Love Reflection

It's officially one week and two days into the new year and for many of us that means we've already given up on our resolutions and are back to our old ways or we are still feigning over the newness of the year and living with renewed hope for 2012. Whatever your situation maybe just follow the plan as God intended and aim to be a better version of yourself each year. 

Now this post isn't really about resolutions. It's about relationships and how the quest for something meaningful has been transformed into a gloomy outlook and a series of failed attempts. The result being the resounding feeling that Relationships SUCK! I mean ever so often, actually too often if you ask me, we hear men and women complain and argue about their respective counterparts. Women exclaim, 'There are absolutely NO good men left in the world' and men retaliate with 'ALL women want from a relationship is just money'. 

Hearing these actually annoys me a bit because I am not one who believes in generalizations. Yes I'm an eager celebrant of SAD- Single Awareness Day for you newbies, I'm also active celebrant of Valentine's Day as well because both are quite important and fun days to me. For me SAD is not the Anti-Valentine's Day as many people set it out to be, it's a celebration of your single status. It means that you are comfortable with yourself as you are and whether or not you're looking for love or a relationship, at the moment you are great with riding solo. It's a fun day to have with friends and family and just celebrate the strength of being you. And on the flip side, though Valentine's Day is hugely marketed as a holiday for lovers to go fawning over each other and romantic gestures must be accompanied, though those are great, I also think it's a great way to show family and friends how much you love and appreciate them. Lest we forget love is not unidimmensional and should be shared with everyone. 

So why is it that people are all coming to the conclusion that Relationships SUCK? Well it's simple, YOU ATTRACT WHAT YOU PUT OUT IN THE WORLD. Negative begots negative and unlike math it rarely leads to a positive. How can you expect to find someone if all you think about is how bad things are and how horrible men or women are? Don't get me wrong ALL relationships are HARD and all have their problems but if you don't make an effort how do you expect to reap the reward you deserve. Yes you may get hurt along the way! Yes you maybe disappointed time after time! And No I am not promises absolute success and perfect happiness always. But sometimes you just have to say to hell with it and give it a try. I mean nothing ventured nothing gained. All in all, I'm saying sometimes you have to take chances to get ahead in life and you can't expect to have positive results if you're living in a cloud of negativity.

Thanks so much for reading.

Much love,

Nella

Photo Challenge Days 5, 6, 7 & 8

Whoa! It's been 4 days since I've updated on the photo challenge! Well don't worry I haven't forgotten about the challenge so here's a little update!

Day 5- Morning Sky

Unfortunately, due to my holiday phase, I haven't seen a sunrise in weeks. So what's a girl to do when she has a challenge to complete? Look for an amazing picture online of course!

When I saw this picture it was like magic to me! Just amazing! I hope you enjoy the enchantment that it brings as much as I do!

Day 6- Books

Being the NERDLING that I am (what can I say it's my nature?!!!!!), I absolutely positively loooooooooooooooovvvvveeeeeee books! They are an amazing way to see the world and spark the imagination! And since my literary life has been a revolving door involving mainly medical books-anatomy, physiology, embryology, clinical books and so on! In any case, these are some books that I read and more! I'll take some actual pictures of my books later  once nerd mode has been re-established! :D

Day 7- Something Funny

I love to laugh! Let me say it again............I LOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEEEEE to laugh! That being said, it was pretty hard to chose which picture to use. But alas a decision had to be made and I chose the above pic. I mean who wouldn't just burst out laughing after seeing this!

Day 8- Favourite colour
Who can guess what my favourite colour is? Is it blue? Pink? Purple? Yellow? Green? Nope wrong answer! It is RED!!!!!! I love the colour RED! It's such a vibrant and wonderful colour. It's fun, exciting and exhilarating. It represent passion, love, danger, desire. So many strong emotions can be expressed through such a wonderful colour and I looooooooveeeeee it! 


Well unfortunately that's all folks and please remember to keep voting for me for Best personal and lifestyle blog in the Jamaica blog awards!!! www.jablogawards.com




Much Love,


Nella

Photo Challenge Day 4

Day 4's challenge is to take a picture of leaves so I took a picture of some plants in my home. The red one is a poinsetta which is interesting as it changes colours during the year from red to green and back to red based on the seasons.

Much Love,

Nella

Photo Challenge Days 2 & 3

Hey everyone! So as promised before I'm taking the 30 day photo challenge! However, I didn't post anything about it yesterday. No worries, I'm still on the challenge, I was just caught in an intense Misfits marathon yesterday and found it extremely hard to do much else lol! Anyhoo, I've decide to merge the days today and promise to do better as time progresses!

Day 2's picture is to be a picture of a smile. So if you know me, you know it wasn't quite hard to find a picture of me smiling because I'm always smiling. If anything it was hard to choose which picture but finally I did! This is a picture of my boyfriend and I on our swim date. See the 100 watt smile!

Day 3 is to be a picture of happiness. This was a tad bit harder than finding a picture of a smile because happiness is different to everyone. It's an emotion that can be represented based on any number of things. That being said I chose this picture because to me it represents a day when I was quite happy. The day my boyfriend and I had a swim day and we just enjoyed the day together. Yes yes another swim day picture :D It was really fun and I was truly happy!  Check out the pic! 

                                 

I hope you enjoyed my pictures! And thanks for stopping by and reading! 

Much Love,

Nella

Let’s resolve to do better

A new year has begun and with every new beginning it marks a chance for us all to start afresh. And as habit will dictate, many of us have already started to think about or have made our New Year’s Resolutions. However, let’s face it; most of us tend to fail at these each year. The enthusiasm that we begin the year with soon fades and the old habits return as quickly as they left. Yet, we still continue to hope that with each year we can make an improvement.

