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The Beauty-Fuller Life Challenge: Days 14 & 15 (whoops!)
Hey there! It seems like I’m making a habit out of being late for the posting of my progress. I’m sorry! But here it is:
November 21st
♡ Made 3 bracelets. They’re cute and simple, and I enjoy making them, and I hope each bracelet that I make for the event sells! (They’re for raising funds) 🙂
♡ Practiced mechanography.
♡ Chatted with a friend about making positive changes, going steadily toward our goals, and speaking positively about our lives and being grateful, etc. It’s like keeping the positive energy ball rolling. Hi Christian! I hope you’re writing down everything that makes you happy in the day :).
♡ Went through old writings, and made up my mind about getting into that story that I have been thinking of since high school. Felt great to spend some quality time just thinking about the characters, the setting, the plot, and writing it down.
November 22nd
♡ Started the day being nice to myself, even after I hit the snooze button a gazillion times. I still got the things on my to-do list done! 🙂
♡ Took my morning shower listening to Gala Darling’s Love & Sequins # 9: Manifesting & Magic-Making; started listening right when she recites a whole list of affirmations. Purrfect way to start the day.
♡ Did grocery shopping.
♡ Finally took all the plastic gallon jugs I had been storing under my sink, to the recycle bin at the supermarket.
♡ Practiced more mechanography. I’m doing asdfghjklñ exercises. IIIIIT’S FUUUUUUUUUUN!
♡ Glee night with my cousin and one of her best friends. It was fun because she comments on the episode and I like doing that, too. My cousin does it, but her friend does it more. Then we stayed to chat afterwards, and I felt really at ease.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you had, have, and keep having a marvelous day!
Hugs and kisses (the hershey’s kind),
Alejandra
The Beauty-fuller Life Challenge: Day 13
♡ Listened to french audio exercises while driving.
♡ Bought supplies for the Ph Awareness bracelets, and got started making a purple one.
♡ I liked my outfit today. Skinny jeans, a black fitted top, a grey vest-like thingy that is knitted and has a hoodie. I didn’t take a picture but I felt really confident and comfortable in it. There are days in which I take forever to get dressed because I just can’t make an outfit that reflects the person I am inside. But this one did!
♡ Did mechanography exercises for 40 minutes.
♡ Did breathing exercises while driving, and I felt just a small, but significant taste of the amazing calm that meditation brings.
♡ Finished reading ‘The Time Keeper’. A valuable lesson about treasuring what we have now.
♡ Played chords in the guitar to get my fingers re-accostumed to it, build strength, and calluses, but unfortunately I must have pressed the strings too hard because I got tiny blisters on my index and ring fingers =(. Hope they’re better tomorrow.
♡ Saw ‘The Sweetest Thing’ on Netflix. That movie is one of my favorite movies ever. It is so beyond ridiculous it just makes me happy.
Have a nice day!
Alejandra
The Beauty-fuller Life Challenge: Days 12 & 13
November 18th
♡ National day off (actually, the 20th, but they move it to the closest Monday) so no work. My family spent great part of the afternoon celebrating my brother’s birthday. We feasted on pizza, then hit the department store for my parents to redeem their presents to my brother, then came home to eat slices of cheese pie. The learning/growth experience came when I realized early on after leaving the house at 1pm, that I had forgotten my cellphone at the house. Until we came back at 5:45pm, I was disconnected from whatsapp, tumblr, candy crush, and in general, the internet. I noted I had several urges throughout the afternoon to whip out my cellphone to do whatever with it, but since I didn’t have it, I was able to be truly present with my family. For example, my dad and I joked and had conversations while my brother tried on things, instead of just being there and getting distracted with pocket-size technology. It was nice to find out I don’t disintegrate if I don’t have my smarthphone at hand.
♡ Wrote down the text and chose the image for this year’s poster of the Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness Walk in my city. My brother will make the poster and we’ll share it on facebook to invite our friends and family to the event. It’s in two weeks, and there’s some preparation to do and little gifts to make. Last year I made keychains:
and some cupcakes, and my mom had bookmarks printed. This year I’m thinking maybe cut-out cookies in the shape of an awareness ribbon (but I don’t have a cookie cutter, so I’d cut them with a knife), or cupcakes again, and awareness bracelets, in addition to the few goods that were left over from last year’s Walk.
♡ Tuned my guitar and remembered the basic chords I know. The tips of my fingers are sore right now, which is okay, because calluses will be formed by this weekend if I keep this up.
