Tourism New Zealand has invited people from across the globe to share their misfortunes and disappointments of 2020 online, a digital version of scribbling it on a piece of paper and incinerating it. For every disappointment shared, people are invited to put a positive spin on their situation by donating a tree in the Forest of Hope. These forests of native trees will represent hope and regrowth for the new year ahead, turning disappointments into hope, and chucking in a good dose of positivity.
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Have you been held hostage by a planner? You know… one of those hardcover diaries that you slip into your handbag and cart around like a proper adult. The kind of planner where you jot down your to-do list, appointments and all manner of important information. Have you ever been held to ransom by one? Okay, maybe it’s just me?! I’d seen people using bullet journals, and seemingly magical High Performance planners to sort their lives and get shit done! I wanted to be one of those organised, on-top of shit people, with a healthy balanced lifestyle, ticking things off and getting shit done. So I searched for something that would work for me. ** In steps the Full Focus Planner** I can’t even tell you where I first saw the planner, but I ordered via the Full Focus website and a new one was going to show up every quarter (no pressure). In hindsight that should’ve been the moment that I realised that this was no ordinary Warehouse Stationery jobbie – a 3 month planner with a multiple goal and planning pages, tick boxes, weekly previews and weekend optimising pages was more than a slight step up from dated […]
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I live with anxiety and depression. It’s not all consuming but it’s there, and it’s something I’m forever refining my coping strategies for. I deliberately say ‘live with‘ rather than ‘suffer from‘ because some how using the term ‘suffer‘ in reference to my own life… feels like a frightening self full-filling prophecy. Anxiety vs Nervousness or Stress It’s hard to explain anxiety to someone who doesn’t live with it. People often believe it’s the same as being nervous, or stressed and don’t understand the crippling, strangling feeling that unexplainable panic can bring. Yes, in some situations feeling a little anxious is totally normal, things like public speaking or sitting an exam tend to make most people feel nervous. However, what separates my anxiety from stress or bog-standard worry, is that the intensity is considerably out of whack to the actual likelihood or even possible impact of the event or events. Yes, a certain amount of anxiety is normal or even helpful… it helps you get shit done, and to react accordingly to external stresses or potential threats (think bears, bullies and boogie monsters), but where normal worry or nervousness usually calms once the moment has passed, anxiety tends to fester […]
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I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog post front, forgetting that writing was my ‘soul medicine‘, I let it slip by the wayside. I gave up setting aside time to write and any attempts became well and truly half-arsed. The perfectionist in me felt it was only worth doing and worth sharing if it was 100% awesome all the time and bang on brilliant content! So half written articles piled up, and constantly looming on my to do list was “WRITE” or “BLOG“… in bold and underlined (because underlining helps) I forgot why I started writing. I forgot what I enjoyed about it and I let myself be derailed by others people’s writing success… Although it wasn’t just writing that fell by the wayside, I somehow dropped a lot of what I enjoyed. I became focused on what other people were doing, what I wasn’t invited to and eventually the things I was missing out because of COVID19. My own self-doubt and self-loathing was beginning to undo me. I’ve known for a while that I’ve needed to take action, perhaps see a counsellor or maybe go on some kind of magically rain forest retreat. The current solution of anti-depressants and […]
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We’ve all heard “if you’re feeling thirsty, you’re already dehydrated“, which seems kind of cruel, like your body own has turned against you. You find yourself standing, arms raised, hands outstretched, screaming “there were no signs” and “how was I to know“. I often rely in feeling thirsty to remind me to “drink more water!“. We’re discouraged from eating when we’re not hungry, but thirst is different. Apparently. Our literal thirst for water, has turned the bottled water industry into a rapidly growing market, averaging 8.5% growth per annum, ultimately creating a $200 billion worldwide industry. But buying bottled water still seems almost laughable when you think about it, paying $4 for something you literally have tons of at home, the same thing that some communities in the world are in desperate need of. To top it off, water is often the same price or more expensive than carbonated drinks and juices which are less healthy. Selling bottled water to us, the masses, has often been touted as the greatest marketing achievement. It’s living version of selling ice to Eskimos. Imagine if people instead took a drink bottle with them, and donated the $4 to an agency building wells and creating access to […]
