Today I'm Growing
Hey I’m Anna and I’m here to help you grow into the best version of yourself. Physically, mentally and in all areas of life. Growth is powerful because it makes us feel stronger, more confident, healthier, and happier. I want to find out all the tips, tricks, habits, and routines - everything we need to know to GROW. I want to do this together with you in this podcast.
New episodes the first Tuesday of each month.
Today I'm Growing
How to Find Balance
Hey team! Today, I’m talking about how trying to be perfect left me burned out and how I found a healthier, more balanced way to live. From healing my relationship with food with the 80-20 rule to balancing work and personal life, I’ve got simple tips to help you do the same. Big hug, Anna xx
Hey, team, welcome back to my podcast today on growing. I'm so excited to have you here Without further ado. You know I love to just jump straight into the topics that I want to talk about, and this is what we do today as well, because we don't have time. We don't have time to waste and I really hope I can help you here on this podcast and I can motivate you and inspire you without a lot of chats around it, if you know what I mean. So today's topic is balance, and if you follow me on social media, you know that I talk and share a lot about balance. Why is it something that's so important to me? First of all, I think about it nonstop. I think about it almost every single day because I think I had a phase in my life where I was really out of balance. I had years, team, I had years where I was so out of balance that it really had an impact on my health and also on my mental health, and that's why I think I want to talk about it today, and this is also why I think it's such an important topic to me Balance what is balance?
Speaker 1:What does balance even mean? I'm so excited to share my thoughts on balance with you and I'm so excited to share how the years without balance looked like in this podcast episode and I want to share if you maybe also feel out of balance. I want to share what you can do. I want to share ways with you on how to find balance. Again, finding balance. I think we already have to change the sentence, because balance isn't something that you can find. It is something that you have to choose. I say it again okay, balance isn't something that you find. Balance is something that you have to choose. And this is really important because I think a lot of us are looking for balance and we are trying to find it and we're trying to figure out how it actually works or what a balanced life looks like. But that's not how it works. You really have to take action. That's what I say here on this podcast very, very often. You have to take action and you have to choose balance. So what does that mean? Let's start from the very, very beginning on what does it even look like when you have a life that's out of balance? And I can speak from my own personal experience in many different areas of life. I want to start with fitness, because I'm sharing a lot of my fitness content with you. I'm talking a lot about fitness. I'm talking a lot about my opinion on health and the whole fitness industry in general.
Speaker 1:But when it comes to health and when it comes to fitness, I was really out of balance for a really really long time. Younger Anna me, like 10 years ago, I would be so out of balance and I would be so extreme, and what I mean by that is I would balance and I would be so extreme, and what I mean by that is I would work out every single day and I would push. I would push way too hard. So a morning in my world 10 years ago, it would look like I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think about is what can I do today to improve myself? What can I do today to become a better version of myself and to become stronger and to become leaner and fitter and just better, or let's not say better.
Speaker 1:I wanted to be perfect, and that was the main problem. I wanted to be perfect, I wanted to do everything I can and without living a balanced life, I would just push through every single day. What is the problem when you work out a lot, and when you exercise a lot, when you don't allow yourself to rest, what is the problem? You over-exercise, you overdo it, you push yourself too hard, and then the result of that is that you might end up with injuries or you might end up burned out, not just physically, but also mentally. So that is one of the things when it comes to the health and fitness field. If you don't have balance in there and I cannot stress enough about this, because I have a lot of followers or a lot of subscribers on YouTube, I have a lot of people listening, I'm sure, here right now who are just not living in balance and if you are one of these people, I really hope this episode inspires you to also try to choose balance a little bit more often, especially when it comes to the health and fitness thing.
