Hi Lovelies,
Welcome back! And welcome if You are new here ???
How are You, I hope this new year is treating You well? I am bringing back Monthly Musings post series where I will talk about all things that are not beauty reviews, in this post I am talking about New Year Resolutions (but not in a way that we know it), crystals, books, Clean Beauty Awards, Gratitude & also ask You to send prayers to my dad!
resolutions
Let me start by asking You about Your New Year Resolutions? What are they? I hope they are not “I want to lose 10 pounds/kilos” or “I want to stick to a diet this year” type of ones. Nothing wrong with that, obviously, but instead of thinking of ways to take away from ourselves, let’s flip this thing on it’s head and let’s start thinking big and ordering the life and the experiences we want! Let’s imagine our perfect life for this year and write it down. Nothing wrong with aiming big, no point of asking anything less from the Universe. Think “The Secret”. If You don’t know, look it up.
new books
https://www.instagram.com/p/CYl51xVo_Iz/
I was pretty pleased to start new year with new reads, Bluebird Books sent me two books for my consideration. namely Marie Kondo Joy at Work and Cracking The Menopause by Mariella Frostrup & Alice Smellie.
Well, we all are familiar with Marie Kondo and her Life Changing Magic of Tidiying, which instantly became bestseller and had us tidying our homes like there’s no tomorrow, questioning ourselves if belongings spark joy or not. Now we will be guided trough the process of tidying up our work lives, the book has also tips for virtual working. I mean we all want to refocus on what’s important, right? I can’t wait to dive into the book and give You my thoughts on it later on.
Second book is about something that used to be hush hush up until a few years ago – menopause. While I am not there yet, I want to be prepared for what’s to come, because it affects so many areas of one’s life, from hormone imbalances, to mood and libido changes to dry skin and the list goes on and on. We need to open the conversation about it more, because half of the population suffers from it, but barely talks about it. The book promises to deliver all the latest data, separating facts from fiction, give You the whole lowdown on thing delivered with why humor – my kind of language. Can’t wait!
Gratitude Lists Daily
In the last couple of years I trained myself to develop a new habit of gratitude. Basically You list three (or more) things You are grateful for that day. At first it was so hard to do, with all the Convid stresses added to every day life stresses, I mean mind ALWAYS will tell You what’s wrong in Your life, there’s no effort in that. Developing gratitude is, but You will reap so much benefits, I promise. Your whole mindset will shift and instead of seeing everything in black and white, You will start seeing that there’s so much good in Your life after all, even if it is not perfect. My life certainly isn’t, but instead of stressing about what I don’t have, I now remind myself daily of the good things I do have, even if it’s electricity and warmth in the house. I recently scored a few jars of manuka honey on super sale in Holland & Barrett – this shop has horrible track record of delivering about half of what I ordered online without any explanation, but some incredible sales from time to time. This time around I scored eight 250ml manuka honey jars – and I am not even sorry for the money I spent, they were 7.27€ each! Now I am stocked for a while – for daily and medicinal use and my manuka DIY face masks – find post here, scroll down to DIY section.
What are You grateful for?
minimizing (sort of)
At the beginning of the year I started seeing “22 products to finish in 2022” type of posts everywhere – I thought that was a great idea. While I poked around my stash seeing what products to choose, I suddenly had this thought of putting Everything I Own for the Project Pan project. I mean natural products do not last as long, we know that & me with my very sensitive skin & dermatitis prone skin, I have to be very very careful not to put old products on my skin. Truth to be told, apart from judging for the Cert Clean Clean Beauty Awards I haven’t tested much of new skincare… Also, doing my yearly empties was a big eye opener! I never thought I am spending so much on beauty products.. So I had a good talk with myself and decided that instead of trying to know everything about Every Product Ever, I will now focus on honing my collection to time tested products and will spend money on that. Spending money to try new things to see if it’s for me? No thanks, here in EU we cannot return open products for whatever reason & I react badly to trendy products half the time. I will also try to stop looking at deals and sales so much, that is a big money drain for me too, it is something I will also try to work on this year. After a little break I also got my creativity back, I literally have 50 blog drafts ready to go, no kidding. Whereas looking at my last year’s post I clearly see I was stressed and in the rut. So for this year I will focus to give You MORE. More creativity, more versatility and hopefully more value. While focusing on owning less. Because I value You, my readers. I thank You for the time You are choosing to spend with me in my little corner of internet. Sending gratitude and love Your way ?
earth family crystals
Be still my ?
The beautiful (gifted) package from @earthfamilycrystals has arrived! Family owned business of ethically sourced fair trade crystals, crystal jewelry & more established in 2012 by highly intuitive crystal & reiki healers with over 20 years of experience in the crystal industry including a degree in Reiki, Crystal Healing & Herbalism. One of their key aims is to provide top quality ethically sourced crystals at an affordable prices. Every crystal is hand selected for high quality & positive energy. They are also the first company in crystal field to team up with #onetreeplanted – meaning every order plants a tree!
I love knowing the ethos behind the brands I am working with & this was a no brainer, it was ☑️☑️☑️ from the get go. Review to come very soon, for know I can offer You (aff) code GREENLIFE to save 10%.
judging for clean beauty awards
Speaking for the Clean Beauty Awards, I have been asked to come back to judge again – making this fourth time in the row. Best news this year so far!
send prayers to my dad
But not everything is rosy in my world, my dad is in the hospital with a few serious issues, please keep him in Your prayers tonight. At the moment we have more tests than answers, but at least they stabilized his condition and he is not getting worse. They are talking about restarting the heart, which freaks me out more than I can tell You & I am besides myself at the moment.
On this note I will finish. Hope You are all good.
Sending LOVE & LIGHT,
Renata.
