small steps

push yourself to get up before the rest of the world - start with 7am, then 6am, then 5:30am. go to the nearest hill with a big coat and a scarf and watch the sun rise.

push yourself to fall asleep earlier - start with 11pm, then 10pm, then 9pm. wake up in the morning feeling re-energized and comfortable.

get into the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. tomatoes and mushrooms in real butter and garlic, an egg, slice up a fresh avocado and squirt way too much lemon on it. sit and eat it and do nothing else.

stretch. start by reaching for the sky as hard as you can, then trying to touch your toes. roll your head. stretch your fingers. stretch everything.

buy a 1L water bottle. start with pushing yourself to drink the whole thing in a day, then try drinking it twice.

write down everything you do, including dinner dates, appointments, assignments, coffees, what you need to do that day. no detail is too small.


organise your room. fold all your clothes (and bag what you don’t want), clean your mirror, your laptop, vacuum the floor. light a beautiful candle.



have a luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. wash your hair, scrub your body, brush your teeth. lather your whole body in moisturiser, get familiar with the part between your toes, your inner thighs, the back of your neck.



push yourself to go for a walk. take your headphones, go to the beach and walk. smile at strangers walking the other way and be surprised how many smile back. 



message old friends with personal jokes. reminisce. suggest a catch up soon, even if you don’t follow through. push yourself to follow through.



think long and hard about what interests you. crime? sex? boarding school? long-forgotten romance etiquette? find a book about it and read it. there is a book about literally everything. 



become the person you would ideally fall in love with. let cars merge into your lane when driving. stick your tongue out at babies. compliment people on their cute clothes. challenge yourself to not ridicule anyone for a whole day. then two. then a week. walk with a straight posture. look people in the eye. ask people about their story. talk to acquaintances so they become friends.



lie in the sunshine. daydream about the life you would lead if failure wasn’t a thing. open your eyes. take small steps to make it happen for you.

Edited version of 16 Small Steps to Happiness, author unknown

Today we had a motivational speaker (I rolled my eyes too) come in. My whole perspective on life has been turned around. I feel refreshed, I feel as if his words have bettered me, invigorated me, and isn't that the best thing words can do?

a quote for you

This quote by John Green, perfectly sums up my life.

"That plane had TVs in the back of each seat and once we were above the clouds, Augustus and I timed it so that we started watching the same romantic comedy at the same time on our respective screens. But even though we were perfectly synchronized in our pressing of the play buttons, his movie started a couple seconds before mine, so at every funny moment, he’d laugh just as I started to hear whatever the joke was."

- John Green, ‘The Fault in Our Stars’

Artwork by Maya Pletscher

I like the way John Green writes: it's simple and it flows and you could spend years jumping from one of his chapters to the next. Above all, I like the way he can take a thought, a normal one that you would encounter every day, and rolls it around to slip it snugly into one of his novels. And you think, yes, oh my, yes, that's exactly what I've been thinking all this time, and that feeling is exactly what I wanted to express 

but I could never quite find

the right words.

quiet

“T h e  q u i e t e r  y o u  b e c o m e ,  t h e  m o r e  y o u  c a n  h e a r. ” 

BABA RAM DAS

today was such a quiet day.

i drank white tea.

i munched on cashew nuts.

i sat outside in the winter air.

a lot of thoughts went through my mind, i tried to write them down as poems.

i pondered the meaning of life.

i played around with double exposures.

and i read the great gatsby.

today was a quiet day and i somehow feel much more peaceful than when i woke up this 

morning.

x

lotus m.

(oh and thank you for your encouraging comments on the launching of 'there is always a 

story'! i was very happy when i read all of them.)

a compilation

 ........

this is photo post to make up for the lack of 

pictures in the last one... sorry about that.

so without further ado here is a compilation

of pictures taken on a sunday walk along

the lake.

(with a couple of my favourite quotes thrown in)

........

- Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark

“It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures.”

- Ally Condie, Matched

 

 “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” 

- Marilyn Monroe

Photo creds to the little sister.

Again, photo credit to Anouk.

 “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” 

- Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

have a lovely week,
lm

saturday mood board.

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” 

― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

P-S Sorry about being away for such a while, things are quite hectic at the moment. So please bear with and also, thank you for the new wonderful people who have followed along 'My Words And I'. You guys are champs. xxx