Monday 27 February 2017

Self Love

Sorry for the late post, I had no electricity for 3 days and that messed up my schedule. As promised here are a few exercises you can do to start your journey of Self-Love.

This is from a book by Louise L Hay called “You can heal your life.”

I couldn’t possibly list all the exercises and examples from this book in this post and I don’t want to because it’s not fair to the author.

I highly recommend you purchase it (I got both my copies second-hand for R50 and under). I haven’t read this book from cover to cover. I just refer to the chapters that appeal to my circumstance or situation when needed.

The key to starting the process is to recognize that self-esteem/ self-love/ self-worth is a seed that grows if you water it. If you would like to build on it, remember to love yourself daily. It’s something you can learn to do, no matter what experiences you have had in life. You start by recognizing that you deserve to be loved. You deserve to love yourself.

Sounds like such a simple thing to do, right?

The truth is: one of the things we struggle with the most in life is being true to ourselves. When we look in the mirror we almost always have something negative to say about ourselves. Start saying positive things, even if you force yourself at first, it will soon become a habit. Scolding and being hard on yourself hasn’t worked in the past so let’s see how being positive and good to yourself can change things.

As I said in my previous post this isn’t about vanity or arrogance, it’s about appreciating and being grateful for everything you are and everything you have. You can’t just say these things without truly believing it. If you are saying it but feel some resistance at the back of your mind, you need to tackle that conflict. Whether or not you find its source, tell yourself that you’re willing to release it.

Exercise:

When you feel ready to start on the mental work, the following tips will help you examine and transform your beliefs.

1.       Discover where you have unconsciously picked up your negative and detrimental messages from. For instance, what are the things you parents said were “wrong” with you? What did they say about money? What did they say about your body? What did they say about love and relationships? Look objectively at your list and say to yourself, “So that’s where that belief came from.”

Remember, you cannot make positive changes in your life until you recognize the beliefs you currently hold. Also keep in mind that you cannot blame anyone for your situation. We are 100% responsible for everything in our lives. Nothing has power over you unless you give it that power. What we believe about ourselves and about life becomes true for us.

Forgive people whether or not they deserve to be forgiven. There are some great exercises on how to do this in Louise’s book.

2.       Replace should with could. Every time we use “should”, we are, in effect, saying that we are wrong, or we were wrong. “Could” gives us a choice and we are never wrong. Try this out. Write down five or six sentences beginning with “I should”. Now ask yourself “Why?” for each sentence. Take notice of your response. Now replace “I should” with “If I wanted to, I could” and then ask yourself “Why haven’t you?” Your responses will be different and truer to yourself and you will find that you have dropped things off your original list.

 

3.       For each category listed below, write down your greatest fear. Then place a positive affirmation* that would counteract that fear next to it.

       Career
       Living situation
       Family relations
       Money
       Physical appearance
       Sex
       Health
       Relationships
       Old age
 

4.       Nip the negative thought in the bud.  When a negative thought comes into your mind, give the thought no importance. Just see it for what it is – another way to keep yourself stuck in the past. Fear limits our minds. People have so much fear about so many things. Anger is fear that has become a defence mechanism. It protects us, yet it would be so much more powerful if we and love ourselves through the fear. Every experience, every relationship, is the mirror of a mental pattern that we have inside us.

 

You have the opportunity of choosing love or fear. This is what I do: In moments of fear, I remember God, and His infinite Mercy and Blessings, shining like a light upon me. Clouds of negative thinking may temporarily obscure my thoughts but I choose to remember the light. I see fear and negativity as passing clouds in the sky, and let them go on their way.

The more we’re willing to love and trust who we are, the more we attract those qualities to ourselves. Everything starts to go on a winning streak. We get up in the morning and the day flows beautifully. We need to love ourselves so that we can take care of ourselves. We have to do everything we can to strengthen our hearts, our bodies, and our minds. We must find a good connection and really work on maintaining it.

5.       Keep a journal. This is something I love doing because I express myself through words very well. I’ve had bad experiences in the past where people have read my journals without asking me and that invasion of privacy has stopped me from writing for years. But now and again when I feel overwhelmed, I jot my feelings and thoughts down or type it out on my phone and it immediately helps me feel calm and composed.

 

6.       Practice Meditation. This one isn’t for me. I am too restless and my mind is too active to actually benefit fully from meditating. I do give it a go now and again but I feel I’m not benefiting from it the way others do or the way I’m supposed to. But this helps thousands and thousands of people find inner peace and I recommend you try it.