♡ A sexy dinosaur wrote about her own realization of human’s potential, and how many of us let it go unused, wasted. She made radical decisions and is embarking on her own badass journey to unleash her grandiosity. Her words inspired me and reminded me why I decided to take this challenge. As she said, this generation feels a great need to get validated all the time, and it’s just never enough. We exist and we are capable of accomplishing great things, if only we decide to take the steps; what more validation do we need? Becoming better for the sake of making our lives count is enough, and even then we still get to inspire those around us to do the same.
♡ Started going through my clothes to decide what stays and what goes this year. I not only took out a few garments las night, but I also remembered some others that look very good, so I’ll try to find occasions to wear them.
November 19th
♡ Took photos of my surroundings. I especially loved getting to capture a couple of birds sitting just outside our house, on a rail. I’ll share the pictures with you soon.
♡ I used the Procrastination Pad technique, which I read about here. It is a most excellent tool. I wrote down several things to do later in the day, when I wasn’t working, which allowed me to continue my work without getting distracted.
♡ Played the guitar again, until it felt like my fingertips were about to start bleeding.
♡ I’m noticing I smile more when transitioning from one scene of my life to the other. For example, the other day I caught myself grinning with my whole face, feeling goofy, while I climbed in the car, just for no reason. Isn’t that great? I think so! Very much. This being is evolving, and growing, and becoming happier every day, and my heart is filling out with love.
♡ Went to a bead store to investigate about materials for the PH Awareness bracelets I wanna make. Today’s store is a small one, and didn’t carry awareness ribbon charms. But there’s a bigger store who was having a sale yesterday, which I’m hoping will still be on tomorrow, so I can stock up on charms and cord, and get workin’ on those babies, like a spider on speed.
Alright friends, thank you for reading. I hope your day unfolds magically, and that you’re filled with the audacity to follow the voice of your higher self.
Hugs,
Alejandra
PS: You go, Chloe Temtchine!
Weekly Shots
In which I share random photos I snapped during the week.
A ladybug that strolled up and down my hand, after we left my granpa’s house and gave little kisses to my nails
A moth-like creature lounging on the surface of my window
Thermal pants make top-notch pajamas on cold nights. Extra points if you compliment with fly slippers
French toast that looks worse than it tastes. I mean. French toast that tastes way more delicious than it looks. Just like the rest of my cooking.
Shaped Babybel cheese’s wax into an anatomical heart because the common known heartshape is too mainstream
Randomness over,
until next week!
Alejandra
The Beauty-Fuller Life Challenge: Day 11
Sundaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
Sundae! 😀
Hello, my darlings! Let’s get right to it:
♡ Allowed myself to wake up a little later because I was exhausted.
♡ Got up, and chose to throw in some productivity into this Sunday, and put a load in the washing machine. Yay!
♡ Made and ate a breakfast of tomato omelette, and ‘sponge cake’ with almond milk.
♡ Took a shower, took my time, and got dressed to go visit my granfather with my dad.
♡ We visited my grandpa, who’s 87 years old, and gave him a letter I’d been keeping for an uncle for a while now. We stayed to chat for a bit and he was really happy that we came to visit him. I was glad to see him, too.
♡ After eating lunch, Ratatouille was on TV so I started watching it. My eyelids were super heavy, though, so I took a nap.
♡ Woke up and got working on my brother’s birthday cheese pie, and some banana cupcakes I’d been meaning to bake. I already tried the cupcakes, they’re good!
♡ Last night (it was late so it counts as today) I watched Breakfast At Tiffany’s for the first time. It’s bizarre and funny, I loved the asthetics, and I thought Holy Golightly was fabulous and endearing.
I’m well on my way moving forward in this challenge. There are things that bother me on an almost daily basis, which can serve to motivate me if I know how to use them in my favor. I’m talking about seeing other people, role models in a way, that have such seemingly beautiful and interesting lives, and it just bugs me that I keep searching for something that I can’t quite reach. Then I remember that any happiness that any living being can find, is always inside of them. Striving is good to a certain extent, but it does have to be done in moderation. If you go too far, you suddenly find yourself never being satisfied with what you accomplish. This is why it is of utmost importance to learn to accept our present, and be happy wherever and in whichever circumstances we are. That is the key to being happy.
Anyway. Gonna keep up the motion of picking up activities that will make life more beautiful, while at the same time remembering to be grateful for all the blessings that the universe showers me with. Because when I stop and think about it, I am very fortunate, and I am thankful for that.
Thank you for reading! I hope you had a lovely Sunday, with family, friends, pets, or with yourself. I hope you enjoy yourself wherever you are, and know to appreciate the little details.
Happy Monday!
