Archive for November 2015

Everyone likes to give advice and tell you what worked for them and it's true that it can help a lot of people but sometimes you just have to wing it and figure out for yourself.
I've found that washing my hair every other day has make it stronger and even shinier, a lot of people might found that too often or not soon enough.
Doing most of my homework at school has shown me how lazy I can be when I'm at home and how fast I can be at some things like writing papers.
Going to bed at 10:40 and waking up at 6:20 has been quite nice and good for me, I've found that I get better sleep like this, instead of searching for my 8 hours of sleep.
Going phone free until I get out of my house has shown me how much time I used to loose on things that I don't needed to do before 8 am
Walking for 30 min before and after school has make me feel less stressed by the time I get to my destination as I tend to breathe and relax while I walk.
Eating less sugar has shown me how much of a sweet tooth I used to have and how much I used to spend on junk food.
Taking a shower and putting clean pyjamas always make me feel better after a rough day.
Taking a moment to appreciate what I have has shown me how lucky I am and how much I want to give back to every one.
Talking to my friends instead of hiding has shown me that I have their support on either bad or good moments.
All of this are things that I discovered make me feel better, but in order to discover them I had to try and fail, it's all about hitting and missing, if someone gave you a tip, give it a try, if it doesn't work, try giving it your own twist.
We all work on different patterns and as much as you want to follow what others did to get where you want to get, it might never work, you can try and fake it and maybe make it work or seem like it works but at the end of the day you'll be doing what others tell you to and living of others and that doesn't seem to be fun.
But also remember as much as you don't want to be changed, there are others thinking the same thing, it's okay to give advice and I also think is quite beneficial to share what has worked for you but don't try to change people, that never ends right.
People are different and different is good, being different means that you are unique, being unique and not following anyone has to be one of the best feelings I've ever had the opportunity to experience. Do your own thing, do what works for you, at the end, you only get one life and you choose what path to follow, yours or someone else's?

Mayte.

Having too many things to do on your list can be quite overwhelming and can lead you to not doing anything or not as much as you wanted, I've been there, the moment you start to ask where to start is the moment were you start to panic.

I've found some things that work for me either when I have to much work or I just don't know exactly where to begin or how to start to tackle that task.

Brain Dumping is quite new for me too, basically is putting all the tasks you have in your brain, in paper and you may think that you do it, but we all have been there, you think you are going to remember to clean your bag and you never do it. I've found that by doing this you can minimise the stress you put on yourself but you can also make a work plan.

Planning and prioritizing can be the most amazing thing where you have a lot going out, divide things on urgent, need to do quick and normal to-do list, once you know what to do first everything tends to come organically.

Focus on one thing at a time, being a multi-task girl can be problematic at times, from my personal experience, I can tell you that I tend to make more mistakes when I don't pay enough attention that leads me to spend more time in that activity. Try to focus on one thing in order to make it right, mostly when you are studying.

Take breaks, I've been a fan of this one lately, taking breaks is a way of letting yourself rest from that load of work, that way you won't get overwhelmed or stressed when you come back, it's also beneficial if you don't spend the time you decided to rest, in front of a screen, let your eyes have a rest too.

Power naps are your best friend, when you wake up really early and you have been working for hours on end, those breaks are not going to help you as much, try taking a 20-30 min nap to feel refreshed and calmer, but don't forget to drink at least a glass of water before, that way you won't feel weird after you wake up.

And as a few general tips, have a working space, a space that is specifically for working, leave everything else on other space, that way you won't get as distracted. work with music that you like, go with something that is going to pump you up to keep going but it's also going to help you concentrate, try to get enough sleep at nights, people can tell you that you have to sleep for about 8 hours but that doesn't work for everybody, find your sleep pattern and go with it.

Finally and I think is the most important part, as long as you are doing something that you love, everything is worthy, don't do anything that you don't love, it makes life a lot harder and I think it's better when you are happy.

Mayte.

