30 Days to Better You | Philosophical Life

Here I am, interrupting your Saturday afternoon with possibly a life changing post.

A couple of months ago an idea was born in my head while I was dreaming about cool artsy boys. There are so many great people in this world but I'm especially attracted to the I-am-super-arsty-and-cool-and-deep-and-also-do-a-lot-of-shit-at-such-a-young-age type, a good example would be Bertie Gilbert or Cole Sprouse or Charlie Heaton or Sergei Polunin etc. And a question arises, why aren't I friends with such people? After pointless attempts of moving to London or attending artsy youth parties, I realised that I'm too broke and introverted for this kinda life so the only logical way out would be becoming as cool as these people (whom I adore) are. Yeah, great, read ten books a week, start drawing and filming, writing poetry and also learn five languages two of which are dead. Of course, great decision but not really possible when your life is a mess and your body can't make it up 3 floors of stairs. That's why the first Volume of my (or our) journey to becoming a true philosopher will be dedicated to body and soul.

Volume I

"Mens sana in corpore sano"

Body

Healthy food

Before starting on any exercise I feel that we need to prepare and cleanse our body from all the toxins and having a healthy diet is the way to go. I do understand that it may sound a bit unrealistic because you can't suddenly give up all your bad habits that's why we are just gonna concentrate on some points to start our journey with. The guidelines are:

• oatmeal for breakfast (literally the best decision in my life. You can always add some fresh fruits or honey for flavour)
• drink more water (like 2-3 litters per day)
• more tea, less coffee 
• fresh/baked/dried fruits as snack 
• dark chocolate (I'm talking 75% and up) rather than milky (it will also help your brains)
• say no to alcohol because we ain't fancy enough yet for a glass of good wine in the evening or an expensive whiskey (not yet guys, not yet) (okay, maybe a glass of decent wine once in a while but no cocktails)

Soul

Law of Attraction (new thought)

Now let's talk about spiritual stuff. For starters we need to deal with our (mine) constant depression and positive thinking is what will help us. I won't go too deep into explaining the Law of Attraction but basically if you think positively and visualise your goals all of it will be more likely to happen and you'll live a great life. Our thoughts produce an aura around us and depending their charge we attract the same aura (positive or negative) from the rest of the world forming our future in certain way. So, for this 30 days our goal is to try thinking more positive and also maybe create a mood board. 

The Connection

Yoga

Okay, now when we established some work on both body and soul we need to bring it all together and connect the ends to stabilize ourselves as humans and what can better than Yoga the ultimate training for both of out sides. Of course, if you wanna be boogie you can go take yoga lessons at your local fitness club but I ain't got money for dat so we are going to start with some home workouts. The easiest and best way is just to search "yoga for beginners on youtube" and you'll tones of tutorials. as for me, personally, I really like Yoga with Adriene and probs I'm gonna the 30 days of yoga thing. 

Rounding up, our goal is to ease into doing a lil bit of yoga now and then. We're going to go deeper on this matter in our next 30 days enhancing our abilities and workouts.

Finally, a few words about the concept behind it. 

I'm going to post every month bringing something new each time.  

I'll pay more attention to previous topics as well as add some new ones.

I may also post some semi-posts during the month and maybe explain 

more about each topic or catch you up on my progress

and how I'm feeling.

If you still here and want to start this journey with me comment  and post using #30daysofphilosophicallife

Peace out 

XoXo 

Ivana   

Is it impossible to leave our past in the past?

As I was scrolling through my social media accounts and trying to catch up on the latest news I couldn't help but notice the sudden urge to go and check profiles that I probably shouldn't check at all. You know that pricking burst of mixed emotions that make you feel like you're drowning and falling from a high cliff at same time? It's the type of feeling you get when you have 10 missed calls from mom, do something embarrassing or meet "that" someone from your not-so-perfect past. Yes, I'm talking about exs, all sorts of them. In 2003 you would've probably just awkwardly leave the situation, chit chat about it with your bffs and never remember it again but it's 2k16 outside (nearly 2017) and it just won't end as easy anymore. Finishing a relationship with someone posses a lot more stress than ever. Because we're kids of the internet. 

Now, of course I'm not talking about situations when you still kinda remain friendly-ish although it can be complicated as well. Okay, but admit, most of us had had this one break-up which certainly left a mark in our life maybe because we actually had great times or maybe because we can't think about it without remembering all the pain, anger and other sorts of emotions that we had to go through during the post break-up period. When something like this happens you would want to forget and move on (sometime later may come the "appreciate the good things" but one will never know if such a blessing will reach his pour struggling soul) but Is it possible to eliminate your unwanted past from your present or do we just need to learn to live with it?

