what are you going to do about it?
May 15th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
There are a lot of people who focuses on the negative in their life. Why is that, do you think? Maybe it´s easier to only see the bad things and blame them for how your life is turning out. But is it really the best way to live? Blaming the world and everything in it – the things we have no control over – instead of taking control yourself? It sure is easier, but I don´t think it will give you the life you want.
I´m not interested in portraying myself as the perfect person on the internet, because I know I´m not, but when it comes to the way I try to see my life – I think some people may have something to learn. A couple of the kids at the school I work at was working on a song today, and I thought they were singing “what are you going to do about it?”. It turns out they had a slightly different ending to the sentence, but it pretty much meant the same thing. And they have a good point. So you don´t like your job – what are you going to do about it? You could, of course, complain to everyone around you about how stupid your job is, how much you hate your co-workers or how little you get paid. They will probably listen, nod their heads now and then – and some of them might even join in and tell you how much shittier their job is compared to yours. But does your work situation get any better? I think not. So you had a bad start to your day – what are you going to do about it? Are you telling yourself that this is a really bad day – or are you telling yourself that the day could only get better from now on?
I think that the way you view your life pretty much resembles how your life are – or how it is going to be. If you tell yourself that your life sucks, that everyone else is to blame and bad things just happen to you without a reason – then that´s of course how your life seems to you. But I guarantee you this – that if you are able to read my blog right now, your life isn´t that bad at all. First of all you should be happy that you can read, and that you have access to a computer with internet connection. Second, you should be happy that you have the time to surf the internet. You get where I´m going with this ..
Try to be grateful for what little you do have, every day. It might be that you have the ability to walk, or read, or that you have a job that pays the bills. Maybe it´s your friends and/or family, or that you get to eat a healthy breakfast. It doesn´t have to be something huge in order for you to be grateful for it. Be grateful for everything good in your life, because your life probably isn´t that bad.
personal challenge #2
May 8th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I completed my previous challenge on 43things, have breakfast everyday. It went well, and it was great motivation, but unfortunately I´ve slipped up a bit the past few days. Starting fresh tomorrow! Anyroad, I have a new personal challenge! This one is “work on my inspiration/gratitude board” and has to be completed by my birthday, May 22. I´ve shown you my process on it so far in a previous post, and I have to say that it´s sad that I haven´t gotten any further with it. It looks so .. empty! But a couple of days ago I finally bought some water color, brushes and a mixing bowl – so there´s no excuses now!
Go Instagram!
The reason I haven´t done anything more with it is simply because I´m afraid I´ll mess it up. I´ve always been the kind of person who might have great, even awesome ideas, in my head, but when it comes to executing them it ends up looking like shit – and nothing like what I first had in mind. But that´s just the way it is, and I probably have to live with that. Nevertheless, it´s MY gratitude board, so it should look like I made it, right? And to be completely honest, I´m a bit of a mess – so if it ends up looking like that it shouldn´t be a problem. I´ll see how this goes and keep you posted!
photo ; privateLike this:
so, this is what´s up
May 7th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I´m having some technical difficulties now a days. My computer does not work and my camera is in for repairs – and this makes it hard to keep updating this blog right now. Excuses, excuses, I know .. I do have an iPhone that actually contains a WordPress app, so I could try to use that more. But as I´ve told you before, inspiration unfortunately does not come to me when I´m happy and all is well. But I´ll be better, I promise. It´s been so much fun blogging these past months, because you guys have been really supportive and seemingly enjoying my blog – which is great. So I´ll be better, I promise!
