Small Habits to Help You Feel Positive and Happier

A lot of the time we as human beings become easily stressed, tired, angry and anxious because we forget to think about the positive aspects of every day life. Even though fully scheduled days from Monday to Friday does become something seen as 'work' but it doesn't mean that we can't enjoy our days as they go by.

 

In fact, it has been occurring to me that being happy is crucial in maximising productivity and energy whilst working and at school.

 

I have been thinking about how I can begin to feel less stressed with having higher amounts of studying, later nights and earlier mornings than during the summer holidays (where I would do pretty much anything I wished, whenever I liked) when it seemed apparent that stress and happiness are very closely linked.

 

So here are some habits that I have tried incorporating and maximising to keep try and keep myself fuelled with more positive and happier vibes.

 

In The Morning:

 

- Stretch out your body whilst still in bed and as you get ready to feel more energy.

 

- Take deep breaths and wear a smile (before your clothes or your makeup!)

 

- Note down gratitude upon awakening to notice what has made you feel good, happy and grateful recently and the great  things about your life overall.

 

- Make yourself an exciting, yet healthy breakfast to fuel your body and mind for the rest of the day as well as to have something to look forward to.
 

- Keep away from your phone, especially from social media because you should be feeling good about yourself and enjoying your life instead of scrolling down photos of people enjoying their own.

 

During The Day:

 

- Use every moment alone to concentrate on how good you are feeling and use that as confidence around others.

 

- Take deep breaths ( a little like mini mediation sessions to keep feeling positive!)

 

- Surround yourself with positive people and question other people's negativity to help block out negative thoughts.

 

- Smile! At least you would be the one who smiled rather than the one who didn't smile back.

 

During The Evening:

 

- Listen to uplifting songs

 

- Work out....really just do it! This is the key part of feeling greater amounts of energy during the rest of the evening, to increasing serotonin levels, happiness and feel good vibes that your body needs! (Come on who doesn't love a little dancing?)

 

At Night:

 

- Drink green tea/ peppermint tea and think positive thoughts to help you wake up even more positive the next day.

-Accept that everyday might not go as planned and that it is fine to make mistakes as there is an opportunity to make improvements tomorrow.

 

I hope all of you invest in some of these habits to start feeling your best and hopefully you will stick to these things in the long run.

 

What makes you feel good everyday? Do you have any special habits that keep you on track and on top of the stress? I would love to know!

 

Priyanka xx

Change Your Shampoo and Conditioner to Help Your Dry Hair

 "Surely a simple change in the shampoo and conditioner game can't really fix my dry, frizzy hair can it?"

 

"Well, I guess not, so I'm never going to try it out"

 

This was exactly my mental thought process whilst I was walking past Holland and Barrett and I'm so glad that I finally made up my mind and actually walked into the store.

 

There are different hair products to suit different needs but the thing you need to look out for when choosing a shampoo is if it is SULPHATE FREE by checking the ingredients. This is because the sulphate in the products over time weakens the hair strands which means that your hair is more prone to breakage.... which in my opinion means more frizz.

 

However, switching to a sulphate free shampoo helps the hair retain moisture, natural oils and also helps hair colour last from longer.

 

What's My Experience?

 

After I used the Dr Organic Vitamin E Shampoo and Conditioner which were £5.49 each (which is very reasonably priced) I have found that my hair has improved in how healthy it looks and generally has become less dry.

 

The conditioner is amazing! You can trust that it 'penetrates your hair' and really injects moisture into the hair strands rather than other shampoos that I have used which makes my hair feel shiny on the surface but when I rinse my hair, its all just a disguise.

 

My tip would be to let the conditioner sink into your hair for a good 3-4 minutes whilst you're in the shower and then not to completely rinse the product out. The most concentrated should be towards the tips of the hair rather than the scalp to prevent a build up of product at your scalp.

 

Do you have any products which you have used that have helped nourished your hair?

 

Priyanka xx

Things to do on Long Car Journeys Without Internet

Long car journeys can be a real bore to get through but from my experience getting into the car prepared can minimise the effect of, well, the boredom!

Here are some things that keep me entertained and might help you:

- Play Cards : Go fish, snap, cheat - you can always play a couple rounds before everyone gets tired or the driver starts complaining everyone's being way too loud.

- Write a To Do List : Car journeys are a great time to gather all your floating thoughts and put them in one place. Writing or typing up a to do list on your phone for later is great because you don't have to come up with all the things at once and you can note them down as they come naturally to you.

- Listen/Watch Pre Downloaded Music and Films: Yep, I forgot to download my music and didn't get any movies on my iPad for my time in Switzerland (which is terrible). If I had thought a little more ahead I could have caught up on a good few movies...I'll be sure to keep a mental note for next time. 

- Write a Gratitude List: Writing down everything you are grateful for is not always something we have time for but it is something worth doing. Your list doesn't have to be a piece of art but scribbling down your simple things such as your  enjoyments, family, friends and health means that you don't let the beautiful things in life float away as they come. 

- Sleep: Hours can pass if you catch a little snooze and you can trust me on that one. When I'm on a family holiday and we are all shoved out of the house at 4 am I know that the only thing there is to do is sleep! 

What things have you found is fun to do on long journeys? I know that I'm a little to old for 'I spy'...

Priyanka xx

Photo Diary : Two Days in Central London

 

Breakfast at Pret A Manger with my cousin after failing to show her our great British Costa Coffee. We shared a little bit of savoury and sweet together before heading to Green Park to show her Buckingham Palace.

I'm much more scared of large moving animals than most people; I might smile but it's only a disguise to cover up my true feelings....