Speaker 1:So over-exercising, feeling burned out, feeling tired all the time these are all signs that you are pushing a little bit too much, and especially us women. There is one very, very clear sign if you're overdoing it, and it's when you lose your period, and I want to record a whole new, fresh episode on this, because this is something that a lot of you experience and I'm so shocked and it makes me so sad that so many women struggle with not having their period and I don't know. We shouldn't normalize this. We shouldn't be like, yeah, we all are a little bit stressed, we all exercise a lot, we might not eat enough, and it's just how it is we don't have our periods. It feels like that to me right now, but it's so wrong. It's so wrong and we definitely have to change that. We have to talk about it more often and everyone who experiences something with irregular periods or not having a period at all, it is something that we have to talk about and we have to take serious.
Speaker 1:I haven't had a period for years I don't know how many years exactly, because, let's say, I haven't had a period for three or four years. Then I got it once, but then I haven't had it for another two years. Then I had it once, but then I haven't had it for another two years, then I had it very, very irregular and now, slowly, it's the first time since so many years that I finally have my period back, and I'm so proud of myself saying that right now, because I had to work my ass off and I had to really choose balance, even though it was so hard at the beginning. But I'm so glad I did that, because I'm so much happier, I feel so much healthier and every single month as an example, when I get my period, first of all, I post a story on Instagram. I text my mom, I text some friends. I kind of celebrate it because it's a sign of my body that I'm finally really healthy.
Speaker 1:Years ago, being healthy to me meant that I have to look a certain way. I have to be super skinny, I have to be lean, I have to have a six pack. This is what I thought. I thought this is what a healthy body looks like. But I wasn't thinking of how do I feel like if I'm super lean and if I have a six pack and if I am super muscular? To me, I reached those goals years ago, so I had a six pack. Finally, after years of over exercising and not eating enough and trying so hard to have that perfect body, I had my six pack years ago.
Speaker 1:But guess what? I wasn't really really healthy. I wasn't really healthy and I wasn't really happy, because I haven't had a period back then and also I was so tired and so exhausted all the time, this was one of the things that I really noticed. I didn't feel my best. I looked into the mirror and sometimes I was really proud of myself because I have achieved that goal, but at the same time, I was. I was tired. My body wasn't meant to look that way to be healthy. No, my genetics is not to have a six-pack throughout the whole year, and that is okay. Today I'm so much more chilled with it and I know that a balanced life makes me so much more happier than a life where I'm exercising every single day and where I'm focusing on a diet that is super restrictive and doesn't allow me to have fun and just live life. I want to talk about diet and nutrition a little bit later, but yeah, one more time.
Speaker 1:When you feel like you're overexercising, you're training too much, you don't allow yourself to rest or you feel guilty when you have a rest day, then I want to inspire you right now to also take it a little bit more easy and also allow yourself to rest, because actually, if you train really hard, your muscles aren't growing when you're training really, really hard, when you're working out and lifting weights. That's not when they grow really hard when you're working out and lifting weights. That's not when they grow. They grow when you rest, when you rest after, when you allow your body to rest and recover. That's actually when your muscles are growing. So rest days are something really, really important and something amazing and something great.
Speaker 1:It's very important to find this balance between active days and rest days and let me tell you, for every single one of us it's a bit different, not just for fitness and not just for our workouts, but in every single area of our lives. We all are very, very different and I want to say that right now because I can share my experience and I can share my tips with you and I can share my thoughts with you. But these are all things that work for me. Like most of the time, I speak about things that work for me and for my life and for my body. Take it as inspiration, try it for yourself, but at the end of the day, I really want to encourage you and I want to inspire you to find your own ways and find your own things that work for you and your amazing body and your beautiful life. From working out and workouts and fitness and training to nutrition, it all is really close together and it's really connected because I think if you live the healthy fitness lifestyle, then nutrition and diet plays such a huge role in your life.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you, not having balance when it comes to food, it's really sad. It makes me really sad to think back how I was restricting and how I was living a really extreme life for so many years, especially when it comes to food, because food is something so amazing. Food is something that's so much fun not just cooking yourself and trying new meals. What I find kind of like it's like a hobby is going out with friends and enjoying meals out with friends, trying new restaurants, or going out on my own into a new restaurant, trying a new meal, trying new meals from different kind of cultures. It is so much fun, it is something social. It is something social, it is something fun, it's an experience and it is something that really makes me feel better. I can say all of these things right now and it sounds so easy for a lot of people, I guess, like me, talking about food and going into a restaurant and eating something there sounds so easy, right, for a lot of people. For us it's like the easiest thing in the world, but I do think, and I also can speak from the history that I have with food and how I used to struggle with food so much, how I struggled so much with an eating disorder For some of us, it's really hard to just go into a restaurant and eat something. It is a thought that scares us. It's a thought that comes up if you are not eating in a healthy and balanced way.
