Sneakers n' Shakes

26 Things I’ve learned in 26 Years: Be kind, a small act of kindness can go a long way and you never know what others are going through Allow yourself to be a beginner, try new things and be open to new people and new experiences; there is always something to learn from someone else Learn to rest, not quit; start again and again, you have the ability to change things about yourself and create new habits You don’t need to overcome fear, you just need to move forward despite it Be an enthusiast of life, fall in love with the little things like the way the sunlight filters into your bedroom or the smell of coffee in the morning, romanticize little moments Find the things your passionate about, the things that make you happy, and make time for them Let go, the things meant to stay, will Listen to your body, often times it knows more than your mind Don’t let the world turn you cruel, there is good out there, find it, life is better when you focus on the things you like There is no such th...

Despite bullet journaling for four years now, I only recently started a daily planner. Instead I had a weekly planner that listed out my “weekly goals” (a set list of things I do every week to move me closer to my bigger goals) along with any additional plans and activities specific to the week in question. I tried to break out that weekly planner into days with little success. But that changed when I recently got a new journal that isn’t really fancy but has a little date section at the top and clearly meant for daily use. Now I reserve one page for my weekly planner as I mentioned above and the next seven pages to focus on each day. In this blog post I’ll share with you how I set up my daily planner in it’s current state. (Note: I say current state because if there’s anything I learned through bullet journaling it’s a trial and error process and there will be many modifications until I figure out what works for me and what doesn’t) -.-   The top half of the page i...

If you’ve always wanted to start journaling (or just try something new) but don’t know where to start or find it all overwhelming, this blog post is sure to help! This month I’ll be outlining 3 simple and easy ways you can start journaling and kick off the new year! To begin let me break down what I believe are the basic concepts of journaling: documentation, goal-setting, and self-reflection.  In this post I’ll be outlining 3 simple ways you can accomplish these basic concepts, with each method covering a different concept. Let’s start with the easiest and my favorite method to start journaling: buying a calendar. This method is to tackle the documentation aspect of journaling. If you find that writing things down in a traditional journal is hard, then the calendar method, as I call it, is a much easier way to document your life. 1.  Expo Calendar (Exhibition Calendar) This is exactly what it sounds like, it exhibits your life. Basically you get a calendar (I get mi...

This is my third attempt at writing this month’s blog post because for some reason I’m unable to complete my thoughts in an understandable manner. But I still want a blog post for December because I haven’t missed one since I started posting again this year. Something I have learned over the course of the year and especially the past two months is that it’s better to do something poorly than not at all. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. Let me explain. Of course, it would be great if you could always do an amazing job every time you did something, but sometimes you can’t bring that energy to the table. Doing the best you can, even if that day your best is not that good at all, is still better than not attempting in the first place. A month ago, I started doing these activity pulls (I filled a cup with little slips of paper that had different activities I’d written and then I’d do the activity that I pulled from the cup) and looking back there are so many more aestheti...

  My journey so far into 2022 has been outward. Hiking up a mountain, with stumbles and falls completely focused on growing and changing and evolving. A journey with a destination, to find the “new me”. At the end of last year, I found myself getting dissatisfied with who I was, who I had become. It was a low point that made me realize that I needed to change something if I wanted to stop feeling this way. Change is something we all do, either because we are forced to, or just through the natural passage of time. But conscious change is different. It’s something you have to inherently focus on, not a background process of life. 2022 has been that conscious change. I set out with some objectives, to be more open, to let go of my need for control, to communicate better, to name a few. All things I weren’t entirely sure how to accomplish or even if they would help at all. But that’s the thing about conscious change or goals or anything else in life, you won’t know until you ac...

  In order to maintain consistency, you need to manufacture motivation. I know it sounds weird to say but it’s not always possible to “find” motivation as we often say. Finding implies that it exists somewhere and you need to search for it, but how far can the search go? And what happens when you don’t find it? The stages of starting something, whether it’s a habit or a hobby, is usually like this: -You find that natural motivation or inspiration for something which becomes the trigger for you to actually start it, it’s your taking off point. -Once the motivation tapers off, discipline keeps the ball rolling -But sometimes the discipline falters, what then? That’s when you need to take a moment to remember why you began in the first place. It sound’s cliché but this evaluation is important. Upon reflecting you might realize you don’t need or want this thing in your life anymore, which would then save your time and effort. On the other hand, if it is something you wan...

