For Your New Year Glowup

For your new year glowup…

Confidence Tips ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

• Be optimistic, positive, and grateful. Gratitude and positivity are such good traits to have, having them, and expressing them will make you happier and more confident.

•Stop comparing yourself to others! Instead of being envious of another person’s success, learn from them and their success. Comparison is the thief of joy. Focus on your strengths, learn to compete with yourself rather than other others, celebrate others’ victories, and practice gratitude.

• Good posture. It is scientifically proven that having good posture will make a person feel more powerful, calm, and confident.

•Eye contact. I don’t think I need to explain this one too much. Eye contact is extremely powerful. Practicing eye contact in conversations will help you feel more confident, simple as that.

•Speak slowly and thoughtfully. This is actually something I am currently working on. Be mindful of what you are saying, and speak calmly. Don’t worry about needing to rush and spit out your words.

•Embrace and accept yourself. Many people think confidence is about changing everything about yourself until you finally like yourself. NO. Confidence is about loving and trusting yourself, realizing that you are enough.

Practice self love!!! Drink some water!!! Compliment yourself!!!

Brianna Wiest, 101 essays that will change the way you think

‎♡₊˚ 🦢・₊✧ Establishing a sleep schedule‎ ♡₊˚ 🦢・₊✧ 

hello my little feathers <3 

i thought that was a cute nickname lmao but bear with me. i’m going through a phase. regardless, someone has got to teach y’all how to sleep since we all know your sleep routine is so whack, the morning birds are your lullabies. i get it— you’re convinced your circadian rhythm is non-existent. i did too. then i visited an OT who gave me a wake up call. in reality, it is very uncommon to have a genuine disorder regarding your circadian rhythm. which means all your nocturnal habits? those are all you, bbgirl. you can choose to be embarrassed about it and accept your life as an owl, or you can finally get some beauty sleep and address those eye bags. 

here are the tips that helped me personally go from sleeping late at night/early in the morning and only getting 3 hours of sleep a night to now consistently getting 8 hours of sleep a night. 

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𓆰𓆩♡𓆪𓆰 pick a wake up time 𓆰𓆩♡𓆪𓆰 

this is the most important part of this advice column. seriously. you could stop reading after this. 

setting a wake time doesn’t mean, “oh, ideally, i’d like to wake up at this time, but when my alarm goes off, i’ll snooze for a couple more minutes because ugh, baby steps amrite?”

no.

it means once that alarm goes off, you are UP. whether you have to drag yourself, roll yourself, or cry yourself out of bed, GET. OUT. OF. BED. 

you cannot compromise with this wake up time, even if the night before, you stayed up until 5 am. If you set your wake up time to 6 am, you better learn to function with 1 hour of sleep because these are the consequences of your actions. 

while it may seem counterintuitive to sabotage your sleep schedule by denying yourself those extra minutes or hours to catch up, sleep deprivation is the most common tactic used to reset and stabilize a person’s disorder sleeping patterns. the entire rationale behind this is to push your body to a point of desperation (lol it sounded so much less cruel when my OT said it) so it’ll want to sleep earlier. you’re trying to tire yourself out so the moment you’re allowed to sleep (we’ll get to that in a second), paired with the rest of the tips in this list, you’re knocking out immediately. 

so find a time that you ideally want to naturally wake up at. for me, it’s 7:30 am since i work a 9-5, but you could go earlier or later than this. whatever works for you. just be prepared to commit to it because you have to commit to it. 

𓆰𓆩♡𓆪𓆰 making your environment a ‘sleep-only’ zone 𓆰𓆩♡𓆪𓆰 

this is a shoutout to all the girlies who live out of their bed. stop that. 

yes, it is comfy. yes, it is nice to snuggle there and read a book, or scroll on your phone, or watch netflix, or do your homework, or whatever other jazz you’re getting up to. but there are two purposes for your bed: sleep and s3x. if you’re not doing either, you’re not allowed in there. 

i like to think of my room as different zones. my desk is my work-zone. the open space i have where my weights are is my stretching/workout zone. my closet is my dressing-zone. and i use other parts of the house as my eating-zones, my reading-zones, my hygiene-zones, etc. 

my bed is my sleeping zone. which means that place is sacred and only meant for sleeping. no outside clothes on the bed. no lounging on the bed. not even to flop down when i’m exhausted from a long day at work or workout. if i am that tired, i can stretch, or i can find a couch. or, i can undress myself from my outside clothes into my nightwear and sleep. but the bed is for sleeping. that’s it.

this tip actually helped me beyond sleep, because establishing these zones skyrocketed my productivity. it essentially helped my brain zero in on the task i intended to complete without distractions, because why else would i be at my desk if not to write or do work? my desk isn’t for eating. my bed especially isn’t. so food isn’t in my room, and therefore the only logical thing to do in that zone is what it is meant for. 

your mindset is equally as important as your environment. pairing these two together is what will help you at the end of the night, when you’re ready for bed, to hit the hay the moment your head touches that pillow. because your brain has already been preparing for sleep. it knew the moment you started getting ready for bed. 

