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Monday, December 21, 2015

Let it go...

There certain things that we come across in life that tend to somehow stick to us because of how they resonate with us, touch or affect us.
A few years back I read, or was it watched or heard?? (for the life of me I can't remember which is which) a phrase that has been one of those that stuck to me to this very day. It goes along something like this;

 "Never let the actions of others affect who you are".

See, as individuals, we are each different and unique in our own ways. We each have our own values, beliefs, behaviors with respect to how we treat other individuals. However, I have come to find that many a times, we let the actions of others affect how we are. We let circumstances change us into behaving in ways we never would have, to the extent that sometimes we even surprise ourselves. 

In my last post I briefly mentioned how the past weekend wasn't necessarily my best one. My initial reaction to the events of the weekend (I don't mean to make it sound so suspenseful lol) was naturally, as a human to harbor negative feelings. It honestly took me a while to work through everything in my head and get to a place where I could think rationally. 

So yesterday, as I was out and about, I just realized how much power I had given to whatever it was that was bothering me. I realized that I was letting things, that shouldn't really matter in the first place, take up so much of my mind and in the process the negative feelings were slowly making me become a person I really am not. 

See, we are who we are and that is our identity, we cannot and absolutely should not let anyone or anything change us into something else. Nothing should have that kind of power over us.

For me, as I remembered this quote, I was reminded to simply let go; I may not have power over the actions of other people, but I definitely have power over how I react to these actions. I refuse to let myself change into a different person based on the actions of other people; whatever happens will not affect who I am as a person. 
I know it's not an easy thing to accomplish but I believe it's worth the effort.



Anne xo

Bits and pieces.....





I honestly had a bit of a difficult weekend; while I am not going to share anything in here, I just thought I would share these few quotes, all courtesy of Instagram, that really helped me (still are).

Hope you lovelies had a great one and wish you a great week ahead!

Anne xo

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The Little Things...

I'm not going to address the fact that it has literally been months since my last post so let's just move right along okay? But I guess by starting off like that IS me addressing that huh? Oh well.

A few days ago I had a bit of a light-bulb moment. And yes when you read this you might think that it's actually common sense blah blah blah but hey, to each their own opinion right?

Back to my point, you know how we're always waiting for a, b and or c to happen thinking that when it does we are FINALLY going to be happy? Yeah, that's not happening. I mean sure, you might actually end up being happy when whatever it is you're waiting for happens but lets be honest that kind of happiness more often than not ends up being unsustainable.

Now, I'm like most people so I'm not going to sit here and say that I am always the happiest person alive because that's not true (neither are you so don't lie to us, no one really is simply because of our nature as humans; but hey if you're, say an alien and reading this, please do comment and maybe you could teach us human folk a thing or two about always being happy etc).

I am in no way trying to say that sustainable happiness is impossible, quite the contrary. My light-bulb moment just simply put some things in perspective. Yes we have bigger goals and achievements which we feel will guarantee our happiness however in our search for these achievements, we tend to over-look the small things that have the ability to make us truly happy. There are moments, for me at least, throughout the day, that bring me genuine happiness and joy. Thing is, most times I tend to let myself live in such moments for only short periods of times before my mind puts it all at the back of my head and again I am back chasing the bigger goal.

While keeping our eye on what in our minds we feel is 'the bigger picture', I think it's important not to take the little things for granted. The things that make us smile, happy and joyful, however insignificant they may seem at the moment. A simple example for me is when I get in my car, on my way to work or as I am going back home, being alone and listening to music is just absolute bliss! (No, it really is, I'm not exaggerating).

I encourage you to try your very best to focus on collecting these little moments and the joyful emotions they bring. I have a feeling that the "secret" to sustainable happiness really isn't that complicated, it simply lies in the little things...




Anne xo

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Expectations



Throughout the years we have (obviously) met and interacted with different people. Some have had more of an impact in our lives than others. Aside from that, through, call it chemistry or fate or whatever you choose to, we have grown close to some of these people while not necessarily growing close to others.

Now, I've always been a very accepting of other people and their differences in characters. I am friends with all kinds of people from all walks of life because to me, as long as I have the right chemistry with you, we can be friends regardless of whatever differences we may have in other aspects. I mean, I don't have to accept what you believe in, be it political, religious etc. For me its quite simple, who you are as a person and how you treat other people is what matters the most.