Hugs,
Alejandra
The Beauty-Fuller Life Challenge: Day 10
It appears that this challenge is getting momentum, guys! Just like a big ship — like a spaceship defying gravity! So much is being gotten done (whew, that was a mouthful), and fresh energy is flowing in and out of me in a cycle of sweetness and amazingness.
I still get down sometimes, and not in the catchy, backstreet boys kind of way
but in the sad, mopey, planking on the floor refusing everything, kind of way. What I have noticed, however, and it is very important, is that after an emotional crisis, I recover around 3x as fast as before. It’s kind of a buildup that’s been going on for a very long time now, and not necessarily a product of 10 days of slight changes. The challenge does help, though, of that I’m certain.
Anywho! Now that I’ve shared that piece of progress with you, on with today’s hoorays!
☀ Tried Quinoa with chicken and vegetables. It was really good.
☀ English class went well, even if most students were lazy and absent, the one kid that did show up worked like a champion.
☀ My hair looked great. I only mention it because it doesn’t always settle when I let it down after I shower, but it just turned into cute waves/loose ringlets with the heat (it was around 28ºC) and I was delighted :3.
☀ Spent over an hour cleaning and rearranging my bathroom countertop (the cleaning of my spaces will have its own post with before & after photos), and it was very, very fulfilling.
☀ Listened to The Pretty Reckless. That Taylor has a voice like molasses: dark, thick and sweet. You might question the ‘sweet’, but her songs have that metal, hard rock melody that makes my hair dizzy with “Yeahh!!”
☀ Just ordered sushi. Enough said.
☀ Procrastination-caused, long-overdue-to-do-list-items being crossed off, like fruit slayed by a ninja sword on Fruit Ninja.
Have a revitalizing Sunday; nourish yourself with whatever it is that you need to finish this week right, and start next week on a delicious note.
🙂 Hugs & high fives,
Alejandra
Movie trailer: Violet & Daisy
When I looked up a trailer for ‘Populaire’, another trailer caught my attention: Violet & Daisy.
Ok, first of all, Alexis Bledel sporting those killa bangs and holding a gun. So, a dark movie. With a sweet name. So I clicked through and watched it, and oh golly!
Apparently, Violet and Daisy are two young gals who kill people as a job. One day, they are assigned a gig, and they realize they can’t kill the person because they want to understand the reason why he has to die first. Then, Sia’s ‘Day Too Soon’ comes on, and I’m sold, since that song is so profoundly my jam, it’s marmalade.
Have you seen this movie? What did you think?
If you haven’t, are you gonna watch it?
The Beauty-Fuller Life Challenge: Day 9
♡ Friday morning started off earlier than is the norm for this sleeping beauty. That’s right. I set my alarm clock one hour and a half earlier, and got up without hitting the snooze button. *brushes shoulders off*
♡ The motivation behind this was taking a course on First Aid at Civil Protection headquarters. My cousin Carolina told me on Tuesday that she was going to take it, and I expressed my enthusiastic interest in learning about that kind of thing, so she said ‘why don’t you come along? I’ll pick you up on friday!’. I was looking forward to this course since Tuesday, so my excitement was well built up when the class started. We learned emergency levels, relearned the Red Cross’s emergency digits, we learned types of hemorrhages, to assess the situation and know when it’s safe and when it’s not safe to provide help, what to say in an emergency call, why medication is not supposed to be in a first aid kit, etc. It was all very basic stuff, but still useful and nice to know it. The next level, where we learn CPR, is on Nov. 29, and my cousin and I are gonna take it! That one is supposed to be a hands-on type of course, so I’m pumped. It makes me feel really good to know important information like First Aid, and how to act in emergencies, because it gives me the confidence of knowing I’d be able to help in case of an emergency. Information is power! But most of all, having a new tool to help people. Yes :).
♡ Today was also Glee night with the same cousin. We ate grated carrots with lemon and chili powder as a snack, and then crackers with cream cheese (we love our cream cheese). Unique (from Glee) is an awesome character and I’m glad that she’s a transgendered teenager facing transgendered teenager issues on a show watched by millions.
♡ Had a heartfelt talk with my dad about my job situation right now (I was feeling somewhat upset about it), and it was nice having him listen to me and then share his own experiences. Bottomline, we need to keep giving and working toward our goals, send out the right vibes, and they will come back around and the pieces will fall into place at the right moment. Everything flows the way it is supposed to. I mean, the Universe has been here for a while, so I’d bet it really does know what it’s doing.
