Thoughts from the hippie

This week off uni couldn’t of come any sooner! It was getting to that point in the semester where it was oh so tempting to just skip my lectures and just start to get slack with pretty much everything. So I’m using this week to regain my motivation and focus with pretty much everything. I want to make sure this week I’m not wasting my time, that I’m not just watching TV or spending a couple of hours on the computer not even doing anything important, just wasting time. Today my goals are to finish my notes from the past week for two of my subjects, do Spanish practice before my lesson today, fit in some guitar and if I have time before I go to work to put my congo drums on sale on gumtree.com. Tomorrow I want to practice Spanish, guitar, get a lot of my major assignment done/started from one of my subjects and go to the markets to pick up my veges rather than going to coles.

This week I also want to start making a couple of small positive changes, like buying my veges from the markets and whenever I need to go into the city or to the middle of west end during the day, to walk instead of taking the bus. It’s only a 40minuteish walk to the city and only about a 15-20minutes walk to the middle of west end, so I really shouldn’t be so lazy also this should hopefully save me a bit of money on my gocard. I also want to be really conscious of what I eat this week. I’ve been letting on go of my eating for the past week and I just really want to get back to how I was eating before last week.

So this week is all about regaining motivation and focus, I’ll blog about how I go when the week is out. 

Thoughts from the hippie

If you've been living under a rock lately the people in the Horn of Africa (which is Somalia/Ethiopia/Kenya region) are going through massive food shortages with the worst drought they've had in 60 years. More than 370,000 refugees are already crammed into three camps at Dadaab, built for a combined capacity of 90,000!

As part of World Food Day, I'm raising money to help support Oxfam's response and Gather to Grow event to the food crisis happening in East Africa.

You can find more about what Oxfam is doing here: https://www.oxfam.org.au/explore/conflict-and-natural-disasters/current-emergencies/africa-food-crisis

You can also donate here: https://www.oxfam.org.au/donate/current-appeals/gather-to-grow

This is a really important cause to support, so even if you only donate $5 you'd still make me really really happy! 

Here are some amazing photos from the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-14119487 

 

Thoughts from the hippie

Thoughts from the hippie

Recently I received an email from one of my friends in America,  in a nutshell, he was telling me about a career opportunity he had, how he felt like he was doing some soul searching and about wanting to pursue something that is truly meaningful and he asked me if I ever felt like that, feeling like you have to pursue something meaningful.

I definitely understood what he meant about wanting to pursue something meaningful in life. I get really annoyed with myself in my own life, I read about these people who are doing all these amazing things, like working in developing countries to try and make other people’s lives better, and so often it makes me really annoyed with myself that I’m not making a difference to anyone or anything, that I’m just existing and my life is just like a machine where I go to uni, go to work, finish my degree, get a job, bleugh. I want more than, I want to make difference but I don’t know how, and I don’t think I will be one of those people who make those differences in developing countries. I want my life to have meaning and purpose and I just don’t see it happening, it’s incredibly frustrating!

I hope by the end of my degree I’ll be able to go work somewhere overseas with animals, but it all just seems so far away, I can’t imagine myself being a ‘real adult’, I don’t feel that way, most the times I just feel like I’m just another silly young girl. Work is such a major part of anyone’s life, but I wouldn’t want my career or whatever to define who I am, but I think that’s the way it comes across in most developed countries, you are your work.

I want my life to have purpose and meaning, and right now I don’t feel like I’m any use or good to anyone. It’s an incredibly shitty feeling to have. I don’t feel like I’m doing enough in my life, but I don’t know how to start to do more.

Thoughts from the hippie

Thoughts from the hippie

Thoughts from the hippie

A Beautiful Life

I have a beautiful life, I really do. It’s taken me such a long time to get to this point in my life where I can honestly say that in general, I am happy.

Around two weeks ago I had a phone call from someone who I hadn’t spoken to around two years, long story short, he ended up saying something to me which made me practically snap at him and I gave a huge spiel all about why he is so unhappy in his life is simply because he is lazy, doesn’t challenge himself and is one of those people who are full of words but they have no meaning. An example of that last point for this person is that he would go on and on about travelling but just never do it because he’s too lazy to go get his passport!

After that conversation, I had a think about why do I feel so lucky, happy and think that life is beautiful? Here is what I came up with:

Feeling Lucky:

I have read so many books about women in third world countries and reading about what these women have to face everyday, I am really grateful for the life I have here in Australia. One of the books which really opened my eyes was Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. I think everyone: male, female, students and adults should all read this book; it’s incredibly eye-opening, sad and inspiring. It truly makes you value the kind of life that you have.

Feeling Happy:

There was a time where I was depressed for quite some time and I also had purging disorder for around six-six and a half years. Going through depression and an eating disorder you have so much self hatred for that time that it just toxifies your entire life and you feel as though you can’t imagine being happy. For myself how I managed to get through this was there a moment where one of my friends (who is only turning 21 this year) went over to Thailand to get a nose job, breast implants and liposuction. This girl, was/is already very beautiful and was quite slim, nowhere near to being fat at all, and for me it was like a light bulb just went off in my head; I’m not a bad person, I’m not a horrible, mean person, I’m healthy, I exercise, what the hell am I doing destroying my body and mind like this? I finally accepted myself, realised that as long as I was eating healthy and keeping fit I didn’t need to poison myself like I was. It sounds so simple, but when you are stuck in such a mind vortex it’s not as simple as just waking up one day and thinking “ok, I’m better now, I’m giving up my eating disorder forever”. So since then, I have been happy and enjoying life so much more because I’ve accepted who I am and realised I am not a bad person.

Life is Beautiful:

A part from the obvious aesthetics of the world, I think a key point into thinking about just how beautiful life is, is about challenging and pushing yourself and always learning. I play guitar, but nothing impressive and it’s just something for me, I learn Spanish, I go to uni, I run, I love rock-climbing, I love to learn new things about different countries,  I love to go climb mountains and all I want is adventure in my travels! I find the things that are harder to do, harder to learn, the things that push yourself, the things that bring out something creative in you, makes you more happier and inspired by life to think to yourself that yes, life is beautiful! If you spend your days on the couch watching TV or just moping round the house, of course you are not living, you are merely existing and so you probably do think that you do not have a beautiful life because you don’t challenge yourself or put yourself out into the world!

I don’t want to come across as being cocky as if I think that I have a perfect life, because obviously I don’t. However, I think in general that life is beautiful and I don’t need my life to be perfect because nothing in life is perfect. I just think that no matter what there are so many ways to not just simply exist and do nothing but to actually live and be happy, why would you want to do nothing?

Learn to accept yourself, be grateful for what you have and always try for something more.