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Whether you’re trying to cut carbs completely or just cut back a wee bit, this Easy Peezy Seed Loaf is exactly that ridiculously easy to make and pretty darn tasty too. Super versatile, you can enjoy it with a range of toppings like cheese, avocado or garlic butter INGREDIENTS ¾ cup sunflower seeds ¾ cup pumpkin seeds ¼ cup linseed/flaxseed (whole) 2 tbsp chia seeds ¼ cup Ceres Organics Ground LSA + P (linseed, sunflower seed, almond + pumpkin seeds) ¼ cup psyllium husk 2 tbsp infused olive oil, I recommend The Village Press range ¼ cup water 4 eggs salt/pepper A pinch of Turmeric 1 tsp rosemary, fresh if you have it but dried is fine. Instructions Place all ingredients in a bowl, except the rosemary, and mix well. Once thoroughly combined place the mixture into a lined loaf tine and leave to sit for approximately 30 minutes before placing in the oven. It’s easier to put the mixture in a loaf tin when it’s still relatively runny. Leaving the mixture to sit before placing it in the oven will ensure excess moisture is absorbed. Just before popping the loaf into the oven, sprinkle the rosemary on top. Bake the seed loaf at 180 degrees […]
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Loneliness is a strange thing, in a crowded room or a busy neighbourhood you can still feel like you’re standing alone, like nobody hears you and nobody can be bothered with you. You can feel completely isolated from your community, colleagues and peers without actually being all alone. You can’t measure loneliness, it’s an immeasurable feeling, rather an a quantifiable situation, meaning you can feel lonely without actually being alone. Someone else can’t measure your loneliness, and you can’t measure theirs. In fact loneliness and being alone aren’t even the same thing, time alone or solitude is something you choose, loneliness is imposed on you by others. Loneliness feels draining, distracting, and upsetting; while being alone is often a desired solitude that feels peaceful, creative and somewhat restorative. Solitude restores body and mind. Loneliness depletes them. In 2018 experts believe that loneliness is serious issue, and that we are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. There is no magic number or mathematical formula for loneliness, it doesn’t matter how many friends you’ve got, or whether your single, dating or married, loneliness is based more on whether you feel disconnected from those around you either emotionally or socially … or both. […]
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I love a good TED Talk, there’s something almost magical about finding one that feels like it’s speaking solely to you and no one else. Often in life, I feel like a creative genius with no form of creative outlet traditional artistic talent, I have so much buzzing around in my head in terms of ideas, thoughts, day-dreams and goals that I feel almost worn out and lost. I find TED Talks to be a great source of calm and a great way to reignite purpose. While searching for creative inspiration a few months back, I stumbled across a TED Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert… and had an ah-ha! moment. You possibly don’t know who Elizabeth Gilbert is, don’t worry I didn’t either at first to be honest. Elizabeth Gilbert is the best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love as well as six other books. I’d certainly heard of her work, and was intrigued about what a big time author would have to share, and I was especially intrigued after she mentioned people now treating her like she was “doomed“… and the pressure to create another best-seller. I’ve never written a best-seller, or even a slow seller for that matter, […]
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I’ve come across some weird and wonderful people over the years. So much so, I often wonder if my life isn’t really just a Truman Show style experiment. I’ve come across far too many characters for it to be a random coincidence and often imagine that somewhere out there, two TV producers are high-fiving one another for a job well done. Perhaps I’m just a magnet for colourful characters, or maybe all these colourful characters, wonderfully whacky and brilliantly bold people are simply meant to be fodder for great blog content. When I left home at 17, I picked the furthest point from my home town to relocate to, the aim was to be as far from home as possible yet still be in the same country. So naturally I ended up in Invercargill, having never been to the South Island before. From the moment I stepped off the train in my Waikato rugby jersey, I basically flew solo into a Wizard of Oz style tornado full also sorts of different people. I clearly wasn’t in Kansas anymore. I’m not sure where or how I first encountered Dave*, he kind of just appeared from nowhere and then continued to appear […]
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Dear Diary, I’ve been reading and rereading the same letter on and off for almost a year now, it’s neatly folded up and tucked away in my desk drawer and each time I open the drawer I find myself reading it again. Mum found the letter at home, tucked away safely with all my teenage treasures, clearly I’d always planned on keeping it. The author of the letter is a once dear friend, a friend I flatted with, a friend I shared my teenage years with and a friend who I’m no longer in contact with. “Hey Dee, Merry Christmas and all that stuff. … I always thought of you as too popular to lower yourself to my level. Thanks for picking our group. The letter is a bittersweet read, it breaks my heart to think we’re no longer friends and that I don’t know why, but at the same time there’s a sense of joy that I once had such a good friend. It serves as a reminder this letter, a reminder about perception versus reality, a reminder about the power of friendship and a reminder about not taking things for granted. It reads as though I was the cool […]
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