♡ Discovered a couple of websites where you can learn and practice typing with all your fingers by doing some special exercises. For those of you who don’t know, I type like a T-Rex secretary. I’m looking to become more like an octopus secretary, if you know what I mean. The french movie Populaire inspired me, also! I might even do the nails…
The real deal is one color per nail, so it matches the areas on the keyboard each finger is supposed to tap, but this is the only still from the movie I could find! 🙂
Have a lovely Saturday! Make it lovely, dear…
Hugs & butterfly kisses,
Alejandra
Beauty-Fuller Life Challenge: Day 8
My decisions to make November 14th a good day, in which I felt good about myself and my life were:
♡ Got up from bed 15 minutes before the hour I set on my alarm clock.
♡ Ate a hearty breakfast consisting of: an apple, french toast, scrambled eggs with tomato and onion, refried beans, tortillas, and a glass of almond milk. HOW’S THAT FOR HEARTY? It’s even more awesome when comparing it to the meager breakfast have sometimes: a bowl of oatmeal. Yeah!
♡ Went to my morning office job, in which I help my mom with things of low difficulty. This time, however, I volunteered to help her with something else, since she is usually very, very busy. The person who does the grocery shopping for my grandma didn’t do it this week for some reason, and they were unreachable, so my mom was all worried and stressed out about having to do it herself (it’s obviously time consuming, especially because there’s a LOT to buy). So I told her ‘Momma, I’ll do it, give me the list’. And it was evident how the weight floated away from her shoulders. She was happy and was able to go on with her already tight schedule, and I was happy to help.
♡ After eating lunch, I have time to kill before I have to leave for my afternoon job. So I have the habit of browsing the internet or watching TV. This time I decided not to do any of those things, but instead came up with the notion of using my hours before my afternoon job for profuctive things, learning/studying (languages, science topics, useful facts, etc.), learning an instrument (there are 3 at my disposition), planning, cleaning/rearranging, and just anything and everything that is useful and helps me grow and be better. Hours after work would be left for mindless entertainment, if I’m so inclined. Doing things this way leaves me the choice of what activity to do when, depending on what I’m feeling like, which is more flexible to start with than a rigid schedule (ex. exercise at 7am, meditate at 8am, study languages at 2pm, play guitar at 4pm, etc.). Also knowing that come 7:30pm I can do whatever I want, is similar to the ‘free day’ that people get when they’re on a diet; they follow their diet strictly during the week, and are allowed to eat whatever they want on Sunday. It turns out that after a while, they don’t really even want to binge on junk food on ‘free day’, because they have found an appetite for healthier foods. If I apply this technique correctly, then I will see a change in my interests eventually, and I’ll be closer to my goal life.
♡ English class with my mother’s best friend went smoothly, and felt fruitful, apparently because we’re both trying to be better; her as a student, and me as a teacher.
♡ I noticed that people around me laughed more with each other (including me), which is proof of the change of emotional vibrations I’m producing and sending out. Turns out that enlisting everything you love and everything that makes you happy each day, has a radically positive effect on your entire world. Completely recommended, 10/10 :).
So this was Day 8 of the Beauty-Fuller Life Challenge! Tune in for Day 9! 😉
Love & hugs,
Alejandra
The Beauty-Fuller Life Challenge: Day 7
Today’s progress in a nutshell:
♡ Got up 20 minutes earlier than usual
♡ I’m eating more, so my appetite’s getting bigger, so I keep eating heartily
♡ Had a lovely english lesson with my mother’s best friend. We communicated very well, had a few laughs during class and thus I felt like the knowledge got absorbed better by her. This makes me feel happy and accomplished because after all, my goal being an english teacher is that my students actually learn.
♡ I’ve expressed my intention to become vegetarian to my mother, and she resisted at first, but then accepted it. I’m converting gradually by ceasing my red meat and pork consumption. There was red meat for lunch today, but my mother surprised me by offering to prepare some tuna with cream cheese for me. This was so sweet to hear, and it made me so happy I thanked her with a hug.
♡ Got over myself and my laziness/sleepiness at work and was productive.
♡ Had a nice chat with my dad during the drive to and from work in the afternoon. He mentioned a friend who has a friend in the U.K. and who is being offered a job opportunity there at a farm or vineyard or something. When I hear about the successes and opportunities other people get, it’s sometimes hard to feel compersion, but I did my best to express joy for her. And it is nice, that people get opportunities. There’s plenty of amazing things for everyone. How wonderful :).
♡ Dusted my guitar learning books. I even opened one!! *high fives self*
♡ The weather is oh. OH. SO GOOD. 15ºC ♡
♡ Poked my mind into crumbling the writer’s block that has kept my words prisoner for years, like an Ice age of sorts.
This was my day :). Oh, and I’m planning on going to sleep no later than 00:30.
Have a great one! xo
Alejandra
A Lotus Grows in the Mud 