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.

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

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

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

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 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

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