Society has more often than not placed a lot of expectations on how people should be. In this case I'm not talking about the social norms of how people treat one another and how society behaves in general because in that case I believe we need social norms to guide how we act towards one another. I mean it's not like I want people to be thieves or to just go around killing or anything like that.

What I'm on about right now is the way society wants people to be and act on a personal level. How you're supposed to be doing this at this age and that at that age. I think every single one of us was made in a unique way and making people conform to what is considered 'normal' is forcing people to lose who they really are and get lost as individuals. I, as well as some of my 20-something friends, have at times found ourselves asking and questioning our identities as individuals; trying to 'find ourselves' so to speak, and yes I do see how corny that sounds but this is how I can best explain it.

After some reflection, I came to realize that, because everyone is different, there are people who have somehow managed to make rules as to how people are 'supposed to be'....these "select" few have created expectations of the society. You're supposed to follow a certain specified path from birth to death. Sure you can slightly deviate but not too much because then you will be frowned upon. It's these expectations that ultimately put pressure on us and force us to be not who we really are but rather what we are 'expected' to be.



I for one believe in being true to one's self. I believe we have all been made unique and special and just magical and to be anything less than who we really are is nothing short of robbing ourselves of the best experience we can and should have in life. Its okay to sometimes make mistakes, veer off to a path that may end up hurting us because I believe everything, regardless how horrible it seems, happens for a reason and maybe it's necessary to pass through it even if it may not make sense at the time.

I believe in being myself, my true self for all intents and purposes and if this 'society' doesn't seem to agree with that then it's okay as long as I'm being true to myself. Those who accept us in our true selves are after all the one's worth having in this magical ride call life. So I say, be true to yourself, love, be kind to everyone and just live your life YOUR way. As for society's expectations? Well you live your life for you, not the society....remember how you were born alone and will ultimately be buried alone? Yeah exactly.



Till next time!

Anne xo

Musings...

In my last post here I mentioned how I had a lot to write about and how I couldn't digest my ideas and write them down. Almost a month later and my head is still a jumbled mess. Okay maaaybe I'm exaggerating a little bit here because it kinda sounds like I'm walking around totally confused and can barely function. That's really not what I mean. 

What I am saying is that I have a lot of ideas about how I want to deal with my blog especially in long term goals and having to figure that out while sorting out my post ideas has been a little tricky. Okay so I started out with a particular path for this post but I feel lost.....(see what I mean? It's not even a joke guys).

So, about my many ideas; I have an honest passion for this blog and it honestly is one of the few things that are constantly a source of joy and even excitement for me (however far-apart my posts may be, this is completely true....no, seriously). I have been following and reading different kinds of blogs ranging from food blogs, fashion blogs, personal blogs and so forth and lately I have been getting more and more inspired to let my own blog grow. It just feels like I can be or do so much more than I am doing right now and if blogging at this scale feels this good, imagine how it will feel when it's on an even larger scale? I do realize at this point that I may not be making much sense to whichever poor soul is reading this, or maybe I am....I don't know.

Anyway, I have realized that writing about this, like I am doing right now, is actually helping me to focus on the many ideas and thoughts all jumbled in my head. *light-bulb moment*.

So to whoever is reading this, my advice to you is, if you find yourself a little confused and overwhelmed about work, school, personal issues or whatever it is that seems so overwhelming, maybe take a step back and instead of trying to tackle the whole entire thing, try going at it little by little....piece by piece, it will make things so much easier and manageable. I mean, look at me right? 

Till next time.




PS: I just love this illustration and yes I know it totally has NOTHING to do with the post other than for the obvious aesthetic purposes. You can check out more of this talented lady's work here where I linked her Instagram account.

Anne xo

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Food for Thought

I have a lot to post about but for some reason my thoughts are all jumbled up in my head. So I'm going to give myself time and let my head breathe for a while before I put them all down. Don't forget to listen to your body, it often knows more than we think and always steers us in the right direction. If it doesn't feel right at the moment, give it time, don't force yourself. You'll find much better results after.

In the mean time I thought I'd share a few insightful words.







Anne xo

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Forgiveness

We have all been taught by religion, society, our parents etc on forgiveness. That it is important to forgive those who have wronged and hurt us in whatever way; for those like me raised in a home where our religious faith was very important to us, we were taught that forgiving is the right thing to do because often we commit wrongs (sin) and just as we ask for forgiveness from God, we too should extend the same forgiveness to others.

