Living Simply.

I was always quite a spender. I mean I wouldn't have made it onto Sex and the City or anything but my impulsive nature certainly enjoyed obliging price tags. Also, I'm a pretty soppy person. I'd nearly empathise with nail polish remover or a broken shoe rack. I would find it very difficult to let go of things. To top it off, I'm highly disorganised, so "clutter" has always been as present a word in my life as "family". 

However, in the past while I've become more aware of this alien philosophy called "Living Simply". I really fell in love with the idea of it and my first experiment to test the notion was to, in a completely radical fashion, tidy my room. Yes, I will accept your applause....

 I didn't throw anything away that wasn't complete rubbish but just gave everything a place that wasn't the floor. And you know what? I felt like during my few hours work I had released a tank of oxygen within the four walls rather than shift a few objects. That's how much clearer the space seemed. 

This was me.

Even better than my respiratory advances, my mind felt like it was processing one thought at a time which was sooooooooooo unlike me, I felt more alive, more productive and generally just happier. The conditions of my physical, external environment had proven to really impact the way I thought and felt. As an extra note, I had a feeling of control over my decisions and the way I lived.
Since then, delving further into this "minimalistic" lifestyle I'd uncovered was always on the back of my mind. A gradual descent I'd made was down the hill of materialism. I tend to become overwhelmed quite easily and I don't know if you ever get this but with all the new trends and even just the immense amount of products out there, I felt like there was so much I was missing out on. I would never have everything and there was something hugely disheartening in that. 

"Living Simply does not mean owning nothing, it means nothing owns you!"-A slightly adjusted quote that I definitely read somewhere, I'm sure of it!!

This was what really pushed me to alter my life in relation to "stuff". I wanted to begin to see objects as things, tools to help me go about life and add to it, not sentimental beings that almost controlled me and were in such abundance that they weren't used to their full potential, if at all.

I did a bit of research on this thing called "minimalism" and though as of yet I would by no means call myself a minimalist or probably even comprehend the extreme lengths some people have gone to to reduce  their possessions, however I did go about getting rid of a lot of things I owned which I had previously thought I needed but when looked at straight on were of no use to me. I don't cling onto "just in case" for dear life and a major leap has been made in my lacking interest to replace these items.



So I guess that's been my little journey so far, by removing three quarters of the contents of my room I've ended up with the feeling of having more. How did that happen??? I don't stress about "stuff" at all really anymore and I feel a lot more detached from the things I own. It really dawned on me when I found it hard to let go of these things I hadn't even realised were hidden away in my cupboard for ten years that maybe that's something I need to sort out from the inside, you know? We invest so much meaning and emotion into inanimate objects but it doesn't really make any sense, does it? I guess this whole thing of simplifying is about eliminating the clutter in our lives so we can focus on what's really important to us. You haven't a tonne of distractions to be looking at but you're faced with the truth of your life and how you're living it, what you're getting out of it and what you could be experiencing.

With all that said, I want to know what you guys think! Have you ever considered the prospect of "Living simply" before? What does it mean to you and do you believe in it? If you have reduced your value for material possessions in your life, how do you feel it has impacted on your mind and being?

Love,
Rachel! =)

Celebrities

         Ah Celebrities. I must admit out of all the thoughts I have per day, the things I question and the conclusions I come to, until last night I had never properly pondered on this thing called "celebrity culture".
What happened last night you might ask? Well, I attended my first concert! Yay!!! And it was a Beyonce one which was great! The propaganda ( that's probably not the right word), lets say hype, which greeted us in the form of posters, t-shirts of the "Queen" smoking cigars (GANGSTER) and videos of her modelling for H&M and of her steaming ad for her perfume "Heat" were totally messing with our heads as thousands of us gaped at the stage in anticipation. As it would be my first sighting of a "celebrity" I was legitimately expecting God himself in all his stereotypes to emerge on stage, like literally, our creator. He didn't, I'm sorry to report, but the screams around me indicated otherwise. And it just hit me, why do we worship these fellow human beings? I mean that's what I saw, an extremely talented, beautiful and confident human being. Nothing more than that, and as I zoomed out, starstruck, I realised that it wasn't the person on stage that had paralysed me in admiration, it was the hype. It was the screaming faces and energy, it was the photo shopped pictures and essentially the screen through which I had come to know her over the years. Do you know what all of these things had led me to believe? That she was better than me, that she and all the other people who transition so strangely into the celebrity kingdom were better than all of the people standing alongside me.