Speaker 1:I post a lot of videos about balance, especially when it comes to food, and one of the videos that's just in my mind right now, or that I think about right now, is I have a lot of videos of me eating healthy food and sticking to all the healthy girl habits and I do everything perfect. And then the title of this video is it's not healthy. Dot, dot, dot. So you see me living this perfect life. You see me eating my chicken, rice and broccoli, and I'm going to bed early enough to get my eight hours of sleep and I just eat healthy, I eat my greens, I eat very, very clean, but the title is it's not healthy. And then the video continues and it says it's not healthy if there is no balance. And this video, it's in my head right now and it is so true.
Speaker 1:I personally follow the 80-20 rule. That really helped me to find more balance and the healthy eating 80-20 rule I also don't want to say rule, because rule again sounds very restrictive and it sounds very strict. It's more like the healthy eating 80-20 lifestyle let's call it like that but it means I eat 80% whole foods and 20% soul foods 80-20. 80% versus 20%. And let me share with you also here it's more like a balance, like in some weeks it is maybe 90% whole foods and 10% soul foods, in other weeks it's more like 60 percent whole foods and 40 percent soul foods. Every single week is very, very different. And the 80 20 lifestyle or rule, it's more like about allowing yourself to also eat the soul foods and soul foods.
Speaker 1:To me, first of all, I love ice cream. I'm such an ice cream girl, so I have to have ice cream in my life, otherwise I would be so sad and I don't know how I was able to be so restrictive and be like no, I'm not eating ice cream girl, so I have to have ice cream in my life, otherwise I would be so sad and I don't know how I was able to be so restrictive and be like no, I'm not eating ice cream, I'm not going out, I'm not drinking alcohol anymore. I don't want to encourage you to drink alcohol, you don't have to drink alcohol. But I clearly wanted to go out with friends and party in the last couple of years, but I didn't. I didn't because I didn't allow myself to do that.
Speaker 1:I thought if I don't live a perfect, healthy life, then I'm I don't even know what did I think, then I'm not doing everything I can, then I'm not perfect. I have to live a perfect life to finally be perfect, and I will mention the whole. I want to be perfect, I want to live perfect, I want to do everything. Perfect perfectionism. I will talk about this a lot in this podcast episode because I think there is there's a connection between not having balance and perfectionism. I think we are clearly out of balance if we try to do everything perfect, if we don't have any kind of freedom, if we don't allow ourselves to be weak sometimes or to eat our soul food sometimes or to be lazy. I think trying to be perfect also yeah, it just makes you live a life that's really, really extreme. Oh damn team. I have to throw that in because I also think about that like a lot in the last months, in the last year.
Speaker 1:You know, finding balance it's a lot of kind of therapy work. It's a lot of like I want to understand why I live a more balanced life now and why I used to live such an extreme life the last couple of years. Why am I happier now and why was it so hard for me to be truly happy in the last couple of years? I try to understand a lot of things and for me it's part of growing up and it's part of my growth journey to learn and understand more about myself. Anyways, I just try to find out why in the last years, why I was so extreme and why I never had balance and why I tried to do everything perfect.