The very busy, very crowded London Eye.

I've said it before - I really don't mind getting lost in the middle of London alone, it would be an adventure, right?

The strange thing is that I have never been to Covent Gardens before. I've been meaning to visit for a long time so when I finally had a chance I dived right for it. The area is much different to places such as Oxford Street or Trafalgar Square even though they are not far apart. We ate brunch in a cute little café outdoors called Le Pain Quotidien which had lovely coffee and a healthy menu - I loved very much! It was hard to keep away from the deserts but I managed (with some difficulty).

Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square.

By this time of the day we were all very tired from walking around in between thousands of tourists and my cousin was still jet lagged from her 25 hour flight from Sydney, so we decided it was almost time to head home.

I learnt many things from our day out, one of which is that to really explore London, or any other city, you need to look around properly to find gems of  places which tourists will visit. These are usually are much more beautiful than the mainstream London streets. Small and quieter cafes might surprisingly have better food and a different (but lovely) feel to them than the usual Starbucks would have.

 

I love discovering new things!

 

Which places in London or your city do you love? Did you find them out of trial and error?

 

Priyanka xx

Why It's Important to Spend Quality Time With Yourself

Over these past few weeks my life has been incredibly exciting, action packed and exhausting but I'm not complaining one single bit! I love physically going out, visiting my friends and well doing things instead  of sitting at home staring at my phone just to kill time.

Every day matters. We are all given the power to change someone's life and every time we wake up we can make a difference to our own lives if we choose to do so.

Personally, I always feel that I have to constantly be doing something or I begin feel guilty about not doing something practical with my life (this process is not sudden but seems to progress during an aimless day) - does any one else feel like this?

One thing that I have discovered is of course I can change my life and channel all my energy towards my grand goals, so that I live with the minimal amount of regrets, but I can't and should not sacrifice my happiness in doing so.

All that this really means sometimes I just need to CHILL and let loose.

So what I did was sit out in my garden, give my self a mini pedicure, paint my nails (which chipped within a day), read my magazine, feel my legs going red and then realise that sunscreen would be a good item to grab from upstairs - oh, sometimes I'm a total genius -but I really did enjoy my self doing it.

Why Is It Important to Enjoy Spending Time With Yourself?

You can do what you want to do!
You don't have to invite a friend around all the time since being by yourself  means that you don't have to ask someone what they would like to eat or drink nor do you don't have to share an earphone when watching a film. Selfish? No, its just good to do things by your self sometimes.

You learn more about yourself
Well, you heard my little life story above so you can see that it is true. Being alone means that you can think about your beliefs, your values and assess your life - although overthinking things is never good for anyone.

You feel more grateful when doing fun things alone
I feel this one is very true for me! If I watch a hilarious film by myself I'm more likely to laugh much, much more that if someone was there listening to my ridiculous laugh. Also, if I buy and eat something really tasty by myself I'm more likely taste the food better, eat slower to savour the food and enjoy it much more than if I kept saying, 'this is so tasty!' to express it to others.

You don't have to be exhausted by the end of the day
You can sit in bed or outside and simply fall asleep instead of going out and staying there for a good 6 hours.

You feel more energized when you get back to a normal working day
At the end of the day when you have committed time to yourself, you are the person which should have benefitted and enjoyed yourself the most, right?  By allowing your self pleasures, I believe that you will feel rewarded for your hard work and therefore become more motivated to do other things.

These are the things that I feel in my life and I am certain that not everyone feels guilty for sleeping most of the day then watching  hours of TV, followed by hours of scrolling on their phones and then repeat the same process until the end of summer, but I would feel guilty.

I really hope that you find things that are common to your own life here, do you spend enough time with your self? How do you like to relax?

Priyanka xx

Easy and Natural Contouring

 

I have introduced my makeup (and myself) to a little more contouring. I know. It is really down to the basics here.

 

To honest, applying layers of foundation then concealer then bronzer then blush then highlighter is not the most ideal habit to go about every single morning at 7 am for me. However, since the summer has arrived and I have been ditching my foundation on daily runs,I have decided that a little dimension to my face is definitely required.

 

I sometimes can watch hours and hours of YouTube videos and still not really know how to contour properly simply because I haven't tried. Well, that definitely was the scenario when I surprised my mum by cooking stir fry noodles for her birthday....only that the noodles ended up over cooked and way to sticky for a stir fry and the whole thing didn't taste like...noodles. It's because I have seen her cook millions of times and always thought it was easy. Apparently not.

 

Concealer: I first cover up any dark spots with Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer. On my face, these are mostly all on my forehead and a few on my chin which means that these are the slightly lighter areas of my face, useful for contouring at the same time (how cheeky).

 

I then conceal my under eye area with Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer. I have figured that a highlighting concealer is better to use under the eyes because it is more natural and does not become cakey as it doesn't have such a thick consistency. I have been trying to apply this under my eyes by dotting the product in a wide triangular shape, this way I can highlight above my cheek bones at once.

 

Bronzer: I have always been a fan of Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder (as well known as the 'chocolate bronzer') forever. The product has lasted me for such a long time which is great! This applies very naturally on my skin and I can build it up depending on how strong I would like the shadows under my cheekbones to be. I also apply a little near my hair lines and blend it down to my neck.

 

Blush: I have very much come to a conclusion. I need blush and mascara to then actually look alive. No, it really isn't the same without them! I apply blush with a 'fish face' first then add a little more to the apples of my cheeks as I smile.

 

At least this will be a handy lesson learnt for the future.

 

Is there any little tricks that you have learnt along the way? If so, I would love to know!

 

Priyanka xx