What we fail to recognize however is that instead of making resolutions what we should be doing is making goals and plans to achieve those goals. You may be wondering ‘Well what’s the difference between a goal and a resolution?’ Though the definitions may be similar, when compared a goal can be more likened to an achievable objective whereas a resolution may be associated with an ideal. Now that we’ve differentiated between the two, how are we going to go about achieving those goals of improvement that we have made for 2012.

1)     Reset your mind. We are conditioned beings and as a result habits are hard to break. The first thing we must do if we truly want to accomplish our goal is to condition our mind towards it. Making a mental effort as a first step can go a long way in achieving desired goals.

 2)   Lessen the load. It is a habit of many to have a long list of resolutions and as a result we end up stretching ourselves too thin. Rather, try writing down 2 or 3 goals we wish to achieve in 2012 and focus our energies on those goals and how we can achieve them.

3)    Think long term. Look to the distant future and stop making unachievable short time periods.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and therefore, you cannot expect that after years of having a bad habit that within a day, two days or two weeks that you are going to overcome it. Make small but significant changes with each day until you’ve fully mastered your habits.

 4)   Be clear. Our resolutions and goals often tend to be too vague. We tend to say ‘we want to lose weight’ rather than ‘we want to lose 20lbs in 6 months’. Or we may say ‘I am going to exercise’ yet we haven’t come up with any plan of action. When we make more specific goals and make a good plan of action, our goals seem more attainable and therefore, we are more likely to follow through with them.

  5)    Don’t sweat the small stuff. As was mention before, habits are things that have been developing for weeks, months and even years and you cannot expect to get rid of them overnight. There are going to be times when you falter and return to your old ways, however, the most important thing is to recognize this and begin again until you’ve achieved your goal.

Much Love,

Nella

52 Week Financial Challenge

At the start of every new year we tend to make some major resolutions. Whether it is to tackle weight loss, be more financially independent, appreciate life more or just love family and friends as much as possible. Whatever it may be, the new year seems to give the air of renewal needed to get us started. This week I want to tackle some common resolutions. These are ones that even I myself make each year and call them goals rather than resolutions. The problem is however, that the high energy and anticipation that flows through our veins on day 1 slowly dwindles until what we are left with is a broken vow to ourselves and the same resolution to make the following year. But wouldn't it be great to finally accomplish one of these dreams? I think it would be amazing! So today's topic is about our finance resolutions. 

In these trying economic times, it can be difficult for anyone to make ends meet. Bills piling up, debt mounting and savings are being depleted. You may feel like you're trapped in this rat race but you truly aren't. If you were to stop and examine your finances you would see that what you lack is discipline. You spend above your means, you buy unnecessary items and squander money on frivolties. Now don't get me wrong I am all for treating yourself but every once in a while. There is after all a time and place for everything. Now if you truly want to exercise some self control and get over one financial hurdle then try this 52 week challenge. This is something I originally saw on youtube on SparkWisdoms channel but I've ammended it to suit the average Jamaican. However, if you're an international reader you can convert this to a simple form of your currency eg $1 US or $1 pound or $20 TT whatever you think you can manage. The important thing is to not touch your money and see as it grows. I'll be doing a vlog on this challenge later on! Check out the sheet below and see how you can make it work for you!

Week	Deposit	Add'l wks	Total	Completed
1	$50		$50
2	$100	$50	$150
3	$150	$150	$300
4	$200	$300	$500
5	$250	$500	$750
6	$300	$750	$1,050
7	$350	$1,050	$1,400
8	$400	$1,400	$1,800
9	$450	$1,800	$2,250
10	$500	$2,250	$2,750
11	$550	$2,750	$3,300
12	$600	$3,300	$3,900
13	$650	$3,900	$4,550
14	$700	$4,550	$5,250
15	$750	$5,250	$6,000
16	$800	$6,000	$6,800
17	$850	$6,800	$7,650
18	$900	$7,650	$8,550
19	$950	$8,550	$9,500
20	$1,000	$9,500	$10,500
21	$1,050	$10,500	$11,550
22	$1,100	$11,550	$12,650
23	$1,150	$12,650	$13,800
24	$1,200	$13,800	$15,000
25	$1,250	$15,000	$16,250
26	$1,300	$16,250	$17,550
27	$1,350	$17,550	$18,900
28	$1,400	$18,900	$20,300
29	$1,450	$20,300	$21,750
30	$1,500	$21,750	$23,250
31	$1,550	$23,250	$24,800
32	$1,600	$24,800	$26,400
33	$1,650	$26,400	$28,050
34	$1,700	$28,050	$29,750
35	$1,750	$29,750	$31,500
36	$1,800	$31,500	$33,300
37	$1,850	$33,300	$35,150
38	$1,900	$35,150	$37,050
39	$1,950	$37,050	$39,000
40	$2,000	$39,000	$41,000
41	$2,050	$41,000	$43,050
42	$2,100	$43,050	$45,150
43	$2,150	$45,150	$47,300
44	$2,200	$47,300	$49,500
45	$2,250	$49,500	$51,750
46	$2,300	$51,750	$54,050
47	$2,350	$54,050	$56,400
48	$2,400	$56,400	$58,800
49	$2,450	$58,800	$61,250
50	$2,500	$61,250	$63,750
51	$2,550	$63,750	$66,300
52	$2,600	$66,300	$68,900

Much Love,

Nella