Speaker 1:And to me, the more deeper I step into my brain and the more deeper I step into my inner child or my past versions of myself, I always see a small girl that's very, very insecure and that is actually asking for just one thing, and this one thing is love and validation. And I think deep inside we all want that. We all want love, we all want validation and we try to get it through different kind of things, and I think I started sharing my journey on social media because I wanted more validation, I wanted more feedback and I wanted more love and more support Also, not just online, also offline, especially from my parents and maybe also especially from my dad, because I never got it as a child. I'm always, always looking for validation and love and yeah, just encouraging words and nice words. And I think if you are so insecure and you're constantly looking for this validation and for this love and you try to get it so bad and no matter how much you get, it's never enough if you are that insecure person, but then you might turn into something so extreme and you do everything extreme and you try to do everything perfect because you're never happy, because you're always insecure, because you never feel good enough, you never feel loved enough, and by understanding all these behaviors and all these faults that I had in the last years, by understanding those, it really makes me understand my life a little bit more and it also helps me finding or choosing more balance in life, because I know if I keep being this extreme person and if I keep looking all the time for more validation and more love, then I will never be truly happy, because I will always work and work out for something that's not really for myself, it's for something else.
Speaker 1:And today I think so different. I take life really so much easier. I take it all a little bit more chilled. I think I live a really balanced life. At least for me, it feels right, it feels the right amount of balance. And we talk about the right amount of balance in a second, because the right amount of balance doesn't mean that every single day looks the same, every single week looks the same, every single month looks the same and everything is perfectly balanced. Oh, no, definitely not. Right now. Today, yesterday and two days ago, or even three days ago, I feel not really in balance. I'm out of balance, but I notice, I notice that I'm working way too much, I notice that life isn't perfectly balanced, but also that's okay. And I think, as long as you notice all the time when you're out of balance and you don't keep pushing, pushing, pushing, but you make a little cut and you're like, okay, now I'm going to make a break and now I'm going to fill up my cup again, then it's fine.
Speaker 1:And this is what I do today. I'm going to end my work day at 5 pm. I'm going to close the door, I'm going to close the laptop, I'm going to close everything and I'm just spending time different. There's a lot of work right now, so I'm having my YouTube channel, I'm having this podcast, I'm having a lot of social media content, I have a team around me, I have employees. I'm suddenly a CEO of a company.
Speaker 1:I'm like what it's stressful. It's really really, really stressful and I don't want to be like just as a CEO or something. Your life is really busy and really stressful and your work day is really long and there is no time for anything else. I don't want to be like that, because I think there are so many other jobs, so so many other jobs, and maybe you are in that position right now where work just feels endless. But it's really important, especially for us. We are so busy not just people who are in like their work life, but also students. I know that a lot of students follow me and they also tell me how busy they are and that it's really hard to find or choose balance, because there's so much that you have to learn and you have to study and that you have to figure out. But we have to choose a team, like every single one of us. We have to make a cut and we have to choose it. No one is going to do it for us no one.
Speaker 1:When it comes to work, damn, when I started my youtube channels, but also before that, I was always, I was always extreme. I told you, I was always extreme. I always wanted to do everything perfect. I always wanted to be the best. That was very important to me. So, also when it comes to work, and later on, when I started my YouTube channel, I was working so much and I'm still working a lot, and it's still very, very, very hard for me to choose balance, especially when it comes to my work. Also, my work, I can do it anywhere. I don't know when I had my last vacation, my last holiday, without checking my social media channels, without checking my YouTube channel, without checking on WhatsApp, if everything is okay. I don't know when it was. I think I started my company four years ago or three years ago, like my social media channels and YouTube, I think around four years ago or five years ago, I don't know anymore. Also, time is running so quick. But, yeah, I can work anywhere and it's really hard to turn my phone off and be present in everyday life. You know what the issue is. If you're very extreme when it comes to your work, if you're very extreme when it comes to working out, moving your body and being very restrictive with eating, you lose a lot of how do I say that? You lose a lot of opportunities to make friends or to make memories with friends, to find new friends.