This weekend I've been hearing this little voice in my head that says that I'm not really good enough, that by the end of the year I won't be as happy as I wanted to be when I'm started. Everything started due to the fact that even when I take afternoons or even days off, I get no rest, I just focus on other things that I knew I had to do but never really got around to do.
But there's that other part of me that tells me to look to everything I've done in this past month or even this past weekend, I set up most of our Christmas decorations and left everything squeaky clean, yet I feel like it's not enough. I really don't know were this comes from, I've been trying to think, I haven't had problems in my house, neither my relationships, I don't know.
This week is going to go really slow, it's a long week as I still have three exams to pass and I'm missing four parts of my secret project, for the first time in weeks I feel like it's possible and that I can do it and it's going to be amazing.
Another thing that has been on my mind rounding are boys, lately I've been thinking of my last relationships and how they ended, I do know where this comes from, I fancy a boy which I guess it's normal but as I have been by myself since the beginning of the year, I don't know what to do and I get a little bit nervous around him, but another part of me doesn't wants to get involved with him because I know he is a player and a good one, he's a little bit like me, the only big difference are the eyes (Which are beautiful) and the fact that he is a male.
Also this season calls for the beginning of Christmas shopping that I hate and I always passed to my mum, but this year I have no help, just the hope of it being really easy.
If I had to guess what's causing me all of this anxiety, I'll say that it's what December means to me. December means that I need to get all of my paper work done before they go on holiday and doesn't only means my paper work, school stuff and medical papers too, it means that I have to do all of my paper work, I have to help my family with some of theirs too and work related to. It doesn't ends in there, I also have to give my best at school because the semester is ending and I also have a list of things I want to change taking advantage of the new year and finally I want that December has some amazing posts.
The best answer for me right now is sleep, tomorrow it's going to be a new day and hopefully a better and brighter one. Sleep tight.
P.S. Sorry if this is all over the place, I just needed to get this thoughts out there, as I haven't been writing my own words for a log time I think I've been keeping a lot of things to myself and that's bad.

Mayte.

This is going to be a long week recap because if I don't put everything you might not understand me properly, everything about this week was weird.
Let's go back to Sunday when my week starts, my mum had some work to do and I took that as a sign that I should be doing some of that myself too, everything was going great until I fought with my mother, one of those fights that you don't even know how it started but it happened, so by the end of the day we weren't speaking to each other, that lead to some drama on Monday, our car broke and as we went to check it and see how everything was going, I fought with my mum again, the thing is that as much as I love her, she uses the "Spend time together as family" card way to often.
It was just after breakfast when she dropped the bomb, she told me in a really discrete way to leave and go with my friends and that made me feel really bad, so we had an argument, it was a few minutes later as I was leaving them that I realised that I was shaking and I couldn't breathe, I freaked more at the warning that my body was giving me and I had the worst panic attack that I had in months. The only thing I wanted at that moment was to stay at home but I couldn't because I knew it was where my mum was going to be, so I took my stuff and headed out with no destiny.
While I was calming myself down I thought of the perfect place to run away and not be recognised, my favourite place on the city, when I got there I shut my cellphone and read away my new book, it took me about 30 min that my phone had a lot of messages of my friends that, bless them, were worried about me, I decided to met them in our usual spot and have a chat, I don't know what I would do with out them, they really cheered me up.
Tuesday was a great day because I found out that I passed the classes I thought I was going to fail, I was so excited but instead of celebrating I headed home to do more homework and some work. Wednesday was a big fail for me, but I want to talk about it in more detail another time.
Thursday was such a funny day, I got up, showered and I guess I wasn't fully awake because i didn't noticed how weak my body was feeling and how sick I looked, as soon as I realised I freaked, I have way to much going on to add sickness to it, so I took magic pills that my dad takes to not get sick and headed out the door, I went to my one class of the day and left the rest of the morning to get some work done that I even manage to do with a headache, but by the start of the afternoon I was shattered, I took some more pills (Don't do the same as me, go visit your doctor (they were vitamins)) and feel asleep until I got a message that woke me up and made me realised that I spend most of my afternoon sleeping, I braved myself to get up and luckily I wasn't feeling sick any more. That when I started playing trying to get some December inspired designs in here, which left me feeling really exited for what's next.
Finally Friday came like a breeze, I went up to a new class and let me tell you that it was the weirdest, more fun I've ever had in a class, I even made some friends, it wasn't until I was on my way home that I realised how crazy this week was, now I was laughing but at the beginning of the week I was crying. I guess that's part of my life, learning how to manage everything and not explode.
Hope you had an amazing week and have an incredible start of the week.
P.S. I hope you like the little Christmas added touch.

Mayte.

Do I need anyone else to tell me I'm beautiful to feel beautiful?

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A few months back I made a promise to my friends where I was going to be man-free for the duration of the semester, mostly because I knew how hard this period was going to be not only school wise but everything in my life was going to be more crazy than usual, I also wanted to prove myself that I didn't needed anyone telling me how gorgeous I looked to feel like that, I wanted to love myself first.

All of this started because talking to a lot of my old time friends I discovered that I have felt more secure when I'm with a man and I'm not talking about finances or going out type or security, I mean it in a self esteem way, that lead me to having more men in my life that I can really accept but also not really compromising with any of them.

