Bad life choices!

Recently I've gotten into a disgustingly bad sleeping pattern. And what I've found amazing, but not too surprising, is the extent to which it effects my life. It's currently 3am and this is the usual time I've been finding myself awake, after hours of feeling guilty that I probably should be asleep, not in bed but actually asleep. Don't get me wrong, this is in no way a rebellion type of thing, and there is no clever and justifiable reason as to why I find myself in this silly situation, it just happens. 

Ironically, today (well yesterday now, another example of it being too late to be awake!) I put up a video about getting clear skin naturally without too much hassle. Now this is a strong piece of evidence of how you should 'do as I say not as I do' because I've found spots slowly creeping up on me these past few days. In the video I mention about sleep being an integral aspect to having clear skin and at the moment it's like every time I look into a mirror my spots are just there subtly reminding me of all my current bad life choices. It always used to annoy me when I was little and felt ill (or was just being a drama queen and hypochondriac) when my dad would always just tell me to go to sleep. There was next to no sympathy, although I know that his advice was perfectly legitimate and from a place of love but it never pleased me at the time but sleep really does fix most things!

I'm not going to sleep late either because I don't enjoy sleeping, my whole body clock just shifts so I wake up mid-afternoon everyday, be rest assured sleeping is one of my all time favourite things to do. But the quality of sleep is much less when you go to sleep later and I've certainly felt this in my over-all well being. I've been beyond lethargic, lazy and un-motivated over these past few days. I've hardly done anything, despite the prior plans I'd set myself to get done before college. As I said, my skin has just been dreadful in comparison to what it was and from the lack of caring I've consequently eaten awfully too. My mentality has shifted to an over-all more negative frame of mind, nothing quite seems so bright and cheery as it did before, haha I really feel like I'm taking you to a deep and dark place but hopefully it will convince you not to follow in my bad footsteps! 

So all in all I'm certainly aware that there are no positives to come from this current arrangement that I've got going on. But, I've got my induction for college early tomorrow (that will be a fair shock to the system) and I start properly next Monday. I know that the best way to get out of these awful habits is to force yourself into a situation that means you have to change it, if you've got bad willpower like myself. I'm hoping that all the plans that I'd made for this blog and for my YouTube will come into place a bit more when college commences and when hopefully all of my motivation returns!

Let me know if you ever find yourself getting into bad habits like this!

love, bean xx

Are we really the intelligent ones?

When I look around nowadays, irrelevant of where I may be, I see people who are trying to give themselves a purpose. When young we are taught it's a vital thing to do, from being a toddler we're asked ‘what do you want to do when you're older?'. I walked around a city this afternoon for 3 hours just observing; mobiles, suits, rushing around, everything and everyone looked so serious. But if everything were to be stripped back, hypothetically you weren't able to recall anything prior to this moment, what would you be left with? Primarily you are simply left with your body anything else like the makeup, clothes, relationships and jobs are just what you've decided to add to your life. These other additional factors we can survive without, but what about an integral organ such as your lungs? You can survive without your career but lungs are a vital part to your survival. Yet people smoke in hope of maintaining and balancing their stress levels to excel in their career. Effectively, people are willing to literally die for their jobs. Of course, this is only one scenario I could go on forever listing the different harmful things that people do to their bodies in order to keep these impermeable parts of their lives thriving. Fascinating; this is human behaviour.

Our one true responsibility I believe in life is to look after our bodies simply in order to keep on living, I wonder how many people out there sacrifice things to do this job justice? It’s probably a good thing that our heart doesn’t rely on us to consciously keep the blood pumping around our body. Evidence from observing other human decisions would suggest that we’d probably all be dead in days due to our bizarre priority lists. Soon to be mothers tend to be very cautious to not smoke or drink and to take in extra nutrients all in order to care for their growing foetus. Then the baby is born and everything normally goes back to how it was before for the new mother. And as we grow up and have to look after ourselves this care for our ever-growing bodies gets thrown out the window too.

If you were in a house on fire your instinct would probably be to run as far away as fast as possible from the life threatening circumstance. It’s our animal instinct. Actions such as smoking is actively and consciously walking into that burning building. It’s slower but it will inevitably harm your body and ultimately it’s a death sentence. I often think animals are the more intelligent creatures because they listen to their bodies, they're happy to feel what they’re feeling and they do things in their best interest to thrive and stay alive. Animals only eat the food that they were designed to eat. Although humans can digest meat if you look at our teeth, as an example, they aren’t similar to those of a true carnivore, they are blunt and good for nibbling on foods such as vegetables. We can survive on a 100% plant based diet but we cannot survive on a diet composed purely of just meat. Interesting… I hope that you aren’t one of these people I have spoken about in this post, I hope you're somebody who takes care to nourish your body everyday and respect it for all that it does for you.

