Category: The Vault

How did I’m actively changing my life? First, a little back story three years back in August 2018, significant changes were happening in my life without my control, and I felt things were spiraling around me. During the time, past mistakes came crashing down. Along I was reflecting on what my life has become. I didn’t like the life I was living and wanted to seek answers. It was through buying a bunch of self-help books that I never finished any of them. Also, my journal was my best friend for the whole year.

Around the time I decided to act on making changes in my life, I started this blog. There were a lot of new habits created with a lot of ups and downs. I explain that in my low and high days post, but the end, things changed in the right direction.

I found it just not parts of my life I had to fix but creating space as a whole for a complete change in life to become the person that I am. I wrote out all I wanted to improve on and gave a reason why. Then organize them into three simple aspects of my life. The mind, because having a positive mindset, presents you showing up in your life. The second being body in taking active conscious care of your health from feeding it the nourishment it needs and physical movement to stay mobile. Last is life for all parts of it, as it is only your responsibility for the lifestyle you want to live.

After all my goals laid out, I self reflect on last year and what I want for at the end of that year. I create one word and turn it into an affirmation for the whole year. For example, this year is trust, and the statement is I love myself to trust in what I do every day to live a positive, healthy lifestyle. It reminds me of what I’m doing to get the life I want to live every day.

Every year I make the goal list for the whole twelve months and it’s always more than I can achieve every time. I could never understand what I was doing wrong as the year goes by other than the ovasious. Having too much on my plate. Before this year I never realized it, that is what I was doing. 

 I have said in my previous post about my health and fitness story it’s a lifestyle change and only you have the power to do something. As each month came the feeling of confidence and willingness would be there to finish the goal I set out there. Though as I’m sure you can guess what happened. Some months I did achieve that goal, but I also failed a lot as well. 

Looking upon my two thousand nineteen goals it was a long list, you would think how can she achieve all this or maybe not. As I went over my goals I discovered healthy eating habits, physical fitness to lose weight, having a new career are all the changes I want in my life for a better future. They are not just some monthly goal to achieve.

All year I’ve done one if not a few from each section of my goals list and below is my revised goals I’ve worked on all year so far for two thousand nineteen.  

The theme of the Year: Not to underestimate my power

by taking the control back and investing in me

Life *Body *Mind

Lifestyle Change:

Be more Health Conscious

Be more Responsible

 Manage money

 New Career

Body: Movement + Exercise = Strength

Stretching and Yoga

Meal planning & prep

Good sleeping habits 

Mind: Strengthen  

Practice quieting my mind 

Read knowledgeable books

Everyone has their high and low days. Its just life, but what triggers these good days and bad days. How can we recognize the signs for each day? All of it is based on your mind and body as we all have different worries and stresses in life.

On those not so goods days it may seem like a bad thing, but why not look at it as something positive. As I mention before this is one way your body and mind are telling you to relax and take a load off yourself today. When your not motivated to do things or seem not wanting to leave the house, it okay to do that. Everything you had planned today can wait another day. Now if you ignore these feelings, it will drain your energy as days pass and will blow up into a full fledge multiple days of neglecting your responsibilities with more stress.

As your highest days, your mind and body are one with each other. You are showing up and buckling down to get the list of tasks finished for the day. Then when you have done the feeling of accomplishment and happier from your day.

So the next time you have your low day accept that this is a day to rest and refuel. Don’t feel defeated because you didn’t get anything finished. You will have the energy tomorrow or even the next day. On the highs, reward yourself for all that you’ve done that day because positive actions always need to be acknowledged as well.

Quote: Accept the low days and acknowledge your highs. –

Reading, you either don’t like too much or you love it. There are two types of people that are fond of reading though you can find yourself in between both as well. First one is those that enjoy the fiction stories, the readers who love a grand adventure through the characters. Second, are people who are fascinated about learning something through non- fiction books. For both types of readers, we all grow in different ways from each one we pick up and read.

I am in between though I fell in love with reading when the Twilight series came out and I became hooked ever since. As I have gotten older, my genre has changed and grown. I don’t just read fictional stories with the characters falling in love, but have started a small collection of non- fiction books as well.

The non-fiction books I have though are self-help books or inspiring stories from the same section. I start with just buying them, but then, as a few days go by, I would lose interest. I’ve changed that though with trying this new method of reading one non-fiction book and many romance ones since I have a problem with putting the books I found down. Since I have quite the bundle of different topics of self- help books, I choose based on what I want to learn more about to grow in my life and also that goes along the lines with my goals as well.