  

7.       Practice Mirror Work or Tapping. Looking into your eyes and expressing your true feelings is a great way to discover your underlying fears and finally face them with compassion. This is difficult for a lot of people to do. Can you look in the mirror and say “I love you” to your reflection? Do you truly mean it? Some of us can’t even look at ourselves for too long. Practice your affirmations* in the mirror DAILY. Stick post-it notes on your mirror with your affirmations* to remind yourself to repeat them every day.

*Affirmations are sentences aimed to affect the conscious and the subconscious mind.

·         Choose one negative thought you have about yourself and write down the positive opposite that counteracts that belief.

·         Make your affirmations short so they’re easier for you to remember.

·         Start your affirmations with “I” or “My.”

·         Write your affirmations in the present tense. Write as though you’re experiencing what you desire right now, not in the future. Otherwise it will always remain in the future. It’s also better not to put a time frame on your affirmation.

·         Don’t begin with “I want” or “I need”. Rather, write your affirmations as an expression of being grateful for already having and being what you want.

·         Make sure all your affirmations are positive statements. Don’t include words like “don’t,” “won’t,” “am not,” “can’t,” “not,” “doesn’t,” or “am stopping.”

·         Create affirmations that will work. If you don’t believe your statement, you’ll be hesitant and think that you won’t be able to succeed. If you write an affirmation that is truly difficult for you to believe, write another one that starts with, “I am open to . . .” or “I am willing to believe I could . . .”

·         If you find it hard to write your own, there are many, many examples of affirmations online and in Louise’s book that you can use and adapt to your circumstance.


BEGIN NOW – Don’t wait until you get well or lose the weight, or get the new job, or the new relationship. Do the best you can.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email me or comment below.

, Sana xx

Thursday 16 February 2017

Love Yourself

Valentine’s Day was a few days ago and I want to take this opportunity to remind you all to shower love on a very important person… YOURSELF!


You may hear people saying this often but you might not grasp just how important it is. I only truly understood this concept last year after reading a book by Louise L. Hay which I’ll tell you more about in my next post. I’m excited to share what I learnt from this book because for me it was a real eye-opener and life-changer.

So back to loving yourself. The idea is simple but effective, “Love yourself before expecting others to love you.”

Love is never outside ourselves, it’s within us, and loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.

When I talk about loving yourself I don’t mean vanity or arrogance. I’m talking about respecting yourself, caring and nurturing for yourself, being grateful for your mind and body and most of all VALUING yourself.

We should be brimming and bursting with appreciation for everything in us, about us and around us.

People express their lack of self-worth in different ways but it’s always because they feel they are not good enough in some shape or form. This has A LOT of side effects which you may not even be aware of. For e.g.: weight problems, health problems, relationship problems or money problems.

There are many mental exercises you can do that can help you understand where your insecurities or negative beliefs come from and help you to dispel them (I will share some of these with you in the next post).

This is important because loving yourself and harnessing positive thoughts will attract love and positivity into your life. Some of you may think I’m absurd but this has proven to be true for me. There was a situation I was in, where in the past I would have drowned in sorrow and disappointment, but this time I tackled it with the utmost conviction that I deserved things to work out for me and it did! This helped me renew my faith in God too, which is very important to me.

Whatever you think and believe becomes true for you. So if you always think the same negative thoughts, you will see problems repeating in your life, sometimes even the same problems over and over again. The opposite is also true: positive thoughts = positive patterns in life. However, in order to think positively, you need to be positive and you need to be happy with yourself.

When it comes to relationships, how can you expect another human being to love you when you don’t love yourself? If you don’t believe you’re beautiful, why do you expect another person to believe it? If you don’t think you’re special and worthy of love, why would anyone else think you’re special and worthy of love? If all you see are your flaws (I have bad skin, I’m overweight, I’m dark, I’m not smart, etc., so why would anyone love me?), you are probably unwittingly attracting attention to those flaws.

If you have low self-esteem or are consumed with negative thoughts, on some subconscious level you sabotage relationships or situations you are in. Trust me, you won’t realise you are doing it, even if someone points it out. Hopefully as I share some of the exercises with you, you will be able to recognize and tackle these thoughts and beliefs.

I’ll leave you with this thought adapted from Louise’s book:

“Think of yourself as being three years old. If you had a little three year old child in front of you who was scared/insecure what would you do? Would you be angry at him? Or would you reach out your arms and comfort him until he felt safe and at ease?

The adults around you when you were a child may not have known how to comfort you at that time. Now  you are the adult in your life, and if you're not comforting the child within you, then that is very sad indeed.

You have the opportunity to treat yourself the way you wish to be treated. You need comforting, not scolding, in order to express yourself at your highest potential.

Be kind to yourself, begin to love and approve of yourself.”


More on this soon!

