Tips For Reading With ADHD

Tips for Reading with ADHD

(or without ADHD, if they help regardless)

Physical print:

cover the page with a piece of paper and reveal lines/paragraphs as you read them

use a highlighter to emphasize important/interesting parts

take notes as you go to be physically engaged with the material

Digital media:

copy and paste the text into a doc/word processor

change the font size/style/colour to something more legible

make your own paragraphs and spacing

copy and paste one paragraph at a time to isolate them from the distraction of the rest of the text

install a browser extension like BeeLine Reader or Mercury Reader

zoom in on the page and scroll slowly so you’re revealing lines as you read them

physically cover the screen and reveal lines as you read them

if you do better with physical media, print it out or find a physical copy

Both:

read out loud

pace, move around, or use a fidget while reading

set a timer for 5 minutes and read in small chunks with breaks in between

divide the material into sections and read one section at a time with breaks in between

have another person, audio book, or text-to-speech program read it aloud as you follow along

You’re lingerie style is literally me! What lingerie stores do you recommend ??

Yayy, we're on to one of my favourite topics!!

Okay, so I will just shout out the first lingerie shop that I went to with my girls. The one that essentially triggered my love for lingerie.

Intimissimi, Oxford Street

Speciality: comfortable lingerie, great for daily wear lingerie and basic underwear, also pretty cheap for lingerie and is constantly doing sales

Not as intricate as the lingerie I like to wear to feel pretty, but it was a great first experience of lingerie shopping.

Honourable mention: we also popped into Bravissimo on the way to the station that day and it is pretty similar to Intimissimi except it has more colourful pieces.

Now onto the shops that really suit my lingerie tastes!

La Perla, Sloane Street

Speciality: luxury lingerie, lingerie to suit all styles

I came here with my mum and aunts for a shopping trip but I have never actually bought any pieces for myself. It is expensive, so be ready to spend, but since lingerie is my guilty pleasure so I will invest soon. Quality is important if you want to own timeless, lasting pieces.

This is one of my favourite bras of theirs. The intricacy, the detailing, the fact that I know this will perfectly support my breasts and make them look incredible...sigh...I'm in love...

Bluebella (online)

Speciality: tiny see-through lingerie; lace!

I really like this store, just because their lingerie designs are really cute and they are the type of lingerie I like a lot (more see-through and lacey). Sadly their range of styles is not that great and most of their lingerie is pretty monotone.

They are very reasonably priced though and often have a sale; this is great for those who like to wear lingerie that is very revealing and hides very little.

I really like this lilac bra, mainly because I'm a sucker for soft colours like lilac and I also really like the design of the appliqué along the top of the cups (I appreciate how they didn't go overboard).

Angela Friedman (online)

Speciality: basically cute lingerie, there is quite a bit of variety; silhouette

I love floral lingerie, it's my guilty pleasure and I actually like (some) of their floral pieces. What I love most is that quite a few of their pieces help create that typical hourglass shape. They are a little expensive but definitely worth the investment!

I really like this simple set, it is honestly just so pretty and I feel like AF has really perfected their garter set style.

La Lilouche (online)

Speciality: details, details, details!

I love this lingerie brand, even though they don't have that many pieces, each piece find a way to captivate and somehow match my aesthetic. They seem to be currently obsessed with star and butterfly details and to be honest same. They are expensive...but (I keep saying this haha) it's an investment!

My favourite of theirs currently is this beautifully detailed tulle bra, it's so pretty!

I will reblog with pt 2!

- ala 👸🏾

Heyy!

I'm using corona as a bit if an excuse for me to be lazy (I'm 16 and trying to physically and mentally level up), would you please give me some tough love? You are one of my favorite accounts, thanks for helping us out✌💖

Hi babe! So as far as “tough love” your best bet is typically with @2pretty - she has the best posts in that area. I’ll still give it a shot though....

You’re 16. You are right on the cusp of young adult hood. Your brain is untapped potential. Your body is ready for challenges with little to no natural age-based hindrances. You are at the doorway to a powerful life. 

and what are you doing? Nothing!!!