I’ve started late in the year on this goal, but my first book has been a blogger book. It’s called Blog Inc. by Joy Deangdeelert Cho. It has tips and inspiring stories to help you start blogging and so far it has been great, though I haven’t put a dent into it. For I am practicing what I learn through each chapter and excited to finish it for I know it will help wonders with my blog for my readers.

What can journaling do for you? Can you improve your mood? There are many ways to journaling, and all you have to do is start writing or find ways to write. There are many ideas to make it fun and helpful.

For many years I loved to write, and it wasn’t until my junior year in high school did I fall in love with journaling, instead of writing school papers. I enjoy writing out the happenings of my life, whether that be bad or good. It even helps improve my emotions when they become overwhelming, and I need to cast them on to paper. Over the years, I bought many journals for several types of ways which I found fun and helpful. Here are my all time favorite journal ideas:
My Journals

1. A fancy journal that I write updates of my life.
2. An expense journal to manage my money monthly.
3. A brain dump journal for when I have so much on my mind which helps improve my mood immensely.
4. An anything and all journal to write out my thoughts and ideas.
5. Prompt Journals on different topics I buy from Barnes and Noble.

We are learning every day through the daily adventures we go through. Though ever thought when something goes wrong that it teaches us not to do it again. Then if it right we happen to have learned something new, but it’s up to you of the wrong and rights of anything. We all have the power to apply it to our life as a lesson to not or do it again, depending on how it makes you feel. We are still little kids back in school learning new concepts and having a million questions to everything. We’re just adults in bigger classrooms.

Those classrooms are locations you visit every day — your workplace where you learn to communicate and work as a team. Then at home, you find ways to make it a happy place for your family or self. By now we’re paying our bills, how to save, what to buy or not, and many more life skills.

Through all these places we experience events we based them on our feelings to the situation, whether it’s happy, sad, scary. We learn what we like and dislike or love and hate about those experiences in life. Also of the questions, we get answers.

All of our lives are made up of lessons that come into our paths is for us to learn. We though sometimes don’t see them as life lessons to be discovered. They are just everyday life. To write it out: Experiences (events & location) + learning (how you felt through those events)= Lesson we learn of life.

When is a decent hour to go to bed for a night owl? Does your mind never stop and not seem to register it’s time to rest? Having tried many times to read, watch TV, or counting sheep, but doesn’t seem to work.

As a night owl, my mind tends to be more active, and my thoughts don’t seem to be quiet when I lay down in bed. It has been a long time since I found these tricks that aid to fall asleep. I combined two of my favorite things I like to do. One, which might be strange is writing stories: two, music on a timer. I can focus on both or one than letting those unwanted thoughts to filter through.

I loved to create stories all the time, and since my creative night owl tendencies come out, I figured it might help to make them up in my head. Then upon those stories, sometimes when I’ve had a particularly bad day, I would play sounds of the rain on Pandora. The station I listen to is “Rain Sounds Radio.” They both together calm my restlessness.

I’m not telling you that these may not work for you, but as a bookworm and music fan do these work. I hope if you do try one or both that it helps for you. Let me know if it does. Remember you don’t have to stop your night owl creative brain from taking a little rest. Maybe you can find another outlet idea to get to sleep.

Are eight hours too much to time for sleeping? Do you have trouble with the amount of sleep you get? Do you feel well rest with eight or fewer hours in the night? Maybe you need more. I’ve heard from people or read in articles about how getting the standard amount of sleep is eight, but ever feel more tired sleeping that long and not as productive throughout the day?

I made a little trail on myself to find if the eight hours was enough or too much for a weekend. Friday night, I set my alarm for eight hours from the time I estimated when I fall asleep. After that night, I found myself seemly to have gotten too much sleep and more tired than when I went to bed. Then the next night, I set my alarm for seven hours and woke the following day surprisingly fully rested. I wasn’t tired like I overslept and was more ready for a productive day. Since I’ve been waking up within seven hours, I find myself getting up earlier than before and having more time to relax or get more done before work.

How I set my alarm each night: Before it was frustrating to set the right time, I wanted to wake up because I tended to open my eyes way before the sound went off. Resulting in either go back to sleep or getting up both making me feel not rested. I couldn’t find a way until I tried setting the time fifteen to twenty minutes past when I wanted to get up, and boy did it surprise me. I started feeling refresh, fully rested of excellent night sleep, which in turn made me want to get out of bed complete my daily routine and other goals I set for myself like a boss for the day.