Everything was going great and even though I had ups and downs through this time I was feeling okay with me, that was until two of my high school loves came back to my life and I realised how much I liked them, mostly one of them and I started taking more time to get ready or even eating better than my usual.

Then a few days ago I realised how happy and beautiful I felt without him having to tell me that and it felt good, it's true that I was being a little bit more careful and healthy with him in my life, but it's also true that during this months man-free I was also feeling great and having a healthy-ish life-style.

Where I'm going with this is that we don't realise how much others opinions matter to us until you have a life without them, it's true that having them every once in a while is nice, but there's a difference between that and depending on them.

Putting yourself in first place and doing things for you and not to like others really changes your life, I'll go back to what I said before, go with that person that loves you even in your worst days, that way you know how real and worthy is.

I know that I still want to change a lot of things of my body but I think I'm going the right direction this time, I'm doing all of them because of me and for myself, you don't need anyone else critising your looks, as long as you feel beautiful and you are healthy, it doesn't matter. The only thing that really matters is yourself and the way you feel in your own skin.

Mayte.

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I know that I have talked about this subject many times in the past but this time is different, I was having this chat with my best friend, she told me about the compliments that she had that day at work, she dressed differently and had a little tiny bit more make up and that annoyed me a little bit.
Don't get my wrong, it wasn't jealousy, she is gorgeous with or without any make up on her face, what annoyed me was that everyone was telling her to do whatever she did to her face more often even her boyfriend liked her with make up.
I don't wear make up personally because I hate taking it off and I'm a true believer that it makes me look older, I only wear mascara to make my eyes look more open and make the illusion that I'm wide awake, any way, back to reality, in my school they have seen me both ways, actually I've run into old crushes looking like a mess, a part of my brain worries and says that we are a mess, then there's another part that says, well we make it work.
Of course I've had people that tells me how bad I look and people that appreciate the fact that I show my real not-fixed self not caring about opinions, I get it, there are ways of making yourself shine even more and I'm not criticizing people that really enjoy putting make up on, but it's all fake.
All of us are gorgeous and what I'm trying to say here is that if someone tells you that you looked better with more make up or different clothes that are not you or your style, back off from them, they care more of what's outside than the inside.
I know that everyone tells you the same but what is going to happen when you start spending more time together or even sharing a bed, there are going to be nights or evenings where you are going to be without make up or fully dressed, what are you going to do? what is he/she going to do? (This is a two way street, it applies for both)
Learn to love what's on the inside, see how beautiful that person is even in it's worst days, go with someone that see how gorgeous you are everyday even when you are a mess, that way you are going to know how real and worthy is.

Mayte.

Finally this week is over, I'll love to say that everything was amazing and went just as planned, but I can't lie like that, this week was one of those ones where all I wanted to do was to curled up into a ball and hide from the outside world.

I had my week pre-planned as always, as every week I had a lot planned but surprisingly enough, I had time to do everything and not feel pressure or so I thought... Turns out that the more you plan something, the less things are going to go your way.
I had two meetings scheduled to be on Monday, one work related and one for my "Secret December Project" when I received a message cancelling the first one that left with no purpose to be in the part of the city that I was so I decided to re-schedule the second one, go home and have a nap because I was exhausted.
Tuesday was quite enjoyable and fun, I had an amazing day with both my meetings and classes but my body was still not happy, I needed more naps, more sleep and more food, by Wednesday my body decided that enough was enough and I took the day for myself, I went for a walk to find new coffee shops around that area and I also wanted to buy a book and everything was going great until I crashed the screen of my iPad... it annoyed me because I'm usually really careful with my stuff, but to be honest lately I've been not caring and those are the results, plus I think I was losing too much time with her anyway.
Finally by the end of the week everyone told me to get a rest, because apparently I was looking rather tired those days, I took the advice but unfortunately, I find myself not having enough time with exams coming up, the end of the year that means more work and the secret project that I'm working on, but I made a promise to all of my friends and it's to sleep at least 7 hours a day and take a rest at the middle of the day and I'm going to keep up with that.
I feel that the content this week was a little bit compromised and that I didn't put as much effort as I should have but trust me, this is going to change, I'm going to do my very best and you might even get extra talks this week.
Have a great start of the week, try to survive, stay positive and don't forget to get enough sleep.

Mayte.

I don't think I ever had such a terrible beginning of the day, last week I had one of those days that just makes you loose faith, I never experienced anything like this.

Everything began when I was waking up, I was a bad girl the night before and didn't washed my face, I woke up early to wash it and have a quick shower but to my surprise something was wrong and I had to have a cold shower where I washed my hair, that was my first sign, I didn't took for granted that this day was going to be bad, I took it as a little stone in my way.