love, bean xx

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Picking your 'Path'

I could be considered as a moderately lost person at this stage in my life. I live a comfortable life in a nice house and am surrounded by people who care for me, yet I feel like I’m looking for something, something substantial, a part of me which will make my life more 'fulfilling'. In the form of an analogy the best way I can try and describe my current situation is by referring to life being like climbing a mountain. In order to climb the mountain it helps to find a decent path, some paths are steeper and more dangerous yet exciting whereas others are relatively safe and simple, depending on what type of person you are effects which type of path you choose. The point at which I’m at is not even being able to find the right path for me to start climbing. I’m not personally a ‘simple path' type of person because I know there is a route which is much harder but where the views will be so much more satisfactory. How do I know the views are worth it? I have absolutely no idea; instinct I suppose.

''No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.''
-Buddha

Deciding big life choices is you mapping out your next stage of climbing the 'life mountain'. Whether it be what school you should go to or what the right career path is for you, deciding these questions normally begins with a time of self-reflection. A period of time, either un-consciously or fully planned, in which you decide what brings you true joy, the pros and cons and whether the pros outweigh the cons. There comes a point however, when you may just have to take the leap of faith; trust and believe that ‘whatever is meant to be will happen’ and go with your gut. For those people who don’t believe in fate this will be a pretty hard concept to accept, but I think if you don’t trust your instincts then sometimes you’ll just never move forward in life.

“If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved worrying will do you no good.”
― Śāntideva

One of my biggest inspirations and a person whom I believe to have chosen an exceedingly interesting ‘path’ is Russell Brand. He seems to have carved his life into the most intricate piece of art. His life could be thought of as a fairly abstract piece of art, which is probably why so many have difficulty in understanding him. Perhaps his enthusiastic speeches get lost in translation and mask his true genius for some. But those who appreciate the depth and detail of his character as a work of art will agree with me that he is an inspiration for not leading a necessarily conventional  and conforming life. There are many who define him by his ‘mistakes’, there are tabloids going back years which are a constant and evidential reminder of his addictions and past flamboyant antics. But does a ‘moral relapse’ in one stage of your life really have to constitute in our modern society in earning him the permanent status of being a ‘failure’, constantly being defined by his former actions?

I digress, I believe that with every drug he took and every drink he drunk it was his own journey and his version of climbing up his ‘mountain of life’. And who are we to be the judge and deem whether we believe he should never have partaken in such activities? Ultimately it is those lessons which he learnt that has brought him to such an articulate and profound perception of his understanding of life. I really do believe his life has been like a breath taking work of art, I think he is an exceptional being, something I could only aspire to.

''It's difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe. Everything beautiful in the world is within you.''
-Russell Brand

I’m a big believer that ‘life isn’t about the destination it’s about the journey’, so my philosophy is to do what makes you happy in this present moment and try not to dramatically worry about every minor consequence it may have. From one perspective we  could be considered as a collection of our past ‘mistakes’. They are an inevitable part of us which makes us human so learn from them and maybe try to enjoy them from time to time; perfection is an idea which can only really be defined in relative terms to each individual. It is a simple fact that you’ll never know what you like until you try things. Don’t be afraid to explore just because you may get something wrong and make a mistake. And try not to feel you have to necessarily conform and follow everybody up their path to save yourself from making a 'mistake' alone. Trust yourself and your mistakes so that you can go up your path at your own pace and in your own way.

''The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone, is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.''
Albert Einstein

 I recently came to the conclusion that if life is impermeable then we can only really trust (and enjoy) this present moment, nothing more and nothing less. Bar that, our life is ultimately a collection of our own memories, so what is so wrong in making the ride a little bit more interesting and entertaining. Ultimately you are the only one that has to live your life. I’m not saying it’s perfectly acceptable that the best idea is to go and be a reckless idiot, following the current popular trend of ‘YOlO’. However, I am saying to consider saying ‘yes’ a little bit more often and trusting yourself that mistakes aren’t the be all and end all. They could possibly be the factor that takes you up a different and more interesting path, the one that leads you to the better view. 

''To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all.''

-Peter McWilliams
 
 

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-fOHtE1rXE

(Please Note: I would want to write the equivalent of a dissertation on Russell Brand  as oppose to a couple of paragraphs but instead he will probably be a running theme throughout the course of my blogs. Check out his website here: http://www.russellbrand.tv/ If you know little about him   I will be talking lots about him. For the time being a  little fact I'll share is that we both do a form of meditation called Transcendental Meditation, he speaks about it  and supports it a lot for the David Lynch Foundation.)