with some mental things, however, we perservere(d) through as best that we could. We are (were) both loving, caring, individuals. We both want(ed) to change the world. We believe(d) in equal rights for all. There are also some things about her that I want to be still, such as more confident and wealthy (kidding sort of) and I’m slowly working on both of those things.

Who are your role models or do you not have any?

Alicia

If we were having coffee

Good afternoon all. Whenever I don’t post for a while or it’s nothing about my life, I like to make ‘life update’ posts. However, I saw that Jamie and a few others write posts called “If we were having coffee” and I thought it was genius. So, instead of my ‘life update’ posts I figured I would write something like that. So, grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and hear about my life as of late.

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you that all of these self-love posts (and your comments) have been making me feel amazing! I’ve been feeling pretty positive and have been loving myself more than ever! Still, have a long way to go, but as I’ve said before… baby steps!

If we were having coffee… I would tell you about how my spring semester is in full swing. It’s been great catching up with all of my friends from last semester and getting back into the groove of things. Homework and projects have been a lot already but I’m enjoying all of my classes and all of the learning!

If we were having coffee… I would tell you that I’ve been really working on my fitness this month. I haven’t been to the gym every single day or not eaten chocolate at all, but I’m really working. I’ve been feeling great and even though my anxieties about the gym are in full swing as always, I’m getting in workouts (gym or home) when I can.

If we were having coffee… I’d ask you if you believed in global warming. It’s 50 degrees here in Athens today and in my honest opinion, it shouldn’t be this warm. It’s January and I’ve been outside in leggings and a sweatshirt. I want to know if you believe in global warming or if it’s fake news created by the Chinese.

And if we were having coffee… I would ask how your day is going or tell me something that you love about yourself (in the spirit of my challenge). So let me know! 🙂

Alicia

31 days of self-love challenge: Day 27

What’s one choice you can make right now that your future self will thank you for?

I think a choice that I can make that my future self will thank me for is to work hard. I’m not just talking about school work or one specific thing. I think in general, for everything in my entire life I need to work hard. Obviously breaks are great, and usually much needed, however, I need to work my butt off at everything I do to achieve a life I love and deserve.

Whether it be with school, work, extracurriculars, and my social life, and heck even blogging, I need to work really hard at all of these things.

For school, my future self will thank me for working hard because I will graduate college and hopefully come out of school with a job offer (or more),  and then I’ll be able to start a nice life doing something that I love.

For work I need to work hard because through work I can move up which will look nice on my resume, and if I am a hard worker and exhibit a lot of great worker qualities i can get my superiors to write me letters of recommendation for jobs, scholarships, and honors societies.

In my extracurriculars my future self will thank me for working hard because I can get leadership positions in these clubs which will look good on my resume and will get me leadership experience which everyone needs and is good to build yourself. I can also make friends and connections in these groups as well, which is nice to know people and help you get opportunities in the future.

In my social life I need to work hard, because as I’ve mentioned, I can be a crappy friend on occasion (who can’t). I need to work hard to maintain my friendships with those I love and make new friends in my future.

And finally, in blogging I need to work hard for a couple of reasons: the biggest one being that I love blogging and being able to see the progress I make in my writing and blogging skills is always nice to look back on. I also would love to have my blog grow more and what i start now will pay off later on, which I’m certain my future self will also be thankful for.

What choices can you all make now that you’;; thank yourself for in the future??

Alicia

31 days of self-love challenge: Day 26

What parts of yourself are you ashamed of?

Well, this one is also decently tough. I have a very weird body image of myself and I’m assuming since the question says ‘parts’ that it means parts of the body. I really don’t like the word ashamed here. My body is a great thing. I can walk, run, lift heavy objects, and I’m not in pain (unless it’s my knee but that’s another story). Because of that, I know my body is amazing and does some really great things like keep me alive and allows me to do the things I love.

However, there definitely are some parts of my body I don’t always necessarily love. And I would have to say that those would probably be my thighs, stomach, and smile. Thighs and stomach are pretty self-explanatory as most girls people aren’t too fond of these body parts in general. My smile, on the other hand, is one that I don’t think is too common for people to not like. I used to really like my smile but it’s like sort of crooked (some people like but I can’t stand haha0 and like I hate that my upper lip is basically non existent when I smile sometimes because a lot of people make fun of people with smiles like that on twitter which makes me, even more, self-conscious about it than I already was… but yeah those are my 3 biggest things on my body I don’t necessarily like all the time

Alicia

31 days of self-love challenge: Day 25

 What things are you really good at?

These ones over the past week have been getting more and more difficult for me. Obviously, that’s a good thing because it gets you thinking, but damn writing these are hard.

I think some things that I’m good at would be

  • Writing
  • Doing my eyebrows (my sister says I’m good at makeup in general but I really don’t believe it)
  • Bullshitting essays (I’m not proud of this acquired skill but I have it so…)
  • Taking pictures
  • Being a good dog mom
  • Making smoothies (work paid off)
  • Working with kids (or corralling them at least)
  • Speaking Spanish
  • making vine references
  • Making people laugh
  • Falling asleep anywhere (literally, I’m not kidding you should have seen me in Peru)

What are you guys good at??

Alicia

31 days of self-love challenge: Day 24

What’s something you wish someone would say to you?

Hmmm, this one is a bit difficult because I think there a few things I wish someone would say to me. I’m going to go with my top 2.

I think the thing I need to hear most is “you are needed.” Everyone needs to hear this yet people rarely do. I really don’t have an explanation for this one but when life gets tough and shit hits the fan and you start to question your worth, it’s always good to be reassured by someone.

Another thing I wish someone would tell me is “I’m proud of you.” My entire life good grades have been expected of me. I got straight As for a long time and each time I would bring a report card home and the letter was a B or even an A- sometimes, I’d always get “why isn’t this an A?” There are 6 other As on my report card and they’re focused on my ONE B. I don’t know. My junior and senior year of high school I went through a lot mentally and my grades went down (nothing below a C thank god… but I did get a C…). My parents didn’t say anything but you could tell they were disappointed. It sucks because I was still trying my hardest but As were always expected so anything less was pretty much unacceptable. Whenever my parents and grandparents would talk to me (especially now) it’s ALWAYS “how are grades?” Now, I’m not trying to say that grades are unimportant but there are more important things than a 4.0. It just sucks because my bust my ass In every single class I take and it really goes unnoticed and the only things that are noticed are what aren’t perfect. I made Dean’s List this semester and I got a congratulations but it was expected of me, so it didn’t seem genuine. I just wish that someone (besides my roommate who sees me studying literally every single day) would notice the hard work that I put in and that the grades I get are because of how hard I work day in and day out.

What do you wish someone would say to you? (I’m very curious about this one so please tell me haha)

Alicia