To be completely honest, I haven't been in the best place recently. I'm not feeling completely (or slightly) satisfied with life at the moment, and when you have that lost feeling weighing on your shoulders, it's hard to not let little annoyance become much more that than. I cried for half hour this morning because I burnt my toast and it felt like the world was against me (no joke. It's sad I know.)
Of course when you feel low, you always need to search for a way to pick yourself up (even if it's not immediately, there's only so long you can cry over burnt toast!)

When this happens there are a few things I like to do to feel better once I'm done feeling sorry for myself.

Firstly, I do believe we feel whatever we're feeling, no matter how ridiculous it may be, there is a reason we feel this way. If you're sad allow yourself to feel sad, just don't over do it.  It's important you know when enough, is enough and it's time to get out of bed and wipe your tears.

Today I was struggling to get myself out of my funk, when a book on my shelf caught my eye. It was the Calm book (which I spoke about in this haul video). I decided to get it down and have a flick through. This is  the first time I have looked through the book when in need of a sense of calm, and I've got to say it was honestly a lot more effective than I'd expected. The book contains a lot of imagery and typography to give both a calming affect and give a sense of it's not really that bad is it. There are also activity in the book to keep you calm - I traced my finger through maze and felt a hell of a lot better having done so (who knew that was thing?)

I know you may not own this book, but I think something which you can easily reach for to calm you down helps. I believe sometimes to get out of your own head you need something physical you can hold, to move your attention and focus your energy in a nicer place to be (I think you can also get calm cards which I think it the best idea when your losing your cool out of the house.) So if you don't have this book find/buy something physical which can bring you a sense of calm. It's hard to do all of that just inside your head.

Talking about how physical things can help you keep your cool, my next point is quite the opposite, physical things can also encourage low points. Be aware of your surroundings. If you hauled up in bed in a room with closed windows and curtains, wardrobes and drawers open, dirty laundry on the floor, and a big piles of uncompleted paper work sat around, you're just not really going to feel great are you. Give things a clean and tidy. Not only is it quite therapeutic, but once hidden away your to do list, let in some fresh air and made sure you can walk across the room without stepping on your belongings, you mind space is a lot more likely to be as clear as your physical space. I'm sure you've all heard the saying 'a clear space, a clear mind' - there's a reason people say that!

When we are in a bad mood we tend to blame it on everything and nothing. Rather than thinking, "That's annoying I'll make another piece" we find our mind headed to this dark spiral of ridiculousness "I burnt my toast, that just another crap thing. I'm also not enjoying work, and I wish my appearance were different and I can't afford something I want to buy" (I'm not the only one who does this when I'm sad, right?" Try analysing what is actually wrong, because I guarantee the toast is not what's getting you down, and neither are these ridiculous reason you've just decided your life is awful either. Make it simple. What are your basic needs?
Are you hungry? (well, obviously I burnt my toast!) We are all a victim of getting a little hangry once in a while. Have you drank much water, you could be dehydrated! Did you get much sleep last night? You get the point right? Our problems seem so much worse when we're not taking care of ourself. Have a shower, of course you feel like crap, you smell.

Remember what you love doing, I'm sure it's not actually eating so many chocolate buttons you could throw up in your bed whilst you cry. Today I whipped out my laptop and read some of my favourite blogs. Something I've not done in a while. I have a extremely bad habit of abandoning the things I love doing when I'm feeling low, and instead throwing my very own pity part. This recently absents from my own blog has stemmed from something of the sort. I think it's partly to do with a lack of inspiration. However inspiration always comes back, even when it's unexpected,  I'm basically writing this blog post because of a piece of burnt toast, and still I cannot seem to stop typing. (Congratulations if you're still reading, I'm impressed!)