𓆰𓆩♡𓆪𓆰 night routines 𓆰𓆩♡𓆪𓆰 

this is your time to be in your aesthetic, vanilla girl era. read a couple of pages of your book, drink an herbal (uncaffeinated) tea (except beware if you have a small bladder like me to not do this lmao), wash your face, comb your hair, get into your nighties, wrap your hair in whatever protective style you like, and then get under your covers for a night of restfulness. your routine is you time. no thoughts about tomorrow. no to-do lists. no last minute tasks. its your time to unwind. if you need a candle to do it, if washing your face isn’t enough and you need a shower— however your routine looks, cater it to whatever will help you feel relaxes and mellow by the end of it, so you are head empty by the time those covers are over your body. 

𓆰𓆩♡𓆪𓆰 helpful tools 𓆰𓆩♡𓆪𓆰 

here’s a list of things that may or may not help you with your sleeping journey!

weighted blanket: helps your nervous system enter into a state of rest (parasympathetic nervous system activation). known as pressure therapy, and typically used to help alleviate symptoms of anxiety (increased heart rate, muscle tension, racing thoughts, etc)

heated blanket: for people who get cold easily— as opposed to layering up in constrictive layers, this is a nice way to snuggle and feel warm

silk eye mask: helps block out light. similarly, you can also get a complete black-out eye mask

silk bonnet: especially for the curly hair girlies out there— you guys already know. its such a protective way to keep your hair out of your face at night and nourish it while you rest. 10/10 recommend 

blackout curtains: helps block out outdoor light 

sunrise lamp: for gloomy days, in order to support a healthy circadian rhythm, exposure to sunlight helps regulate the body’s fluctuation of melatonin, making it easier to wake up. essentially, dark = more melatonin (which is why winters feel sleepier because of the shorter days), and light = less melatonin production 

—

okay, that’s it! sleep well, little feathers <3 

being an it girl like cher horowitz

introduction:

since i've been talking about fictional it-girls recently (elle and rory) i want to talk about my personal fav, cher from clueless! cher is my ultimate it girl- i love how she is giving and helps other people (tai's makeover and volunteering at her school), is serious about self improvement AND has such a cute style!

school:

make your school routine fun. in the morning make your routine fun- maybe listening to your favorite music while you get ready.

put effort into how you look. cher always dresses up for school and honestly it does make it so much more fun to wear cute clothes and do your hair for school. do what makes u happy! i like to do overnight rollers so my hair has volume for school and also just painting my nails and wearing cute accessories.

be friendly to your peers, especially new kids. make small talk with the people who you sit with in class. if you have a compliment in mind for someone, give it to them even if you're a little nervous. go outside of your comfort zone when it comes to being social.

get involved in extracurricular activities. this is great to make friends and also just a good way to spend your time.

study smarter, not harder.

self improvement:

do work for your community. after the pismo beach disaster cher helped by donating things she had and volunteering for fundraisers. cher knew that she was priviledged so she helped other people.

read one non-school book per week. cher mentions doing this in the movie, and it's just good advice! personally i read before bed and once i finish my schoolwork. (i have a block schedule so my classes are long and we get a lot of free time).

do self care. cher is serious about taking care of herself. skincare, haircare, etc. take care of yourself and pamper yourself :)

take better care of your health. cher makes sure to eat well and stay active. i think it's good for all people to learn more about nutrition, eat more balanced and create fun ways to workout. we only have one body so we need to make sure that we're taking good care of it.

build your vocabulary. cher likes learning new words and using them. having a better vocabulary makes people take you more seriously, and also it's just good to learn new things ofc.

conclusion:

be authentic to who you are, while also being your best self. being kind and helping other people, having a good heart, those are the important things. remember to take care of yourself, your health and also just pampering yourself once in a while. work on taking care of your body and your mind. :)

life in luxury