Posted in Thoughts in motion, Uncategorized
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action, Daily, Global, Lockdown, New Normal, Patterns, Quarantine, words, World
Quarantine-ning in Paris
In this new normal that the world is currently living in, something to remember as we connect more with ourselves, with others, and possibly blasts from the past is this:
Words deceive, patterns do not. Look alive (Also stay alive).
xo
Posted in Life, Thoughts in motion
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2019, 2020, belief, Better, Break, Coronavirus, Gift, History, opportunity, Overcome, Pandemic, Present, Rest, self love, Self-care, Utilise, Victory
Well that went left very quickly.
2019 was what I considered to be the year of the purge. It felt like we were going through a spiritual and physical transformation in preparation for the new decade, and I accepted that, however, I don’t think whatever that period was meant to teach us stuck, so here we are.
The universe has given us a clear indication of what is necessary and we should take heed. We are being called to take the best care we’ve ever taken of ourselves, of others and the earth we live in. It is time to chill.
Granted, the world is in a frenzy, but you don’t have to be. This period, should you choose to see it this way, can be a beautiful opportunity for you to regenerate, to bond, to develop, and ultimately alter the way you see and do things going forward, for the better.
My belief, albeit contrary to what is currently happening, is that 2020 is going to be an incredible year, as we will become 10 times the person we were before, we just have to do our bit.
Naturally, as with most things and considering the circumstances, there will be loss, sacrifice, heartbreak and hard times, but it won’t last and we will get through it as best as we can, like we always do.
So stay indoors, keep healthy, take the necessary precautions, check on your loved ones and neighbours, help out wherever possible and rest.
xo
Posted in Lessons Learnt, Life, Motivation, Thoughts in motion
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blogger, career, choice, Choose, Destiny, Job, Journey, life, Monday Motivation, Money, Path, relationships, success
A few years ago I was knocking on doors, trying to find the person who owned the car that had scratched mine. One person opened their door and instead of paying attention to what he was saying, I was peering into his home as I couldn’t help but notice how different it was.
It didn’t look like mine, even though we lived a street away. It was not designed in the way these homes were originally made. It had been gutted out and designed specifically to the owners wants.
It surprised me and I thought to myself ‘So we don’t all live the same?’. Now I know that might sound obvious, but think about it. If you lived in well known expensive town, you might think that the inhabitants are generally well to do.
It was significant to me because we often think that because an experience is shared by a group of people that everyone must be having the same experiences, and it is not so.
You wake up and hate going to work, someone else loves it.
You dislike the treatment you receive in this relationship by this wo/man, someone else is deeply in love and enjoying their partner.
You barely make enough to get by, someone else is making more in a month than you make in a year.
Your friendship group is lack lustre, someone else has a great group of friends and loves their life.
The difference in the above is about creating, creating by choice. We all live through and by the choices we make every single day.
You can live how you want to if only you will consistently make choices that align with the thing that you want.
Do not underestimate the power of your choices as they determine what you experience daily. Just take a look around you and examine what is taking place, what choices did you make? Don’t like it? Choose differently.
Xo
Posted in Motivation, Thoughts in motion
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blogger, change, choice, Desire, focus, give up, Goals, Manifest, Motivation, new year, Not Giving Up, Refreshed, self, Speaker, vision, Work, writer
It’s the 17th January (already?!) and dare I ask, how is it going?
For some of the people I know it’s been, a bit, bluregh. And a bit bluregh is never a good way to feel. Maybe it’s the January blues or in London the gloomy weather? Whatever it is, as with most things, it’ll soon pass.
On my side it’s been quite slow, which I welcome because I know it’s not going to be like this for much longer.
As tradition dictates, with a new year comes new or refreshed goals. I have some that this time around I’m choosing to keep to myself however, I do have one that above all of them is absolutely necessary in order to meet my goals and that is to focus.
I used to hear as a child that ‘Irene is great and has potential but she lacks focus’, and now as an adult I understand more what they meant by that. I struggle to give a thing my undivided attention, so I’m gifting myself myself and working on improving my focus, little by little.
What are you working on?
My advice for any goals or desires you have is to take each day as it comes. Let things happen organically. I spent a considerable amount of time in the past forcing things to happen and the outcome always left me wanting.
To summarise, work with what works.
Xo
P.s Things will start look up, I promise 🙂
Posted in Lessons Learnt, Life, Thoughts in motion
Tags
2019, belief, change, fear, First Impression, Guide, Introduction, love, new year, Patience, power, relationships, Tongue, words
Since being away I have been plagued with the tales that I have heard about this country as a child. Sometimes I’m uneasy because of it. I have lived here and loved it but that part, that part never went away.
I can’t seem to shake of those stories that I heard and watched on TV. It hasn’t mattered much that I have never seen proof to support those claims, yet it still invades my mind as if I have lived it. It has affected my experience here and this is simply down to how they introduced the culture to me at age 5 on my first visit.