                                                                              Why?

      Why would any one person be better than another? What makes someone better than the person next to them? A particular talent? An attitude? Wealth? These reasons are pathetic to me. It is my firm opinion that we are all equal in this world, yes all, and we all deserve rights and to not be treated or made feel like we are inferior to anybody even if they can sing, are pretty or work their ass off to get where they are. I believe that everybody has the right to have their voice heard and I think people as a whole need to have a lot more faith in themselves as more than just someone ordinary, not particularly special. However, what I've come to discover is that we love worshipping. It explains a lot of religions and of course celebrities. We love idolizing and we like to think that there's something or someone bigger than us. Maybe we just love the feeling of awe.
That makes sense, doesn't it? We become desperately excited by being whisked off in wonder from a world we've made dreary. We all want to see something perfect so we don't question when the media shows us something and tells us "this is perfection". We've had our confidence and self esteem knocked down so may times from a much too wide variety of sources that we never think that we could be as beautiful or as talented as those on the red carpet.

   Do I think only people who have something to say should be in the public eye? People like Bono or others who actually want to change the world and use the power of their voice for good? No. Who am I to say what's a correct opinion to put out there, everyone has a right to freedom of speech (or should have anyway). I just personally don't understand how someone could  have a shallow status where they're famous for having a talent (or don't, they're just able to live with a camera on them) and they don't try and change something wrong in the world with their connections. It astounds me.

    However that's just me. What goes beyond me though and becomes a worldwide issue is how these "celebrities'" choices and privileges are causing injustice. Tell me, why do these people earn millions upon millions? Why is it OK for them to wear shoes and coats made of animals, spending several thousand on numerous outfit changes per show? Why do they deserve all the unnecessary luxuries when there are millions of people living in poverty? Why? What makes them so special? Nothing. Nothing makes someone so important that they suddenly develop the rights to do that to animals and other human beings.

   You know me by now though, so you'll understand as I end this on an uplifting note where we try and grasp what must be going though these famous folks' heads.The mind is such a complex matter and who knows how we would act if we were thrown into this insane world. They feel fear, their hearts pounding inside their chests, they feel pressure and they are also swept up in an empty ideal of what fame will bring to their life. Don't always be fooled in thinking that they are happier then you could ever be. Constantly chased and criticised? Expected to look a certain way? Immersed in materialism? I mean think about it, how many celebs commit suicide or at least suffer depression? How many turn to drugs and alcohol, self harm and eating disorders? How many hide it? We need to think of the back story of all these fellow human beings and not forgot that they are just like you no matter what TV tells you. And there is always hope. Hope that more people will join the few well known individuals who donate greatly to charity, stay genuinely humble, make a change to injustice and therefore retain their happiness. For the need in all of us to worship something, (a) there are so many things to become truly fascinated by if we only looked at life differently to the way we've been trained to, we shouldn't worship the hype surrounding something or someone because its false! (b) Though lowering your self esteem seems simple for people and the media to do, I guess all I can say is that we need to find a way to worship ourselves in a sense, not in an egotistical fashion but in a loving and faithful manner. Believing in ourselves, connecting with our gut/soul/ whatever you want to call it and being the best person we can be, knowing that we're not better or worse than anyone else. Strip away our behavior, external circumstances, disabilities etc and we're all equal.
 
                                                               Love,
                                                                 Rachel! =)

Success

A successful man?

In many's eyes, through implications anyway, this a very popular picture of what success is in this world. Having a load of money, from a brilliantly paid job topped with power and even fame is probably the most widespread definition of what the term "success" means. I actually just looked it up in a dictionary and its true. The definition is "the attainment of wealth, positions, honors and the like" and another one is "the accomplishment of one's goals". These are the two types of success I want to speak about and then I want to give my own take on such a weighty, human- made- pressurising word.

