Quarantine love letter

It’s spring 2020 and it’s one like no other. The current isolation we are in due to the COVID-19 pandemic is making things come up, emotions come up. One person has been around for all the hardships of my (love) life since I was little, and that is her. The other day she saved me once again, from her quarantine on the other side of the world, so I wrote her a love letter.

She is a life-saver. We’ve been best of friends since I was 6, when she stopped me on my way bringing out the trash. “Oh hey, do you live here too?” - she said. We had just started first grade in the same class. We’ve been on and off at times since, but that is how family is like, isn’t. And in the most off of times, it was her door I ran to first throughout the heartaches of high-school.

About 4 years ago though, something very special’s happened. It started with the craziest, most romantic, laughing-our-asses-off, forgetting the number of shots we had 20-years-of-friendship date night at the Bulgarian seaside, when she also showed me the magic of the law of attraction with a bang. It’s too long of a story to explain here, but basically what you think and really truly can believe, you create. It works - just take it or leave it. Since then, maybe it’s us that’ve grown, but I can definitely say our relationship did. She pops up in my life in the moments I need it the most, when I feel lost, when things don’t make sense, and grounds me. She knows. She knows stuff and she knows the right things to say. She knows that everything happens for a reason, and everything is there to teach me something. She knows that my anxiety and my body’s reactions don’t just happen, but they encode the messages of what my soul actually wants and needs. She knows that my femininity is sacred, and my intuition is my superpower. And she reminds it to me any time I seem to have forgotten. She also says I do the same for her sometimes, and that makes my heart so warm you could fry an egg on it (and I am vegan so I don’t even eat eggs but it’s the first thing that came to my mind).
We wore these funny halves of a heart “best friend” necklaces in 3rd grade, and so the moment I saw these “stay together, slay together” t-shirts with the same “best friend” print on their backs a few years ago, I had to get them for us. And funnily, we haven’t even worn them together yet, that’s how rarely we see each other. But I have her in my life, and that’s enough.

You might be lucky enough to have one like her around or you may not, but all the things above, I hope you can put them somewhere deep in a pocket and take them out whenever you need them. She is a life-saver.

xx, D

The way we live our days is the way we live our lives

These are just a few short words on mindfulness, that I must have picked up from one of my favourite podcasts, if I’m not mistaken. It’s called The Doctor’s Farmacy (yes with an “F”), and the host doctor Mark Hyman is a beautiful soul who has so much knowledge and wisdom to share, as well as some really cool guests.

So there it goes. Couldn’t have caught the essence of what a good yoga practice is if you had asked me right now.

A good yoga practice is the one you do. Even a five or ten minute stretch with intentional, deep breathing can change the quality of your thoughts, physique, and entire day.

And the way we live our days is the way we live our lives.

Picture from one very beautifully and mindfully lived day in and around Ubud, Bali btw.

And my new favourite organic-cotton-and-ethically-made-in-Bali yoga top credit goes to studio kolektif.

Inspiration: Harvard Graduation Speech

While checking LinkedIn tonight I stumbled upon a video from this year's Harvard commencement ceremony, and the speech of one of the graduates in particular - Pete Davis. It starts with a short story about a guy browsing through Netflix on a long weekday's night, after half an hour of which he gets tired from all the available options and falls asleep. I couldn't help but think how on point and in sync this story was with the age we're living in right now - the age of countless options, where everything and anything is possible, really. And don't get me wrong - I think we are absolutely blessed to be able to do that. The thing is, this endless choice so often makes it that much harder to commit to one thing - be it a career, a cause, or a person and sustain that commitment over the long term. Because turning values into practices, visions into projects, and strangers into neighbours takes real commitment, says Pete Davis. And while I am by no means saying we should ever settle for anything less than we can achieve, I believe that remembering every day to give our full attention to the thing we are doing right now and being the best we can be every day trains the awareness in us needed to find the way we are determined to go (sorry not sorry for little too much spirituality:).

““In the age of infinite browsing mode, we should pick a damn movie and see it all through... before we fall asleep. Let’s get to work!””

Thanks for the reminder Pete!