This past week I challenged myself to romanticize my life every single day. From previous experience, I knew it was unrealistic to expect every moment to feel like that, so my goal was to have one defined moment/activity during which I fully embrace the main character role in a romance movie. It’s something I try to do at least once or twice a week since it’s a grounding moment in my day. To romanticize something, you need to be very present in the moment. In a way it forces you to pause and reflect upon what you’re doing and make it the best thing ever (in your head at least). It’s difficult to write a blog post on it so I’ll lead by example and share with you the log I kept of how each day went and what I did. (Hopefully this gives you some ideas!) -.- Monday: This morning, after going through most of my morning routine, I sat and scrapbooked. Scrapbooking is always fun and relaxing for me, so it was an easy thing to romanticize. The fact that I had a day off work helped ...

This month I decided to share three nonfiction books I’ve recently read that have made an impact on me in some way. Whether it’s changing my view of the world and my place in it, re-evaluating my relationships, or simply teaching me something new, the following three books have stood out to me this year.   1.     1. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer This book, as one review calls it, is truly a ‘hymn of love to the world’. The author, who is native American, blends both indigenous ideas with science to describe the natural world around us in a beautifully poetic way. Despite it’s long page count, it’s easy to read along as it flows from one chapter to another. There were many quotable moments and it left me feeling both at peace and restless to go outside. My biggest takeaways from the book that have altered the way I view the world are:      -the concept that the world is a ‘communion of subjects’ not a ‘collection of objects’ ...

I’ve found that self-love can be broken up into three different components. I say components and not steps because there is no order to accomplish them and each of these are simply pieces that make up a bigger whole. Some of them might come easier than others depending on the person, the important thing though, is to just to start. Reaching one is better than none and what matters most is that you’re working towards something. I’ll take a moment to add a quick note: Self-love is a subjective thing and difficult for many people. In this post, I’m simply laying the roadmap that I’ve discovered. Ultimately, it’s up to you how you want to follow it. I’m giving you the ideal, what makes up the 100% if you will. Maybe your personal goal is just to reach 75%, and that’s totally fine. As long as you’re working towards what you feel you need. With that said, let me explain what I believe to be the 3 pillars of self-love. (Again, in no particular order)   Intrinsic Self-Love T...

The reason why most common fitness and nutrition advice doesn’t work for most women is because the research is predominantly done on male bodies. That was the beginning to the tik tok that introduced me to the world of cycle syncing at the end of last month. The girl who made the video went on to explain the concept of cycle syncing and recommended a book: In the Flo by Alisa Vitti which I immediately read. And so I entered the world of cycle syncing and this post is to share with all of you what I’ve learned thus far. A few notes before I begin: -I will be summarizing my main takeaways from the book and other research I’ve done. I highly recommend you read In the Flo and others like it yourself to get a more comprehensive understanding. -Not all women menstruate and not all people who menstruate are women. For the sake of biology I’ll be using the word ‘women’ but please know that this is meant to be inclusive and welcoming to all people. -If you are trans or don’t bleed...

This month I’m running the #maylifestylechallenge on my Instagram ( sneakersnshakes ) and I wanted to take a moment to talk about what this is, where it stemmed from, and why it’s important. In a previous post (one of my first ones actually) I talk about Setting Goals, specifically what I call Monthly Notes. I suggest you read that post ( linked here ) since I’m only going to be brushing over the topic as I outline how I structure my months. On top of my Monthly Notes (these are the goals more specific to each month) I also follow what I call a Monthly Checklist which is a baseline and applies to ever single month. The checklist is broad on purpose and encompasses challenges that push towards growth. This checklist is as follows: -something new -something creative -educating myself (usually denoted as documentary) -giving back (usually denoted as donation) I want to go down this list and talk about different ways these goals can be accomplished. -.- Something New ...