However, I am challenging those perspectives, as I realise how stupid those beliefs are.
Imagine that?! The things I was shown and told has shaped my thoughts for 26 years! If that’s not a reason to be mindful of first impressions I don’t know what is.
And yes whilst it’s possible to change someone view, but it’s seldom easy to do so.
The New Year is 5 days away and I’m sure some of us have a few changes we’d like to make. As you make them, please consider how you speak of a thing or person as it has the potential to have a lasting impression that may never shift. Be thoughtful about the words you speak and consider the impact it could have.
Your words are powerful, use them wisely and make the first impression count.
Xo
Posted in Lessons Learnt, Life, Thoughts in motion
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Acceptance, Boyfriend, freedom, Girlfriend, growth, Know, love, Marriage, Mental Health, relationship, Rich, Self-care, self-esteem, Self-Worth, value
Works like a charm. Every time I openly confess my feelings about something, freedom follows. Give it a go, release your feelings and it need not be public but it must be seen by you. When you release the feelings, it no longer owns you and keeps you captive.
Back to today’s post.
It’s so easy for someone to say ‘love yourself, value yourself, have self worth’, and the rest of it, when the reality of doing that is obscure to most of us. What school can we go to to learn this exactly? Many of us do not have a clue what that means or how to even begin to do that.
I’ll break it down from my perspective, you may have yours and I’d love to hear it too!
Before you can begin to love or value yourself, you first have to know yourself.
Think about it, how can you love or see value in what you don’t know or understand? It’s near impossible. Do we love complete strangers at first glance? Typically no and that’s what some of us are, strangers to ourselves.
We don’t know what we like or don’t like, what makes us excited, what makes us happy, what makes us angry, what we will or will not do, our limits, our beliefs and so on. How then will it be possible to love yourself if you don’t know who you are?
Therefore rule no 1: Know Thyself.
To do this, spend time monitoring your thoughts, what and how you do things and the interactions and impact you have with/on people. Do things you haven’t done before, and revisit things you used to enjoy doing.
The aim is to put yourself in a position to get reacquainted with yourself, and in some ways discover more of who you are.
For example, I know if something scares the crap out of me, thinking about it is not going to make it better. In fact I have to do the complete opposite and not think about it and just do it. That’s what happened when I jumped out of a plane, when I travelled to a different country for the first time alone, when I started this blog, when I attended university, when I left various jobs, you get my drift. Things get done when I get up & do it. I know this about me because I’ve watched how I respond to things. And guess what? the things I think about in excess seldom get done as I am the king of rationalising the hell out of something. In knowing this I am better equipped to maintain the most important relationship I have, which is with myself.
It’s only when you know more of who you are both in the good and not so good that you can begin to appreciate the essence of who you are and have an understanding of how you can then love yourself.
A few ways I love myself are:
1. Removing limitations with the things I desire
2. Being kind to myself and reaffirming the goodness in me whenever I feel low and ugly (yes I have ugly days).
3. Exercising discipline in areas that I desire to be improved upon (I checked my credit score yesterday and its in the 900’s, I could scream and yes I worked for it!).
4. Being still.
5. Having nice quality things and surrounding myself around good people.
6. Maintaining the standards that I have set for myself.
7. Saying no.
8. Saying yes.
Loving yourself isn’t only about physical self care, it’s also about accepting who you are and doing the work to improve the things that could be better.
What are your thoughts?
Xo
Posted in Life, Thoughts in motion
Tags
death, December, forward, Honest, life, Lost, love, peace, relationships, Sadness, Truth, vision
Whew it’s been a minute.
It’s not that I haven’t thought about you, I have. I think about you often and want to write. I pick up my phone, open notes and nothing. Stringing a sentence together has felt like pulling teeth and if I am honest I simply haven’t felt like it.
I know you’re supposed to push past those feelings, as that’s how you develop discipline, but in the midst of that, I have been figuring out what life is, especially after the passing of Franklin. And for a period everything seemed pointless and at times it still does.
I’m working that out though, making it make sense to me because I need it to. I do however acknowledge that the reality is I may not receive the total peace I need from this, unless I just let it go…and I’m not ready yet.
Anyway, I celebrated my birthday on Monday and it was different. I was different. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the word calm or should I say unbothered springs to mind and I’m not sure if I like it yet (lol). I was eerily still inside.
Maybe it’s because I’m currently in a different country?
Maybe it’s everything that’s happened over the past few months?
Maybe it’s the quiet confidence they say you’ll get once you’re in your 30s?
Even with all of that I am grateful to have witnessed another year of life.
I’m saying all of this as I believe it’s important to be truthful about your experiences, not only to yourself but to others, as only then will you be able to move through them with more ease. And you never know who will find solace in your truth.
So consider this post a breaking of the seal as till the end of the year I’m going to be here, she says.