That’s so wasteful! How can you complain that you're too lazy to do anything? You’ve never DONE anything yet! You have no excuse to be lazy!!!

I’m not saying you need to conquer the world, but dang!!!! Everything in your life will only get more difficult from here!!! You’re “too tired” now to physically or mentally try? You’re going to be an absolute waste of potential.

Sure, you hear stories of people getting in shape for the first time in their life at 40, but they all REGRET NOT DOING IT EARLIER!!!! You’re 16! Beginning a workout routine and healthy diet is BOTH the easiest it will ever be AND the most effective it will ever be!!!! You are a few ran miles and salad lunches away from abs!! Even by the time you’re 20, the same progress you could make in a week now will take you at least a month - and it only gets SLOWER REWARDING as you get older!!! You need to do more!!!!

Your brain is at a key growth and development stage!!!! Yes, you’re not as easily learnable of languages as you were when you were 5, BUT you still have all those new brain synopsis developing and just BEGGING to be used! What happens if you don’t engage them now? 

“Between 12 and 25, the brain changes its structure in a few important ways. Like an overeager forest, neurons in the early adolescent brain become bushier, growing more and more overlapping branches whose twigs reach toward one another, nearly touching except for tiny gaps known as synapses. When an electrical impulse—or action potential—reaches a twig, the neuron flings spurts of chemical messages across the synapse. Over time, depending on how teens busy their minds, twigs around the least used synapses wither, while twigs flanking the most trafficked synapses grow thicker, strengthening those connections.” - source

You really want to just chill out and never push yourself to learn anything? Welp. You’re just hurting yourself FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. I’m sure there’s cutesy little stories about someone doing something genius later in life... but biology doesn’t life. You’re not going to be brilliant in your 30s, 40s, 50+ if you’re not cultivating your brain now. End of story. 

You don’t need to be running marathons or studying astrophysics at a PhD level... but you need to be at least doing something!!!

So stop being lazy and DO something!!!

How I take care of my skin 🐝

Part 1 💗

Your skin is one of your best investments, it'll be with you for life so you better take care of it !

Keep in mind with all of this I am a woman of colour with fairly resilient skin 😂

How I got rid of my keratosis pilaris

Like most women of colour, I used to struggle with keratosis pilaris or what others call strawberry legs

I never really liked having the small dots on my body, so as soon as I could I found remedies and formed a routine to combat it

Acids

Acids are my best friend and have helped me the most in my journey.

I'm picky with the acids I use on my face because it's more sensetive, I only use

Lactic acid

Mandelic acid

Azelaic acid

But please do your own research on that is best for your skin type.

On my body, specifically my legs, I use glycolic or salicylic acid toners to deeply exfoliate my skin and this is a big part if your goal is to get it of KP.

Exfoliation Exfoliation Exfoliation

For physical exfoliants a good salt and sugar scrub always does the job as well as regular use of exfoliating gloves.

Before going into acids you really need to do your research on what acids can't mix together or can't be layered and how the acid actually works.

In my research I found out that women of colour who struggle with hyperpigmentation like myself should stay away from the regular use of harsh chemical and physical exfoliants cause our skin is sensetive and the reaction that causes hyperpigmentation and excessive melanin production in a certain area is sort of a defense mechanism and if you keep pushing at it with harsh products it will obviously react defensively. As for women who are not of colour you can get away with harsher products but you need to keep up with SPF😉.

Sunscreen and Sunglasses

This part is as important as the acids and scrubs.

And is my favourite topic 😂

After all the exfoliation one of the worst things you can do is walk out in the sun without sunscreen or protection from the sun.

No matter if you are white, black, purple, red, blue or green, YOU NEED TO PROTECT YOUR SKIN FROM THE SUN!

Decide on which sunscreen you want to use,

Physical/Mineral or Chemical

The ones which are ashy and blue-ish are normally physical/mineral (I prefer these)

Chemical are clear or white and are greasy most times and make my skin feel very hot, like the heat is absorbed by the sunscreen and there's just hot oil sitting on my face and depending on certain factors can cause chemical reactions to happen while it's on the skin, which is not what I want but it all depends on you and your needs, some people don't react to chemical sunscreens but I do sometimes.