Now that I only have my outdated iPhone to connect to the internet with, I´ve found that instagram could be a cool way to share some of what´s up these days – follow me if you want, my username is sarajohanne :-) My next update will be of my supercool new watch!
personal challenge #1
April 22nd, 2012 § 4 Comments
On 43 things, you’re able select a personal challenge. From March 28th till April 28th my personal challenge is ‘have breakfast everyday’. I’m not very good at eating breakfast, I’ve never been actually – so this is a goal that’s important to me. There’s been some ‘slip-ups’ with protein bars before I rush out the door (as most people I tend to oversleep from time to time) – but mostly this personal challenge is going great! And if I have to say so myself, a protein bar isn’t the worst way to start your day anyways.
looks tasty, right? (I don’t eat the basil, haha)
Since eating breakfast seems to be really hard for me, I’ve used Herbalife’s Formula 1 Shake almost every day. I have the one tasting vanilla, so I can flavor it with whatever I want – frozen strawberries, raspberries and banana for the most part. For me, drinking my breakfast is the way to go! And I must say – starting the day with a cold, fruity shake isn’t half bad.
How do you start you day?
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being happy is a choice
April 21st, 2012 § 7 Comments
There was a time when I wasn’t able to write anything on my blog unless I was down. And the result was a blog filled with depressing reading; not very interesting – and not how I would like others to see me. So I made some changes, and decided that my blog would be for happiness, not depression. But the last thing I would like is for people to believe that my life is all roses and sunshine, because it’s not.
I work really hard, every day, to be happy.
When I wake up I remind myself to be grateful for this new day. To be grateful for everything I have. There are several times a day where I stop what I’m doing to check if I’m on the right track or not. Several times every day I have to tell myself to be positive. And it’s definitively working! But it’s work alright. I have to work on it.
I’ve thought a lot about what I’m about to tell you now. If I want to share this information with the world, and everyone in it. To put myself out there. But I think it’s important to ‘come clean’ about it, since this is a thing people should, but rarely, talk about.
About three months ago I hit rock bottom.
I was so down that I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t get up in the morning to get to work, for no good reason at all. I just didn’t want to. And I really love my job, so that was very frustrating. Everything felt really hard to do, even taking a shower or eating something. I had no idea why, and that was the hardest part. I felt like I couldn’t tell anybody about this, because I didn’t know why I felt that way. So I wore a mask and pretended that everything was fine.
When I figured out that I couldn’t fix this on my own, I worked up the courage to go to my doctor. Just being able to call to get an appointment took me twenty minutes, and I spent another twenty minutes crying and shivering in the shower afterwards. I have never felt more terrified and alone then I did that day. But then I finally got to tell someone how I felt, and the moment I understood that she was going to help me with this, a weight was lifted off my shoulders. After about a week I managed to tell my sister, and then my parents. My doctor wanted me to try antidepressants, so I went home to my mom for a week to start on them. And then, after a couple of weeks, they started working.
My life is so much better now. For the first time since I was a kid I get to feel alive. I’ve tried a lot of new things, like making jewelries and doing yoga, and I’m looking forward to getting up in the morning to go to work. But I still struggle with this. I still have to work on it, every day.
Being happy is a choice. I choose to be happy.
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43 things
April 18th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I know I’ve probably posted something about this before, but I want to do it again. I’m a member of a site called 43 things, which is an awesome site for people who would like to change their lives – and be supported while doing it. It’s also great if you, like me, simply _love_ lists and writing posts and comments and whatnot.
There are a lot of different people and a lot of different things on 43things. Some people are young, wild and free, and others are married with kids and a 9 – 5 job. The list of popular things (or ‘goals’) includes ‘lose weight’, ‘write a book’, ‘go on a roadtrip with no predetermined destination’ and ‘drink more water’ – so as you can see this site is for everyone and everything; if you can dream it you can achieve it! ;-)
This is how the site works; you add your goals (choose the ones others are doing too, or create your own), you write entries (if you want), you cheer people on – and they cheer you on, and you mark your goals as done when they’re done! Easy peasy! It’s a great way to keep track of your goals, so that you can achieve them and become the person you want to be.
Here’s a few goals from my personal list (I have 39 things as of now) ;
- #1 be grateful – an ongoing goal that’ll probably stay there forever
- #3 treat strangers like friends
- #8 climb trees
- #13 do 100 things I have never done before
- #27 backpack through Europe – I’m doing that this summer with my sister!
You find my profile here.