Thank you all for your continuous support and you’ll read me tomorrow xo
Posted in Life, Thoughts in motion
You know what that weight is…it’s the thing you use as an excuse for your lack thereof or mediocrity.
You hold onto it as it makes you feel justified; family, friends, job, money, resources, pretty much anything can sound like a valid reason to not have or do something.
But what you don’t realise, is that until it’s out of the way, it will continue to oppress and hold you back. You will not be able to truly see the gift that is in front of you because there are too many things that you are giving much power to.
Let it go, clean it up or clear it out.
But before even doing that, you have to make a decision.
I had been holding my mother responsible for the reason why I haven’t been able to do a particular thing well for the past few months. She was being herself and I allowed it to impact what and how I did things. I decided to make a commitment to doing better.
Making that decision alone shifted how I thought about things and ultimately how I did it. I wasn’t going to literally wait around anymore, I was going to make improvements for myself. And as usual, the universe conspires in helping you meet your goal.
If you have been holding in or onto something or blaming someone for the shortcomings that are occurring in your life, make a decision to work through them to make the things you want happen. Drop the excuses, develop discipline and hold fast to your determination to see things through.
“I am going to make a very beautiful life for myself no matter what it takes”.
Xo
Posted in Life, Thoughts in motion
Tags
Beach, Business, Debt, Heartbreak, Knowledge, life, Money, peace, Practice, Property, Question, relationship
A few friends of mine would make fun of me saying I asked too many questions. ‘Questionnaire’ is what they’d call me.
I don’t always need to have the full information but enough for me make an informed decision; after all my brain works, why should I leave all the decision making to someone else especially when it impacts me?
I made a decision to do things completely different and set a goal for completion at end of 2019. To achieve it will require a different version of who I have been to date.
So I started asking myself questions, questions about what I would need to do, the knowledge I need to have, the places I need to be in, the people I need to talk to, the time frame it needs to be done in, the money I’d need to invest, what I’d need to invest in, the mind set I need to have, the practices I need to change, the ones I have to adopt, what I have to cut, and so on. And then I answered them.
I pushed myself to think past the confines that I am used to and this process has put me in a completely different headspace, and for the things I did (do) not know, I research, I study, I apply it.
Too often we think others know so much more than we do and completely undervalue the wealth of knowledge, skill and experience we do have or have access to. Don’t.
Ask questions, don’t be a zombie that follows the status quo. Challenge yourself and it might surprise you in realising what you know or even what you don’t know and now know that you need to.
If you want to live a life that is completely debt free, ask the questions, do the work.
If you want to live on a beach in a tropical country, ask the questions, do the work.
If you want to have £100,000 in 1 year, ask the questions, do the work.
If you want to buy your first property, ask the questions, do the work.
If you want peace, ask the questions, do the work.
You get my drift.
It’s not about knowing everything, it’s starting with what you know that gets you closer to where you want to be; whether it’s dealing with heartbreak, making a large purchase, starting a business or having a healthy relationship with your partner.
Xo
Posted in Life, Motivation, Thoughts in motion
Tags
Acting, Actor, blogger, Degree, Goal, lifestyle, Mindset, Monday Motivation, Practice, Qualifications, Speaker, Steps, writer
Ever had a new goal that you were super excited about?
You’re filled with the possibilities of what achieving this goal will do for you and you cannot wait to get started.
You plan and establish the actions you need to take and then unexpectedly your insecurities surface.
What if I’m not qualified?
Who said I am qualified?
What if someone thinks I’m not up for the job?
Doubts here and before you know it, it starts to feel like a pipe dream. Within moments, you have convinced yourself that you’re definitely not up for the job and resign that goal to the ‘do not attempt’ pile.
Why are we the very first to sap the life out of something? Our own worst enemy.
Do you know what qualifies those that do vs those that do not? Their belief. That’s it. Those that achieve the most, do not allow their past, failures or circumstances to dictate what they can and cannot do. In spite of it, they move full steam ahead.
You will always be better off for doing something even when it does not work out as envisioned. The trade-off is the wealth of experience, applied knowledge and skills gained, that not doing anything could never provide you with. It is also a stepping stone.
I bumped into someone I knew online through a mutual friend. I had not met them in person until this morning. We started talking about various things and he asked me whether an online series I was a part of was well thought out or improvised. What do you think I said? We winged that bad boy!
None of us really knew what we were doing, we just showed up and figured it out as we went along. In that same year of doing the series, I wrote, directed and produced my first short play. I won 2 awards for the play and a little bulb went off in my head ‘I’m a writer’, and always had been, but it wasn’t until that point, did I acknowledge myself. That was almost six years ago.
Do you think how I write now is how I have always written? Absolutely not! In the beginning, it was trash. I cringe every time I see something from the past, but I had to start somewhere, as terrible as it was.
So trust me when I say, you can do this. Little by little, step by step, piece by piece.
Xo