Jay Z, an iconic rapper and regarded as an extremely successful businessman. He's married to another powerhouse, Beyonce Knowles, and is a good representation of the hip hop/ gangster/ swag chasing/ rap industry which he's referred to himself as being the king of. There are many others I could mention who frequently bring up in their tracks how successful they are because they have money, fame, power, women to have sex with and various other materialistic, flashy things (apart from the women, but that's how they see them). I think that's sad. I genuinely pity them and their view on success which is so dependent on external circumstances. The success itself is very outward based, proving to the world that you are successful instead of being so within. Drake (he's YOLO guy) released a song in 2006 entitled "Success" where the chorus is  "Yeah I want the money/Money and the cars/Cars and the clothes/The hoes/I suppose I just wanna be/I just wanna be successful" To summarise these desires as success is, underneath it all, what a lot of people would count as a fitting one. That to me is where the problem lies.

Moving away from that theory for a second, I want to move onto another one. Ladies and Gentlemen, have you ever heard of Eric Thomas? Hands down one of the best motivational speakers I've ever heard and truly is an inspiration. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/etthehiphoppreacher

This is a link to his YouTube channel and I highly recommend checking it out, you won't be disappointed. However I would like to focus on his mantra which is 

"When you wanna succeed as much as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful"

This is possibly a more extreme version of another hugely accepted formula for success. This theory contains the belief that with hard work and huge amounts of will power you can achieve anything you want to achieve. Eric Thomas uses the phrase constantly and basically says that you can't allow yourself to be distracted with other things apart from working towards what you want to be successful at. You need to want it desperately and sacrifice things for it, a huge example he gives is sleep. He even quotes 50 cent who said "Sleep is for broke people". So to get to the point, this theory of success is very broad, you are left to decide what you want to be successful at whether its academia, getting a promotion at work, losing weight whatever it is this formula will apply if a good work ethic is required. And I agree, we are lazy creatures most of us and motivation is a requirement to get things done however I raise an eyebrow at the extremity of losing sleep and not taking proper care of yourself just for success in these terms. I laugh every time I think of 50 cent's quote because to me sleep is not for broke but for healthy, happy people. If that means poor, then lets live in poverty. This definition for success troubles me in another way too. Once we accomplish a goal, we move onto the next one and the next one and so on. We aren't satisfied and don't deem ourselves successful because we could always be more successful, there will always be someone who is, always a higher position to fill. You're climbing an infinite ladder and if you can't feel it, then is it success?

In my opinion, neither of these mean success. I believe success is happiness. Success is waking up in the morning (after a good night's sleep) and having something to look forward to in the day ahead, to wake up with a smile, to wake up possibly with problems to deal with but no worries because they haven't affected you. Success is holding your patience intact and being able to love even those who act in a way that makes it impossible. Success is loving yourself, looking in the mirror and not cringing or frowning, loving the unhealthy parts of you so that you'll want to make them healthy, falling in love with the weird things you say and the awkward things you do. Success is confidence, when what you laugh at most are the looks of contempt on people's faces as you speak the truth, as you be who you are because they won't. Success is seeing the full pigment in the colours of every thing in the world, to never grow too old and wise to have breath taking moments on this ancient earth, to soak up learning like a sponge and to truly listen to people. Not to pick up when it might be a good time to start speaking yourself, but to actually absorb the words into you. Success is pushing past the gates of lies and being 100% honest with yourself and with everybody, to walk through life with your palms open and allowing yourself to be vulnerable and reveal the amazing thoughts within you. Success is having a calm soul, focused on the present moment and not possessing any bitterness or hate for another individual. Success is knowing with all the certainty you need that no matter what the world throws at you, there is something in you that can overcome any obstacle. Success is when you are grateful, when you have complete awareness of the treasures that exist in your life, that you are breathing being one of them. 

This is success to me. If you've succeeded in being happy internally and connecting with who you are then you are a success and you can never fail. Only with this foundation can you go on and achieve all of the dreams you may have and be able to put the work in to getting them. 

Love,

Rachel! =)