This is no doubt a very important lesson; however I feel a lot of emphasis is pressed on learning to forgive others while self-forgiveness is most times forgotten.



I don't know about you guys but often times I tend to be too hard on myself. Whenever I feel that I have done wrong, whether it is against some other person or just not doing what I feel is my responsibility to do and for one reason or another I am unable to do.

Its easy to forget that we are only human therefore prone to make mistakes. We carry the guilt of whatever it is we have done or not done (as the case may be)  for long periods of time even when those we have wronged have already forgiven us.



Personally this has proven to be a  very unhealthy habit and has at times even has consequences to my health as I had addressed in this previous post. I think, forgiving others who have wronged you is a very important thing in life because it frees you from a lot of baggage carried otherwise. However, equally and even more so important is forgiving yourself. None of us is perfect and we make mistakes from time to time. It's all an important process in life because in making mistakes we tend to learn very important lessons. Every time we make a mistake, even without realizing it, we experience a huge amount of personal growth.



So I say, as much as you forgive others, learn to forgive yourself as well. Take whatever lesson you can from the situation, better yourself and move the hell on. Keeping all this guilt never does anyone any good. Personally it just robs me of joy for life and living in general.


Life is much too short for you to be responsible for the lack of your own joy right? I think so.
Till next time!

Anne xo

Disclaimer: All the images used in this post are from various inspirational accounts on Instagram.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Current Obsession:: Art Lovers

When I was a little girl I used to absolutely LOVE sketching. I was always bugging my mom to get me drawing pads, crayons, markers and water colors....basically anything I could use to sketch with. I had a bit of an arts-y side and really enjoyed working with my hands.

Unfortunately, I don't do that anymore or at least as much as I'd like to. Hmmmm something for me to think about I guess.

Anyway, I think this is why I often find myself drawn to similar work by other people. I recently came across a lady on Instagram (you can visit her page here) and I just have to say I LOVE her work! 

It is so simple and breathtakingly beautiful. I think I've pretty much fallen in love with every piece of hers I've come across. I just though I'd share with you guys a few of my favorites. 







They sure have me missing the good ol' days.

Anne xo

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Growing up

After so-so birthdays, I soon discovered that I wasn't a huge fan of growing old. The years seem to be passing way too quickly and I for one am not very thrilled about that.

I think that's mostly because sometimes, at least this is the case for me, some of the goals we had/have for ourselves haven't materialized or because things don't always go as planned. Now I'm not saying I'm not crazy about my life as it is because trust me I really am.....it just seems though that as I grow older, there are certain things I haven't done yet which I really wanted to cross off my bucket list and now it seems as if I might not be able to (back packing through Europe anyone?). Factor in responsibilities, work etc etc and some things just don't seem very realistic.

Now, although I'm not a fan of growing old, I feel completely different about growing up *insert big stupid smile here*. To me growing up has been quite an experience. What I mean here by growing up is being responsible for yourself. Whether its after you join university or get a job and go live by yourself, just being responsible for your own being and having only yourself to answer to.


I left home as soon as I finished college but I still wasn't living by myself until two years later when I got my first apartment. That's when I first got to experience 'growing up'. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way saying that living at home or with relatives is not growing up, I am simply saying that for me, that's when I felt like a grown-up.

The experience has been amazing! It honestly gets better with time and I love every minute of it. The freedom I have to do as I please, no rules to follow (no that does not mean I live like a cave man with no regard to anything, although the perks of it are if you want to live like a cave man there is nothing and no one stopping you from doing so lol).

I love the fact that I make my own rules, do as I please and get to have my personal space. I'm always looking forward to going home and getting to selfishly spend me-time, a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, a book in hand, walking around, laying on the floor, just doing as I please. I have gone from having urges to go out every other weekend starting Fridays to looking forward to going back home and staying in most of the weekend.

My favorite part in all this 'growing up' business is you get to design the life you want, do what you want when you want to. Your life is literally in your hands. 



All in all, the whole 'growing up' experience has, for me and I'm sure that is the case for most of you, been amazing so far. Of course sometimes I miss being a kid, dependent on others with no responsibilities other than making sure my room is clean, eat my veggies etc, don't we all though every now and then? There are certainly some things I miss about my childhood and sometimes don't enjoy as a grow-up (lets be honest, its usually in the responsibilities area).