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Houston, we have a problem
April 16th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Okay, so remember I wrote about my cat, Mir? The one I love and adore and who is the greatest cat alive? Four days after my post about him, my father calls and says he’s at the vet, because my cat had been in a fight. At first I was terrified, of course, but it seems like he’s going to be okay. He got bit really bad, but he’s well on his way back to health – getting antibiotics and pain killers, the poor thing ..
Here he is, right after he got home again. My poor little baby .. <3
Anyways – he’s getting better, so that’s good! On to the other problem at hand ; today I found out that my camera is broken! What, how did that happen?! I have no idea. And it’s really sad, and bad, because I was going to take pictures of my co-workers tomorrow. So yeah. I think I have to stop blogging about the things I love, haha. To bad – you won’t get to see my awesome new backpack! (Okay, maybe I’ll show it to you later – if my camera gets all better too). Fortunately it’s just the camera, not the lens, that’s broken – because I don’t have insurance for my lens. So there’s some good in all of this!
I hope this isn’t the thing they call karma, cause I’ve really been trying to be a good girl lately .. well, there’s a lot of great things happening in my life as well, so I won’t complain too much!
Last, but not least, I’ll have to ask you all to send some good thoughts to both my cat and my camera – I’m sure they’ll both appreciate it very much. And I will appreciate it more than you’ll ever know!
Love Sara
photo ; private, taken by my fathermy camera
April 13th, 2012 § 2 Comments
Some of you may have noticed this already, but for those of you who haven’t ; I like to take pictures. Of humans, animals, nature, jewelry and yeah, you get it. Anyway – my boss also noticed this, and asked me if I wanted to take pictures of all the employees at the school, to put on the schools website. At first I was like “yeah, that’s cool. I think I should be able to do that” and then I was like “shit shit shit shit – what on earth did I get myself into?!” Now I’m like “whatever, it’s going to be way better than boring pictures of a person and a white wall and so much cheaper than a real photographer”. So it’s okay! The real problem is to get pictures of all the teachers, since we’re all pretty much busy when we’re at work. But the cool thing about this, what I was going to tell you – is that I get paid to do this! That’s cool, right? I would totally have done it for free. I guess I can call myself a real amateur photographer now!
For those interested, this is my camera ;
It’s a Nikon d5100 with a 35mm f/1.8 lens.
Whenever I post a picture that says ‘private’ at the end of the post, it’s usually taken with this (unless it’s a really old picture). I also have a 18 – 55 mm f/5.6 lens (the kit-lens), but I don’t use that now that I’ve got this new one. The reason I have a Nikon camera (if anyone wonders) is because that’s what I learned to use first, and it was love at first sight. A couple of years ago I had the Nikon d40, but unfortunately I broke that, and I didn’t really have a camera for a long time. So I bought this camera last fall, and since then I’ve tried to get better and better at using it. I always use the Manual mode, and I learn new things every day. This site has helped me a lot lately, you should check it out if you want to learn new things about your camera.
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keep smiling
April 10th, 2012 § 1 Comment
You know, it’s scientifically proven that smiling can improve mental health and boost happiness. And there’s very few things that are better than seeing a genuine smile on someones face – whether you know them or not. It’s hard to remember to smile sometimes, and where I live (Norway) it seems like people rarely smile at all, especially to people they don’t know. So, my advice for today is to keep smiling, and to offer your smile to everyone and anyone! You might just make someones day :-)
And yeah – I just want to say thank you so much to the people who have decided to follow my blog these past few weeks. It’s really overwhelming, and it makes me so happy that you find my blog worthy of your time! So, thank you so much – everyone ; you make me smile! :-D
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happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have
April 9th, 2012 § 5 Comments
About a month ago I bought a really big canvas, and my plan is to make it my inspiration / gratitude board. This is the progress so far ;
I know it looks a little … empty right now. But I’m working on it! I’ll show you the progress as I continue to create my own little masterpiece. I really love trees, so that’s why I decided to have one right in the middle of it all. It will work as the foundation for the whole board. And ‘gratitude’ is what I would like to live my life based on – so that gets to stand under the tree ; holding it all up.
What do you think? Do you have an inspiration / gratitude board of your own?
photos ; private