Speaker 1:My life in the last couple of years was really isolated. I was doing a lot of things on my own. I was really lonely Building a business like this and now having all the employees in such a short amount of time doing this on my own. It was very lonely. It was very, very lonely. I started everything in my child room in Austria.
Speaker 1:One day, if you follow me on social media or if you watch my vlogs, one day I want to show you where it all started. I want to show you my child room back in Austria. Yeah, it was in there. It was a small room. All I had was my phone, my laptop and my camera and I was nonstop. I was filming, editing, posting, filming, editing, posting every single day. In between, I was going on a lot of walks and I was working out. But that's what I did, and I did it by myself, it by myself. Later on I had a team, I had my manager, so I was in contact with them, but also most of the time just via phone, via laptop.
Speaker 1:But I isolated myself so much and I'm so lucky and I'm so happy that I have these old friends, these real friends, who are still in contact with me and they still love me and even though I never had time for them, they are still here for me and I appreciate them so much, I love them so much and I'm so grateful to have people like that in my life. But I what I want to say is that if you are very extreme and you do everything by yourself, then it's very, very lonely. It's a very, very dark and lonely place. And, oh my God, then I just remember now, after having my lonely days, then there had been lockdown. So also in lockdown I was really, really lonely and it just popped into my head because I wanted to share with you how hard it was to find new friends, again also coming to a new city. I'm in Berlin now, coming to this new place and this new city.
Speaker 1:It was so hard for me to make new friends and find new friendships and build relationships and actually work on those relationships, put in the work and put in the effort, and choosing this balance of yes, I was working the whole day, but now I want to go out for dinner with my friends or I want to go out and party. So it was actually really hard for me to open up again. To open up not just for a romantic relationship, but also for friendships, making new friends and making memories with them. It is something so wonderful and so powerful and so inspiring to have friends again. I don't know like years ago I would say, maybe I would say I don't need anyone and I can do everything by myself. And also today I speak a lot about doing things on your own, living alone, being in solitude, being your own best friend. I'm also all the way for that. But guess what I'm saying right now? It's also here. It's about balance. It's about the balance between you spending time on your own. You choose yourself first and you do everything you can to make yourself a better human being. But on the other hand, it's also about making friends, having friends, giving your friend a hug and having relationships.
Speaker 1:Relationships is something I want to talk about a little bit more, because I think it's something so wonderful and something so important and I, in my extreme phases, I never really thought about relationships because I was so focused on my work and on my hustle life. I was so focused on my workout life and my fitness being, but I wasn't really thinking of relationships and I regret that. I really regret that. But I'm still. I'm so grateful for every single year that I had in the past and I'm so grateful for all the mistakes that I made, because now I can share them with you and I can share things that I wish I would have done different, and maybe it inspires you and I can share things that I wish I would have done different and maybe it inspires you to also rethink some things that you were doing and to change maybe some of the behaviors that you do right now. So, team, I talked a lot about things that I've done in the past. I talked a lot about how my life felt when I was out of balance, the risks, the downsides, the I don't even like I don't have to share with you that I was crying a lot, I was sad a lot.
Speaker 1:I think the main things that I want to share with you is really that, especially for us women, if we are out of balance, if you're really stressed, if you feel really bad, like it can mess up your hormones, and if your hormones are messed up, then you might lose your period. Also one thing I want to mention here because I talk a lot about it If you don't have your period, it might doesn't sound that crazy and that bad, but it's actually really bad. It is really really bad and I want to open your eyes. I used to think that, oh damn, yes, I don't have my period. That's actually really cool because I don't have to struggle and deal with all the shit things that come with having your period. But not having a period is a clear sign that you're not healthy and it has many, many disadvantages that I don't want to share here in this podcast episode.
