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

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