Inspirational Quote: Steve Jobs

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

— Steve Jobs

This quote is part of Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech 2005, which I've listened to a lot of times and find so true and inspiring. One thing I would point out though is that I definitely think that whatever you are doing at the moment, even if you might not particularly love the job, it is very important that you commit and give it the best you can with the resources that you have. And with that in mind, I believe there is always room for taking a little bit of time every day for something that you really truly love, regardless of a busy schedule. And trust that one day the dots will connect :)

Why September is the best month to start over

There is something so charming about September. On the one hand, summer is not yet over and you can still enjoy the one or the other day/week at the beach, without the crowds and burning summer sun. On the other hand, the weather is cooling off, which, after the couple of months of living in shorts, makes me enjoy layering clothes and crave cosy sweaters and pumpkin spice lattes. But despite the charm and colourful fairytale-like tree leaves and all, there is something that for me really makes September the best month to start things over, whether it is a new work project, a new job, a workout plan or diet.

It's back to school time! OK, I know you're probably not going to school anymore. Anyways, whether you're going back to school, university or work after a nice summer vacation, don't we all keep that back to school feeling pretty much for the rest of our lives when September hits? Temperatures drop and the mornings start smelling like wet fall leaves. Some kind of melancholy for earlier days wakes up in me at that time every year, but also the inner motivation to be better, to work harder, to tirelessly pursue my passion. That's why I like setting new goals at this time of the year. Because let's face it, those new year's resolutions are so overrated and the whole year ahead is such a long time period, that we never actually get them done and they are super hard to track. That's why 90-day-goals have proven to be much more effective and trackable. So what better time to set goals that you want to accomplish until the rest of the year than now :D

So, if you are reading this, and there is something you think about every day, go and start working towards that dream, start working on the new project, find the job you love or create it yourself, and get rid of the negative in your life. And even though I am in no way some sort of a guru, I do have a recipe for achieving that goal, which I borrowed from Jordan Belfort (a.k.a. the real Wolf of Wallstreet). I sincerely hope this is not plagiarism in some way but the recipe is as follows: Write down your goal on a piece of paper, write exactly what you want to achieve and describe it. Then write down how you are going to feel when you do achieve your goal, to really be able to visualise your success. Next step is pick a person that is more important to you than yourself, and write down what you would do for them when you achieve your goal. Only thing that you have left is putting your goal in a bag/pocket to carry it around everywhere with you and take a picture of it to put it on your phone's screensaver. Et voila! - bulletproof. This way it's gonna be in front of your eyes at all times. Now you are unstoppable towards achieving your 90-day goal :)

Inspirational Quote: Don't stop

““If you can’t stop thinking about it, don’t stop working for it.” ”

— Michael Jordan

Inspirational Quote: You aren't here to be perfect

“Live through the grace of stumbling. Through the beauty of messing up. Often. You aren’t here to be perfect. You already are. You came here to be gorgeously human. ”

Stumbled upon these words of wisdom on Insta today :)

The last weeks have been really tough at uni, there was so much going on, so I'm really happy to finally be flying home tomorrow for a week. Looking forward to some relaxing time with those that always love you no matter the stumbling and messing up and never judge (a.k.a. family) ;)) So happy to have them!

Try something new for 30 days challenge

Thanks to the lovely Polina I stumbled across this TED talk and it was just the reminder I needed of how important it is to take our time every day for fun, creative things that really bring us joy.  And guess what, according to this TED talk 30 days seems to be enough to form a habit, so I decided to take the challenge and blog every day for 30 days, starting Saturday :) I created D Golden Hour as my own little place for creativity and beauty, but the crazy schedule since I started my master program and, let's face it, the way I set my priorities, has been keeping me away from it. Honestly, I believe that everything you set your mind to you can achieve, regardless of a crazy schedule, so here it goes, I'm taking this challenge to blog about things that excite me for 30 days straight :D

As me and my Entrepreneurship Avenue team were brainstorming marketing campaigns about our conference the other day and thinking about people walking down roads, I came to realise I actually always liked roads and particularly taking pictures on dusty straight roads, cause well, I don't know, to me they kind of symbolise that idea of taking a chance, going after your wishes and dreams and well, just pursuing whatever it is you want to pursue :) So here are my road photos that I found somewhere deep down the Bonaire photos folders ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnfBXjWm7hc