Finding a good sunscreen that works for you is a priority

And if you use sunscreen I recommend double cleaning as well

Don't get acids if you don't have a good sunscreen !

For those who use acids on the face and for people who care about their facial skin in general😂, a pair of good UV protection sunglasses is a must to further protect your skin, thank you @ratchetprime for reminding me 💙

When I didn't have protection glasses I used to get freckles around my eyes or close to my eye area and the area was always sensitive and I didn't know why :/ but later after getting them and continuing my routine for a week or two they began to disappear :)

Together with acid, exfoliation and sun protection I managed to get rid of my hyperpigmentation and KP

I'm still learning but this has what has helped me so far !

Please do your own research and be gentle and patient with your skin💚

Tell me if you guys want a part 2 about my personal routine of moisturising, making your skin glow and fragrance 💗✨

The Art of Public Speaking

What is the purpose of your speech?

▪ To inform

▪ To persuade

▪ To entertain

4 basic rules:

Know your audience

Know your subject

Know your speech

Know yourself

Know your audience

▪ Try to find out as much about your audience as possible

▪ Age range

▪ Gender

▪ Cultural and educational background

▪ Interests/ Hobbies/…

  → Try to form your speech in a way that your audience finds entertaining (if you talk to children or people with poor education, use easier words etc.)

▪ Connection to the audience is very important

→ Share personal experiences to make the audience feel closer

Know your subject

▪ Feel passionate about your subject

▪ Don’t just learn it, know it

→ There was a professor who held the same speech countless times and his assistant eventually proposed that he could hold the speech since he listened to it often enough to memorize it. They swapped places and everything went great until someone asked a question briefly related. That example shows the difference between memorizing a speech and actually understanding its content.

▪ Whatever your speech lacks, you can make up for it with passion.

 → You can fake information but you can’t fake passion.

Know your speech

▪ One main idea/ main intention

→ 3 examples to support that main idea are usually the best

▪ Everything should be centered around your main idea

→ A good way to bring the audience back to this is by repeating a certain phrase (using an anapher) throughout the speech (Martin Luther King did this)

▪ The introduction is the most important part

 → You can start with a joke but only if you’re confident that it will make your audience laugh

▪ Other options are rhetorical questions, provocative questions, story-telling etc.

▪ Final message should make the audience think about your speech

▪ Great Examples:

→ Steve Jobs: Stay hungry, stay foolish

→ John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address

Know yourself

▪ Make sure that your body language is coherent with your message

▪ Confident voice and body language, observe popular public figures

▪ Make a lot of gestures (an analysis of the most popular vs the least popular Ted Talks has shown a significant difference in hand gestures)

▪ Let your audience see your palms

→ openness, honesty, trustworthiness

▪ If you have a stage, use the space given to you and don’t stay in the same place continuously. However, do not constantly walk around either, that makes you appear nervous.

▪ Smile

▪ Eye contact with every part of the audience

SOLER

S mile

O pen gesture

L ean in

E ye contact

R elax

General

▪ Practice in front of other people

▪ Everyone in the crowd is a human being just like you

▪ Find a role model to observe and copy

Source: Jamila Musayeva; How To Be A Confident Public Speaker: Public Speaking Tips

What are your skin care holy grails?

Paula’s Choice, The Ordinary, Khiel’s, La Mer, and SK-II. They’ve never done me wrong yet

Paula’s Choice, I love the Skin Perfecting 8% AHA Gel Exfoliant. It’s really a godsend, especially since I haven’t been able to get a facial in months. And I just started using the 2% BHA Body Spot Exfoliant, and it’s amazing. 10/10.

The Ordinary/Deciem, I love the Hylamide Vitamin C Booster, and their big tub of Hyaluronic Acid from the Chemistry Brand. And their Alpha Arbutin 2%.

I love the Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate and Midnight Recovery Eye cream. (A godsend after very little sleep).

La Mer Rejuvenating Serum is amazing. It’s very light, and quick to absorb.

SK-II Facial Treatment Masks. Make your skin super soft and hydrated. They’re amazing. 💛