Speaker 1:But it's really bad for your bones. As an example, you want to have strong bones, right? You want to be 60, 70, 80 years old and you want to be healthy when you are at that age. You want to be healthy in 30, 40, 50 years. So please take care of yourself now and take care of your hormones and your bones now Really important. I shared with you how lonely it feels if you're out of balance.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, after sharing all those things, I think it is time, first of all, before we move on, first of all, drink a sip of water. I got a few messages from you guys where you texted me. Hey, anna, I heard you saying in the podcast to drink a sip of water right now, and then you actually went somewhere to grab a glass of water or to fill up your water bottle and have a sip of water. Let do it together again. Pause the episode or keep listening, however you want, and take a sip of water, because staying hydrated is really important.
Speaker 1:All right, after sharing so much about my past and sharing a lot about extremes, it's time to share some practical tips with you, and that's something I try in almost every single episode. So, after listening to my podcast episodes, I hope you feel like you have learned something. I hope you feel like I want to grab a piece of paper now. I want to grab a pen and I want to write down Anna's tips, and then I want to take action and I want to try it to live a healthier and happier life, and that's also what I hope with this podcast episode. So after listening, I really hope you feel like I have learned something today. That would make me really happy. So I give you some practical tips on how to find or, let's say again, choose balance. And before we dive into those ways or into those tips, don't try to find or choose the perfect amount of balance straight away. Also, as I said before, some weeks are more balanced, other weeks are out of balance, and also being out of balance it's not a bad thing, it's okay. Being out of balance is also normal.
Speaker 1:I think it's just important that if you feel out of balance, if you know it's a really busy time, it's a really stressful time, to already know like I have to make a cut at one point and then I have to recharge, I have to rest, I have to recharge, I have to fill up my cup again, or I have to fill my cup up again. I don't know what the correct way to say it is right now, but you know what I mean. Tip away. Number one say yes, say no, and what I mean by that is say yes to the things that bring you joy. Say yes to yes. I want to do that. Yes, I want to go to this event. Or, yes, I want to meet this person, yes, I want to learn these things. Say yes to the things that you truly want and say no to the things that you don't want. I don't know how many times you felt like you said yes to things, but not because you wanted to, but because of FOMO, for example, I am a person who really struggles with FOMO, the fear of missing out on something.
Speaker 1:It's really bad If I get invited to an event or I get invited to a party and I don't really feel like going because I'm tired, because I'm getting my period in a couple of days. I'm just not really feeling really social. But I have the worst FOMO. I have the worst feeling like I'm missing out on something. I should go there because I'm missing out on something. So I'm gonna say, yes, I'm like, yeah, I come, but at the end of the day I'm not even missing out on something. No, I had been to many events at many parties where I went to just because I thought I have to and because I thought I'm missing out on something. But then I wasted time and I could have done something so much more meaningful and so much more nice for myself where I would actually come back and feel like, oh, this really helped me to feel better or to feel more balanced. So the fear of missing out is very, very bad and also I said yes to many things because I was afraid of not being judged but to make someone else feel bad in a way.
Speaker 1:I have one person where it's really hard for me to say no. It is really hard If that person would say, hey, do this, do that. I would say yes, always because I want to make this person proud and I want to make this person happy. It's really hard for me to say no to this person and I know it, I totally know it. I totally get it and understand it and I don't know why I act this way and I have to work on it and I will. I will be more honest and I will be more open about no, I don't want to do that. And if I have a reason for it, the person, if the person loves me and likes me, then the person is going to be okay with it and it's like oh, yeah, of course, and that's often the case. I think we come up with fake scenarios in our head and we think, oh, they might judge us for this or they might think bad about us because of this, they might feel sad about this. But no, if you are open and honest and if the people like you, then they are so fine with it. Saying no to something it's okay. It is really so okay.