, Sana xx

Thursday 9 February 2017

exREDition- Part One: Rimmel Provocalips

Hiii :)

So my year so far has been sooo crazy busy, I’m hardly finding time to do my weekly posts! Today I’m going to give you a quick but long overdue review on Rimmel’s Provocalips. I’m on the hunt for THE perfect red lipstick/lip-gloss/lip colour. I will be doing a few reviews on some of the products I’ve tried and tested so far, so let’s just call this Part One.

Mission:

  A deep red lipstick or gloss that will keep my lips hydrated and

  Retain its colour for a good few hours so I don’t have to keep reapplying…

Clarification:

  Red is hot.

  I’m really bad at reapplying my lip colour- mostly because I can’t do it without a mirror (red requires precise application) and I’m too self-conscious to pull one out in front of people and also because I forget!

  I need the hydration because my lips are extremely, extremely dry which is why I prefer using glosses but they’re not usually long lasting.

Progress:

  I was overjoyed to find PROVOCALIPS 16HR KISSPROOF LIP COLOUR.

  It ticked all the boxes: “Transfer proof, food proof, high impact endless colour. No tight feeling or dry lips. Lips feel smooth and moisturized all day long.”

  Double sided with a colour gloss on one end and a clear topcoat on the other end.

  Purchased “Play with Fire”.

Trial:

  STEP 1: Apply colour and keep lips apart for 60 seconds until the product sets.

  STEP 2: Apply topcoat to lock the colour, moisture and add shine.
 

Verdict:

  The colour glides on amazingly and is truly transfer proof. That’s the only positive :(

  Smells (and tastes) like cheap and synthetic makeup.

  Feels tacky and sticky (not smooth and glossy) before it dries out.

  This lipstick is so drying that it creates cracks and starts peeling if you smile or tighten your lips in any way (like any normal person would). You will have flecks of uncoloured sections on your lips.

  You cannot be reapply at all (crumbles off if too thick or layered).

  Tried several different methods of applying, all with same result.

  Most definitely does not last in perfect condition for more than 2 hours.

  Very difficult to remove (crying face). So you’re sitting there with peeling, cracked, flaky lips and it won’t even come off!! Tried coconut oil, an oil based makeup remover, water, Micellar water, waterproof makeup remover, Vaseline –you name it!

Suffice to say I won’t be repurchasing this product. I’ve read some positive reviews on this so it may work on you depending on your body and chemistry I guess. My suggestion would be to try the sample at the store and then purchase it the next day if you are happy with the results. It’s a bit on the pricier side of affordable (R119.95*)…

They’re available in 4 other colours:

 

 

 
  Kiss me you fool
  Little Minx
  Make your move
  Skinny Dipping

 
 


Please do let me know how it works for you.

The hunt continues.

, Sana xx

*All prices and details are correct at time of publication and are subject to change.

Thursday 2 February 2017

Makeup Hack: Broken Blush/Bronzer/Eyeshadow/Highlighter

Hey guys! I dropped one of my favourite eyeshadows on the floor the other day. If this happened a couple of years ago, I would have just thrown it away (with an aching heart), but thanks to beauty advice on the internet I now know it’s fixable!

There are quite a few methods I found, mostly using rubbing alcohol. Since I wasn’t comfortable with that, I settled for a process using Fixing Spray :)

So here’s the compact after it fell:
 
 




Instructions:
 




I used a teaspoon to crush the eyeshadow into a fine powder. You can crush it in a Ziploc bag if you want to avoid making a mess.
 








 




Using your spoon, press the crushed powder back into the compact. Mine was a bit difficult because the shadow was originally dome-shaped not flat so the shadow kept spilling out.

 
 
 


Pour about 2 teaspoons of Fixing Spray over the shadow (don’t use the pump to spray as the powder will blow all over the place). The Fixing spray makes the shadow a bit gooey and easier to mould.

 





Smoothen the top with a spoon or butter knife. You can also put your hand in the same Ziploc bag and smoothen the shadow with your fingers. Avoid using your fingers directly on the product for hygienic purposes (if you’re the only one who uses your makeup, go ahead and do what you want!)…

 






At this stage you can press a little design onto the shadow (which I did) or leave as is.


 

Let it to dry overnight, the Fixing spray will evaporate and your shadow will be solid and good as new!

If you don’t have Fixing spray, you can use a few drops of water instead, but this may affect the quality of the product.
Investing in a Fixing spray is definitely something I recommend… I’ll do a post on it soon!

Hope this helps you salvage your makeup and saves you a few bucks especially when you break an item that cost you $50!!

Please don’t hesitate to email or comment below if you have any questions.

, Sana xx