So is eights too much for you to be able to function the next day? It’s easy to tell based on your energy level to accomplish your to-do list. We all have a to-do list or a routine to get done for the day, but how much of it ever get done? These tips of only sleeping seven hours a night and setting my alarm fifteen-twenty minutes past my desired wake up time have helped me be the BOSS of my day. That leads to a feeling of accomplished every day, even on my days when I seem not willing to do anything.

Here is a breakdown list to figure out your hours to full night sleep:

1. Try tracking your hours of sleep and journal or note how you feel the next morning.
2. If you tend to wake before your alarm and once you find the right amount of hours set your alarm 15 or 20 minutes past the time, you wish to wake up.
3. Guess how long it takes you to fall asleep. If having trouble sleeping, try finding ways to help you fall asleep faster to get the full rested sleep.

*Watch out on Wednesday for my tips for falling asleep.

The body is made up of a high percentage of water, and we continuously need it to stay hydrated. The big question, who like water? Do you only drink it when needed, or to keep the risk of illness and function throughout the day? Also, what does your body feel like after drink the eight glass amount for the day?

For me, I was never big on drinking water throughout the years and didn’t seem to notice what the big deal with it. I would only drink a glass or two a day, and that was when my body seems to crave it. I preferred coffee or juice in the morning and soda or sugary drinks with my other meals. Recently did I find that water has great benefits for the body and not just keeping you from getting dehydrated. If you all day continuously take in water for a week, you will notice the effects in your body.

It is daunting to drink eight cups of water when you’re so busy throughout the day, how can you find the time? Since the beginning of 2019, I had set a goal for every month to drink a full eight cups to lose weight, say what? Yes, I looked up if you drink half your body weight of water, that is how many ounces. It will help to lose weight because your body is getting rid of all the harmful toxins.

This water challenge has been a goal of mine for a long time, and it was a struggle, to begin with just doing four or five cups. By the middle of April did I finally achieve it with not giving up, even if I skip one or two days before. I didn’t get mad at myself to miss my target. I keep saying it’s a new day to begin again or something along, those words.

The struggles I faced seems little but had become the most helpful tips. First, I was not physically tracking my water intake by writing it down. I would lose track of what count I was on. Second, for some reason I’d say I don’t like using see-through glassware, it’s weird, I know. I kept trying to drink it, but would only do about one or two cups then I’d give up. So instead, I tried using my favorite plastic traveling cup that is twenty ounces, and as you guessed did it seem to work easier at filling up again and again.

The benefits of drinking eight glasses daily for my body was that being I lost seven pounds within the first two weeks, and as I drink, a high amount of water helps to rid my body of harmful toxins. Which affect how I feel throughout the day with more energy, and my body feels lighter in some way. The outcome of reaching this goal I set for myself, I now have the confidence and basic knowledge of what water can do for me. So because of this target, I want to incorporate and make a new goal by experimenting with infusing my water with teas and fruits. Check back for an update to see my favorite infused water recipes next month.

Here is a list of my tips for getting your water intake:

1. Set your goal of how many cups you wish to drink in a day.
2. Make a checkmark list on your phone for tracking every time you have a cup. I like to use an app called Note.
3. On that list put at the end of each the location of where you drank.
4. Keep at it never give up!

How do you begin turning a yearly goal into a habit? I’ve known for years that it is overwhelming to tackle a big goal. Even with how many times I’ve tried and could never reach them. I would do great at the beginning, then only do it here and there, but would quit altogether. During my time with being a Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay, I found the skills to become more successful in reaching those goals, and it is merely breaking it down into smaller tasks meaning habits. Those habits must align with your goals. As an example, If you want to do a circuit in the gym of all the equipment start with one thing at a time for a week or however long, then add the next machine and next.

I understand you would want to jump right in and want the results, but it takes time to develop the habit we want to create for our goals. I apply this to many goals I put in my life, but before doing Mary Kay, I had lacked the motivation. It wasn’t until recently did this come forth, and now I’m working like a boss to accomplished my habits that in the end are the goals for the year. Check out my health and fitness habit updates for each month that I apply to my goal of making healthy choices.

Simple Tips:

Find your ultimate year goals

Break them into small task/ habits for each month

Never give up and keep trying every beautiful day.