Modern society is all about connecting people from all around the world and making us feel like a big international family. Public figures have never been so close to us mundanes. Look at how many social media accounts we have - we have facebook, instagram, snapchat, tumblr, twitter, pinterest and many more. Yeah, it's great that we are able to get fresh news about literally anything no matter where we're at but when it comes to getting the news that we don't want to know about, how hard it is to avoid them? 

When you commit to a decent relationship, it being romantic or just casual, you get to know not only the person you've chosen, their interests, their hobbies, their thoughts and preferences but also a lot of their friends and kinda general surroundings and of course you've got it all figured out and everyone's following everyone on any social platform possible because you're engaged in this relationship af and you gotta do the "thing" because it already feels like something as trivial as saying - "Hey". It's all cool until one of three things happens: 1. you see something that makes you jealous af and become a stalker and get obsessed, 2. you're not sure anymore if you can post some things because it can make the other person jealous, 3. your relationship ends terribly and you don't want that person in your life anymore. First two points are of course of great importance and deserve a whole separate talky-talk but tonight it's all about the last one. 

As I said a few paragraphs earlier, some years ago it would be a stress but there were only few shitty situations that your damn life could put you in, like meeting them on the street or supermarket or at an event. Basically, only irl problems could occur, which is of course painful and awkward but you can't predict it, can you? Whereas nowadays it's a on the whole new level, let alone debating if you should delete your photos with them or not. Alright, first thing you do, is unfollow them everywhere you possibly can and maybe even block them, which is a lil overboard bur meh, you just want to never hear about them again, so you do you. Now, after some time, it starts to feel like you're finally all good to go and live a new life but oh no, girl, you're so wrong. Remember their cool friends you still hang out with, well guess what, they just posted something mentioning the "one who's name can never be mentioned again" or wait, that friend of theirs that you kinda never liked and never really talked to, well, that friend just liked you pic on instagram for no reason. And now you sit there lost trying to guess why they did it and mostly why do YOU care so much? Maybe, it's just me but I'm always freaking out a little bit when these sort of things happen. Then, comes "the event" which you were going to go to but then you accidentally saw that they were coming too and that now makes you unsure wether you still want to go there and if so, will you be able to really enjoy it? It won't be a random unexpected situation anymore because you know what you're going for which on the other side leaves you time to prepare yourself and be the greatest version of you. Good, now I'm going to talk about what probably bothers me the most and it's the sudden urge to go and check out their profiles. Like why would you do this, you know it's stupid and you know you won't just take a look at it and stay uninvolved, no, you will fucking remember all the things that happened, get very reminiscent of the good times, consider writing them, then hating them again and then entering the endless void of "I told you so" of rebuking yourself. Maybe it's just me, again, but I've noticed that no matter how many years have passed something always brings me back to them and this past tense and it happens way more often then it did when I wasn't so much involved in social networking. 

This time you can't avoid that person and sometimes dream about what they're doing because it's all public and can go and see where, when, who and so on but is it a bad thing or an ultimately good thing? All in all it's just another point why we need to learn to live for ourselves, appreciate our past and stop caring about what others think about us. 

I do understand that sometimes even a certain smell can take you back to that time, let alone all the dark conners of the internet but if after so many years you still feel like shit when this happens, you either need to talk to them one last time, create the most romantic and heartbreaking story of all times or just get your shit together and focus on you in this moment living minute by minute, day by day, year by year, improving and following your dreams.

Sincerely yours,

Ivana

<3 <3 <3

On discovering things to watch

image via pinterest

You are in constant search of something to watch? You haven't found your soul movie yet? You feel like everything you watch looks the same? That means you gotta find something new in the cinematic universe. I know, I know that despite sounding really easy because of how much we have to watch, it is in fact quite hard for the same reason. There are various ways on doing that and I'm eventually going to talk about all of them later on but for now I want you to take a look at the one that I use myself most of the time.

Random, not so random.

Basically, the idea behind this method is that you still get to see someone familiar to your eye but you have a whole new variety of genres and stories to discover. So without further ado

let's get into it. 

It's quiet easy and simple you just choose an actor that you like or any new actor that you've just seen for the first time and go straight to his movie list (no matter where on the internet). And then you watch all of them. All these movies the he/she stared in or just had a small second plan role... It doesn't matter really. Of course I'm not telling you to force yourself to watch a movie that you don't like but give it a chance because you never now. For example, last year I discovered so many great movies, that I adore now, when I chose Anton Yelchin as my "actor of the moment" and seriously I don't think I would've ever found or watched most of these films any other way rather than this one. Oh, and you'll also see that actor/actress on a whole new level.

I mean, I'm sure we all have used this method before with our favourite one and only, actors and actresses but it's time to go more broad with it.

P.S. - if you're looking for people to choose as your cinematic "target" and don't know with whom to start then go ahead and ask me anywhere you'd like. 'Cause I have a list kinda, lol

XoXo