I do realize getting old and being a grown-up go hand in hand but sometimes I wish I could have my cake and eat it too.


Anne xo

Monday, June 22, 2015

Late Monday Inspiration

So I just popped in to share a few pictures that gave me a little inspiration this Monday. 
Although my day didn't start too well (I managed to over sleep on the ONE day I was supposed to be up super early, luckily I was able to get to where I needed to be in time to avoid anything going wrong *phew*). 

My energy levels haven't been as up as I would like, procrastination totally in full swing but I mean, we all have those days right? I'm not like going crazy or anything right? lol...

Anyway, I just though I'd share a few pictures and posts from Instagram, Pinterest as well as personal shots that helped steer me afloat today.



I'm still trying to find a color palette for my new place and these two posts caught my eye. I'm loving the pink ceiling in the bathroom....gorgeous and indulges the inner pink-princess-loving little girl in me.



Came across these two on Instagram....my walls are currently a little bare too so...ideas maybe?



These two are shots from my very talented friend, I like to think of her as my personal photographer lol....she has quite an eye for capturing the beauty in her pictures don't you think?

That's all for today....hope you had a lovely Monday.

Anne xo

Monday, June 8, 2015

Weekend Recap

Hey guys, so I've disappeared for the past couple of weeks because....well long story short, I was going through (still am a little bit) a transition of sorts. I mentioned in this previous post that I had finally found an apartment, this was after looking for what felt like forever! I had at first planned to move end of March this year but had to postpone it because no matter how much I tried, I couldn't find the place I was looking for. Apartment-hunting to me is just the worst! I literally get depressed at the though of it. 

Towards the end of May I found an apartment *breathes huge sigh of relief* and had to move in immediately. So I've been really occupied with settling in and trying to get the house in order and pretty much put everything else in the back seat.

But I've missed blogging and its therapeutic (no, seriously) effect on me so I thought I'd do a post about what I was up to over the weekend.

I spent most of Saturday with a friend of mine, you might know her from here. We had several errands to run and finally headed to the beach :).

This time we went to Bahari Beach Hotel (Ledger Plaza), you can check it out by clicking on the link. I had never been there before but let me just say it is definitely not the last time I will be going. Here are some of the pictures I took.





We took too many pictures, all of which I love and couldn't choose which to leave out so........
There you go


This one I had to post by itself, the trees kinda cloud the sunset some would say but I love the whole setting.


Sunday was spent at the beauty salon getting box braids done with my nose buried in a novel. Later on I had a few glasses of wine in the comfort of my new home indulging in TV series (which in reflection wasn't the best of ideas considering I couldn't make myself stop and kept watching episode after episode and finally went to bed close to midnight....yikes regrets regrets in the morning).



That's all for today. 

Anne xo

Monday, May 18, 2015

Monday Inspiration:: Random Quotes

Hey guys, I hope you had a great weekend. I spent Friday night with my two friends after work. We went to a Brazilian restaurant (never been before) for a birthday dinner for one of the girls. We had an amazing time (as always with these two) and the food? Omg all I can say is yum! My mouth literally waters when I think of the amazing food we had.....foodie? yes, guilty as charged! I'm gonna do a post about it here but not today. I didn't go out for the rest of the weekend but I did manage to get a lot of things done including finally finding an apartment!!!!
I am SO excited eeek! Every time I think of it I just catch myself smiling, I can't help it! Aaaaaanyway, I don't wanna get into the details just yet.

So I realized I've been doing really long posts lately and thought for today I'm just gonna share with you guys a couple of pictures I've come across on Instagram which I think are a little Monday inspiration. They certainly helped pick my spirits up today.



Every single minute!

Anne xo

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Letting go...

Recently I've found myself  overwhelmed by things in life and life in general. I try too hard to control things happening in all aspects of my life. From work to personal and just day-to-day life. Do you know what this has gotten me? An ulcer....yep you heard me right an ulcer!

Apparently I have managed to stress myself out enough to actually get my body sick. Maybe this was common knowledge to all you guys but I honestly didn't even know it was possible. I saw a doctor this weekend after I started feeling sick and he prescribed some pills which are working relatively well (so, no need to worry, and its not the point to this post, entirely).

Then I got to thinking; we picture things in our lives to be a certain way, the job we have, money we make, perfect place to live, perfect love life, a rocking body, and the list goes on and on and on. But often we forget; we absolutely cannot control every aspect of our lives. Sometimes things happen not the way we want them to and for no particular reason because that's just how life goes.