Try to remember what you love doing, and force yourself to do it, even if you don't feel like it. Get out your sketchbook, get out your notebook, get creative. If you don't feel like writing or drawing or whatever it is you do yourself, read something someone else wrote, look at something else art.
Be you by doing what you love, or simply keeping it close. I feel as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulder now I've found the inspiration to write again. I feel like me again. Reading a few blogs has really turned my morning around. Rather than feeling sorry for myself I found an escape which reminded me to come back down to earth by doing what I enjoy.

Lastly make plans. Having something to look forward to is a great reminder that whatever is going on now is temporary. After my huge strop over, well, nothing (or toast) I went downstairs and asked my mum if she wanted to go to the cinema next weekend. If I have a rubbish week at work, at least I know I'm going to have a nice time at the weekend. You literally get yourself out of your funk by planning to get out.

I'll be very impressed if you've read all the way to end of this post, sorry for the lengthiness, when inspiration has been lacking, when it finally comes, sometimes it's in the form of word vomit.

What helps you keep your calm?

Love,
Chloé
x

You may have noticed, despite early April setting myself a goal of publishing two blogposts a week, I have hardly blogged at all. I have certainly noticed the distance I put between myself and my blog.

Working 8-6 five days a week, posting weekly youtube videos and publish two blog posts a week that I'm happy with is kind of a lot to do. I know, a lot of people work full time and have a far more successful blog than me, but that is somebody else circumstances, not my own. I spent a day shooting blog photographs, I felt excited to share them, I was even bragging about how good they came out! However later that day I ended up with a broken memory card, and the lost all of those photos I'd been so pleased with. I think bad luck must have caught me on the wrong days, as I felt a bigger blow that the loss of a few pictures and videos. It had clearly all been getting too much,  I decided I was going to stop blogging because I felt unsuccessful and it felt as though I had been wasting my time. Luckily, I realised if I deleted my blog I might live in regret, so instead, I've been distancing myself from blogging, because I want my blog to remain a happy place for me.


The saying "if you ever feel like giving up, remember why you started" came to mind one night, so I decided to look back through my blog,  it surprisingly wasn't as cringe as I'd expected. My first few posts reminded me that this is something I started for myself, it wasn't ever something I did for views, income or samples (not that income and samples are something I get from blogging), but it was because I wanted a creative outlet to talk about things I loved, days I had and products I used - it wasn't until about a year into blogging I became a huge fan of photography, which gave me another aspect of blogging to love.

I think I've been working so hard to try to achieve something with my blog, I failed to see my blog was already achieving it's purpose of giving me that creative outlet, and anything else is a bonus.

Sometimes in the world of social media it can be easy to get caught up in the figures and comparing yourself to others. I found myself resenting blogging because I felt other are so much better at it, and it seemed like a cruel reminder of how I wasn't successful, but since when was it a competition. Now looking in a brighter light, I should be praising other peoples success in the industry, is a reminder of how well people can do, and it should be a push to keep working, not the opposite. We all have a voice, just because somebodies else is being heard, it does mean you have to quieten yours. In other words, there is room for more than a small handful of success bloggers in this world, and remember we all have different motivations for this, and different definitions of success.

A few weeks away from it, and I've felt lost during the evenings and I've found myself planning posts and photographs as I go about my daily life, because even when I try to get away from it, I still love blogging, I love writing, I love photography and I love being able to express my own voice in my little space of the internet, and I have realised that is enough.

I'm not saying having thousands of followers wouldn't be great, because it would, and I'm not saying I wouldn't love to one day make a career of this, because I would - but if that dream were to ever come true, I need to make sure I still have the same love for blogging which I started with, otherwise it wouldn't be the dream come true I'd hope for.

From now on, more blogging for me - less comparison to other. I will be working hard, not to better others, but to better myself, to enjoy myself and to be proud of how I'm spending my time and improve my skills in things I love. In my photography, in my writing, in my blogging.

I have a voice, and this on this little space internet is where I choose to use it. Even if no one is listening, it's good to speak (even if when it's just about lipstick sometimes!)