Speaker 1:It is your life, it's your choices, and I think we all have to learn to say no a little bit more often, because it will make us feel a little bit more balanced but also happier. That's the key to happiness to do the things that you want to do and say no to the things that you don't want to do. The next tip and the next way is to become bestie, to make a new bestie with your calendar. Your calendar is so powerful and I also say in almost every single podcast episode how I love to write things down, and I mean by hand. I also, even though I have my calendar on my phone and on my laptop, I still I have a normal calendar where I write with my pen I am doing this, I'm doing that on this day, I'm doing that on the weekend, and I have to write everything down. I have to write down everything that's related to work and business. But I also have to write down everything that's related to my personal life and I think that is the main key to a balanced life, especially when you struggle with work-life balance.
Speaker 1:You have to plan in your private things. You have to plan in the fun things, the joy things. If you don't plan it in, then you end up working till 7pm, even though you want it to end at 5 pm. Write it down. Today in my calendar. I wrote down I'm gonna end at 5 pm. At 5 15, I'm gonna go to a store because I want to buy new shoes and then I will go out for a walk, read a book. Maybe I grab a glass of Aperol. I'm really feeling it today. Let's see.
Speaker 1:But what I want to say is that please write it down in your calendar. Write it down in your calendar not just the work things, not just the things that are obvious to put in your calendar, no, also the private things. Write down the self-care things. Even write down if you want to read a book. Like, when was the last time? Actually, I'm going to ask you now when was the last time that you were sitting in a park and reading a book. I can count the days this year on one hand. I think two days this year I was really sitting down in a park and reading a book and I'm always saying I don't have time. I don't have time to read a book. Of course I have time. If I would plan it in my calendar, then I would not waste a minute. I would like yes, now it's self-care time. Now I'm gonna go out into this park and read a book. I want to stress about this. Like use your calendar, but use it also for some self-care and use it for your personal things. Use it like that is so important, team.
Speaker 1:When I say also, um, it's important to fill up your cup. Then there is this saying from Oprah Oprah Winfrey, and I have to find the exact quote. I have to find it, but she says something like you can't pour something out of an empty cup. And I think we all have the same intention in life. Right, we want to give. We want to give to others. We want to be here on this earth, on this world, for a reason we want to give to others. We want to help others in whatever way it is, but you can't help someone if you are empty. Like, what do you want to give to this person if you have nothing inside of you? So please take care of yourself. Take care of yourself, make sure your cup is full, because just if you have a full cup, you can give a little bit out of this cup to someone else. Tip or way.
Speaker 1:Number three is a bit related to what we talked about with the self-care things in the calendar. It's about self-care. It's about self-care time that you really have to choose as well. No one is going to choose self-care time for you. You are the only person that could choose self-care for yourself and I highly encourage you. I highly want to inspire you right now, or I want to motivate you to take a little bit more time off to do some self-care stuff, whatever self-care means to you. This could be reading a book in a park. This could be going on a shopping trip, meeting some friends, putting on a face mask, making a nice meal, going out for dinner. I could give you a hundred examples right now what you could do for yourself. If you don't know what to do, if you need a little bit more inspiration, then I think Pinterest is a really, really great source of inspiration. I love Pinterest. I'm a Pinterest girly. I love to go on Pinterest and get inspired, get ideas, and I have so many self care things that I did just because I found it on Pinterest. There was a really dark and rainy day Maybe I already shared it in one of the other episodes with you, but I saw that ceramic painting could be one of the things that I do for myself and I went into this little ceramic painting room or shop and I was ceramic painting there for hours and I had so much fun.
Speaker 1:Also, other self-care things. It doesn't necessarily have to do something with beauty. I know we always think of beauty stuff. We think of getting our nails done, which, by the way, is one of my favorite self-care activities. I love nails. Getting a pedicure, getting spray tan, going to the hairstylist and getting your hair done. Yeah, it's a lot of beauty things, but there are also so many other things that you can do to take care of yourself. For example, some solo activities, solo dates going to the cinema by yourself. By the way, I think I didn't share yet in my podcast, but I went to an outdoor cinema the other day just by myself One of the best solo self-care dates that I have done this year. It was so beautiful and I watched Mamma Mia with ABBA music Mamma Mia and I love it because I love ABBA, I love music, I love this happy music and at one point, like two or three times, I was crying so much because it was so beautiful. I was crying so much and I also had a glass of Aperol again, I'm an Aperol girl, but I had a glass of Aperol, some popcorn and the whole crowd was singing to every single song and it made me cry because it was so beautiful. Last but not least, we almost made it to the end.
