self-expression Archives

How to create more headspace in your everyday life with these 4 simple writing exercises

20th May 202020th May 2020

Forget trying to become a writer and just write because it’s one of the best ways to declutter your mind.

Writing on paper (rather than on a computer or tab) forces your brain to really slow down and think – that’s why I prefer printable templates that I can write on myself.

Of course, you can write in any way that is convenient for you – but you should be writing!

This is one of the easiest forms of self-expression that will allow you to gain perspective on your thoughts and feelings.

Especially, when you process things deeply and tend to mull over stuff for a long time, doing these types of simple writing exercises regularly can drastically improve your quality of life.

Stories & Writing

I cut my hair way too short today – but I don’t hate it!

8th April 202020th May 2020

I started cutting my hair at home when I was living in Pakistan. Every time I tried to go and get my hair cut there, and asked for layers, the person cutting my hair would declare that my nordic fair, fine hair was too thin for anything like that.

I’d had layers before, so it sounded odd. But when they insisted on cutting hair with tailor’s scissors, it makes more sense.

So, I started cutting it at home, in a shitty bathroom with a triangle mirror that was barely the size of my face.

And I’ve continued ever since with acceptable results. The few times I’ve gone to a hairdresser, they always end up doing things I don’t like or washing my hair with products that dry my hair and scalp out.

Plus it feels like a massive bother to make an appointment and take the time out of my day to go.

It’s just easier to do it at home. The only risk is, that sometimes it gets out of hand.

Art & Creativity

Should you give up on having creative hobbies if you aren’t the creative type?

18th December 201911th February 2020

So, you can’t draw. Or knit. Or go near superglue without gluing at least two fingers together. You can’t decorate a cake to save your life and your violin playing makes the alleycats yowl.

So what? Does that mean that you should give up on having creative hobbies? Of course not!

Creativity is a fundamental part of who you are as a human being – and it doesn’t matter what the end result looks like. That’s something that you tweak with practice.

Without creativity we wouldn’t have started using fire, crafting tools or creating cave art – let alone developed culture and modern society.

Even the greatest masters started somewhere and the first time might have looked or tasted or sounded awful but it felt right.

Have you given up on your own creativity?

Hello, Sunshine 🌻

I was surprised by how profoundly becoming a mother changed me. It’s affected how I see the world around me, how I see myself and – most surprisingly – how I talk to myself.

Before it was just me. But now, suddenly, I’m part of a continuum – and what I do here echoes in eternity.

Things that I was willing to suffer before have become unacceptable because I don’t want to teach my kid how to feel helpless and worthless.

I want to teach her that she is capable and resilient. That she alone can transform her pain into her power.

I want her to know her own worth from the get-go and how to follow her own passion in life.

But in order for her to be compassionate, curious and strong, I need to cultivate those things in myself first.

More than anything, being a mother is a journey into myself where I’ve learned how to sit with uncomfortable feelings and understood that discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life.

I’ve learned that courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is fear walking.

Becoming a mother meant stepping into a power that I didn’t know I had.

Becoming a mother meant quitting a job and starting my own business as an independent creator.

Becoming a mother meant taking a leap of faith and chasing after my own dreams, terrifying as it is at times.

So, here I am, workin’ my ass off to make people happy in a small way by giving them an oasis of joy in their everyday life.