All of a sudden I had a light-bulb moment. I started thinking, why not just let go? I mean things are gonna happen the way they are meant to happen regardless of what we may or may not do right? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm just going to sit on my bum(not my first choice of word lol) and not try to move in the direction I want my life to go, no way! I am still going to do everything in my God-given power to make sure I achieve what I want and get the results I want but hey, if for some reason it doesn't pan out the way I want it to, then I am just going to let it go believing that maybe it wasn't meant to be, or maybe I need to re-evaluate myself and try again with a new approach.

As soon as this light-bulb came on, not to sound corny but I really did feel a sense of peace and relief. Like a huge burden was lifted from my shoulders!

I think sometimes we need to pass through lows in our lives. I know I know, it may not seem right but hey, how else are we going to truly appreciate when things are right? I mean, you need a little darkness to appreciate light right? Same thing when it comes to our emotions and feelings. If we didn't go through the lows then we would never really appreciate the highs.


Till next time!

Anne xo

Monday, May 4, 2015

Jack of all Trades

Hey guys, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I most certainly did!

For those of you who have noticed, my blog design has been changing every now and then for a couple of weeks now. I recently found myself with a bit more free time in my hands so I've been focusing more on the blog and thinking on ways to improve it. 

The reason for this post is I recall a friend of mine mentioning how one can decide to be a jack of all trades and end up being a master of none (as the popular saying goes). Now although I get the point behind the saying, I however do not necessarily agree with it. I am mostly referring to myself here so this may or may not be your view on the subject. 

I've chosen a particular career path which, to be honest I kinda found myself in but later on realized how much I actually love and enjoy it. I consider this to be what I've mastered or at least continue to learn and train myself in so that I can be the best at it. However, in my early days from university I worked in a completely different field (marketing) and I was really good at it too. Aside from that I have several other interests which I have always wanted to pursue, such as interior design, and which I probably will in the future even if it's only on a personal level. 

This made me realize something about myself, I have many diverse interests and being someone who loves a challenge, I usually like to try out these particular interests. Now I admit not all of them 'take', I mean lets be honest here, some I may abandon after a while but the ones I stick with? boy do they make me feel fulfilled! 

So this is my take, I strongly believe that you should do whatever it is that makes you happy, dabble in everything to your heart's content! Master what you love the most but do not at any point be restricted by it because trust me, if its something that you feel you love, it all comes together into making you the unique person that you are. 

Back to my ever-changing blog design (which inspired this post), I am trying to make it as much me as possible so please bare with in my trial runs and focus more on the content. I'm currently researching web designing because I would love to be able to do my own designing for this blog and have it reflect me (yes I know I can use a professional, specify what I want and still get results but for now I choose to do it myself so just let it go!).

Phew! It feels like I've been rambling on non-stop.

On a different subject, I came across these gorgeous babies over the weekend and I'm trying to figure out which one I like the most for my bedroom.




PS: My friend just started her own blog. It's quite a read! You can check her out here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Anne xo



Thursday, April 30, 2015

Travel Diary:: Mtwara

So I have been really lucky to have a job that lets me travel all over the country. I mean, there were places I never thought I would end up going to but thanks to my job I end up visiting even the most remote of places. Now if you know me you know I love to travel, and by travel I mean literally anywhere (even if is just half an hour away lol). I get all excited knowing I'm going to visit a new place I have never been to before.

Last year I had a chance to visit Mtwara for a couple of days. It is located in southeastern Tanzania and you can get a lot of information about it online so I won't bore you with all the menial details. Even being a resident of Tanzania I never imagined it would be the way i found it to be (if that at all makes sense). I was blown away by all the beauty and culture. It is definitely a place I will consider visiting in the future for a longer time while vacationing.

These are a few of the photos I took.

View from the sky got me excited before I even landed




I spent my last afternoon here just soaking in the beauty of nature in company of a book I was currently reading.



View of the port from a distance away. Unfortunately I couldn't visit the port because I had to catch my flight but I managed to get glimpses from the road on my way to the airport.

Isn't this just breath taking? *swoon*
I'm thinking of starting a travel diary so I can capture and blog about all my adventures. One of my resolutions was to do more of what I love and travel is definitely way up there in the list.

Anne xo