Speaker 1:There's just one more thing that you can do to choose balance, to figure out a little bit more about. Is your life really balanced right now or are you out of balance? And it is self-reflection. Ask yourself questions like get to know yourself a little bit more, get to know your mood a little bit more and just accept it, be okay with it and choose the things that you need in that moment, right now. So self-reflection, asking yourself questions, could be.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I feel really bad. I do sit down and I grab my journal and write down how I feel In that moment. I ask myself the question how do I feel right now? And then if I write down I'm feeling really low energy, I'm feeling really bad then usually I end up writing so much about why I feel that way and what I think, how I can change my mood and what I can do to feel a little bit better. So if I choose to sit down and journal and write down how I'm feeling, I usually also write down ways to get out of this mood, get out of this state. And I have many days, believe me, when I say that I have many days when I feel really bad, when I feel really low energy, when I'm not motivated, when I don't feel disciplined, when I don't feel good enough. I still have all those days and that is okay. But I choose different kind of things. I choose to be okay with it, first of all, but also I choose to change my mood if it's really bad.
Speaker 1:I choose to live a balanced life. If I feel like it's a little bit out of balance, I really try to make different kinds of choices. Choices every single morning, every single evening, every single day, almost every time. Like, I really try to choose things because that's what we can do in life. We can choose and we always have a choice, like we always have different kinds of choices and it's up to you what you choose. There are so many other self-reflection questions that you could ask yourself, and I encourage you again go on Pinterest, check out online what other questions you could ask yourself to find a little bit more like a balanced life. Also, I say it again for me, it works if I sit down and journal and ask myself some questions. Maybe it works for you as well, but maybe it doesn't. It's really up to you to find out ways that work for you.
Speaker 1:Wow, team, this was a long episode. I was like I'm just talking for a bit with you, but it was actually now a really long episode and I hope you all loved it. I hope you all feel inspired, I hope you all learned something and I hope you all want to find a little bit more balance or to choose a little bit more balance in life, because it's something that's really wonderful, it's really powerful. It makes you feel happier. Also, if you live a happier life and a more balanced life, you also inspire others to live a happier and more balanced life.
Speaker 1:I just noticed when I feel out of balance. When I feel stressed and I'm in a room with people or I'm in a group of people, I kind of give them an energy that I don't want to give them. I want to give them a relaxed energy and I want to give them a positive energy, an energy that they feel safe in. I really want to be a good person around them and make their day a little bit better, and I can just do that if I really want to be a good person around them and make their day a little bit better, and I can just do that if I really feel balanced and if I really feel happy. So well, thank you so much for listening. I'm gonna be honest.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you could hear any of the background noises, because there's a lot going on today. There's a lot happening. I hear a lot of things happening out of the window here. Yeah, I hope you couldn't hear them. I hope you enjoyed today's podcast episode and I wish I could give you a hug right now. I could give you a high five. I could just give you a hug and tell you that you are enough. You don't have to be perfect. Everything is fine and you deserve to live a healthy and happy life.
Speaker 1:And yeah, if you have any feedback, let me know. Also, here on Spotify, you can write comments now, which is really exciting. So if you have feedback, put it down in the comments. If you have any wishes for next episodes, let me know down in the comments. Write it in the comments here on YouTube, so the episode is almost anywhere right now, so wherever you're listening or watching right now. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate every single one of you turning this on and listening and wanting to learn and wanting to grow. I'm very proud of you and I think together we can learn so much here and we can grow so much bigger here. So thank you so much, team. I love you a lot and talk to you soon. Bye.