But I was wrong, everyone at home decided to wake up early and get in my way, I mean it like that, everyone wanted to talk and before I knew it, I was late for my first class, nothing extreme but late, as soon as I was heading out the door I realised I didn't had my headphones, I went back to get them when I realised I didn't knew where they where, because the night before I went out and miss place them, I ran around knowing how late it was but nothing, at this point of the morning I was pissed to the point that my parents stood out of my way quietly.

I took crappy headphones that made my day even worst because they were cheap and I couldn't listen a thing. I took one class and headed back home, hungry, sad and a little bit anxious, coming out of class I started to loose my breath, so I ran to the lady's room to try and put myself together but no, I had too many things, I had a panic attack that left me in a horrible state.

At this point of the morning I was shattered and the only thing in my mind was my home, my pj's and some home made pasta like the one my mum makes, I went to the store, got everything, cooked and surprisingly after 4 hours of that and a little nap, I was feeling a lot better with myself. I started answering messages again and suddenly the day was a lot better.

What I learned from this day is that sometimes we have so much that we don't see the signs and hints that our body gives us to just relax, sometimes we are so into a routine that we forget that we are human and we are not perfect, at some point we have to take a step back and finally if you are having a bad day take a step back and don't take anything too personal, you might hurt someone that had nothing to do with it. Bad days happen and you can either take it personal and make the world as miserable as you or you can take a step back and calm yourself.

Mayte.

Some of you now, I go to college all the morning and stay there up to 2 ish every day, when I come home the only thing I want to do is relax but unfortunately I always have things to do whether is school or work related, this months I have found a system that works for me.
Don't too get comfy, this will only make you loose time that you don't have, think of it like this "The sooner you start, the earlier that you are going to get it done and be free", procrastinating or relaxing after being in school or out will only make you feel more tired and you won't get as much done as you might have thought.
Make a list, this is everyone's advice but it's true when you have a list of what you really want to get done it's easier to focus and prioritise, that will make you loose less time which can only mean that you won't have to stay in that hours on end.
Focus, I know how easy is to watch the bee that is in front of the computer, I've been there, but once you understand that the hardest thing is the start, everything gets easier, I've found that once you start you get into this productive mode.
Take breaks, you cannot make your brain work non stop with out having any problems, take 20 min every 40 min to an hour of work, relax, stretch, do other things and if it's possible stay away from your computer, your eyes will thank you so much.
Use music, listen to something you know is going to help you concentrate not something you are going to be singing too, change it around as you change activities, this can help you find a rhythm whilst you work, for example, when I was in French classes, I used to listed to French to get my hearing used to the accents and it really helped.
Finally, do what's best for you, I know that for some of my friends taking a nap is the most important thing, but I know that the moment my head touches the pillow I lost the afternoon, everyone works different and at a different rhythm, this is something that has worked for me through college, I've been known for multitasking a lot of what I do, that's me and how I work the best, just be sure that you are taking enough time to do everything, don't pressure yourself, that always ends up being bad.

Mayte.

The first week of the month and I survived, I know that I always complain a little bit about my job and how it makes my life a little bit more hectic than it should be, but the reality is that I love what I do and the fact that I get to do one part from home and another one going out.
This week was about being productive and putting my life back on it's feet, I know that for a lot of people I'm always put together but there are times in my life when I really don't know what I'm doing and I get everything done last minute.
Sorting through my room, closet and desk was a full on task, I never expected to be this messy, but know I have to say that I feel extremely happy with the result, everything is clean, looks nice and it's where it's supposed to be.
In other news I've been having mixed feelings about everything, life has been teaching me that you can either have great days or horrible ones, I have both this week, I had a pretty horrible day where I just curled into bed trying to keep everything away but now that a new sun is out I feel pretty good, I'm finally learning how to separate things and not taking anything personal with anyone.
After all of the things I did this week, I'm in the productivity roll where I just want to do more and more, I want to do everything that's on my list and keep going, this can seem like a problem in a near future but as it's for now I'm really enjoying it, I may even find a good balance before everything gets too crazy. I really want to bring better quality to everything I'm doing, I checked my notes from last year and they were so nice and cute without being too kid like and now they are not the best, I'm going to try and get back to that level because I miss them.
Finally this week is a little bit random as it doesn't has a subject that connects everything, I just feel like it was time to really share some things that have helped and in fact, those are ideas that have been in my head for quite a while but I haven't had the opportunity to fit them.
I just felt like I had a lot to tell this week as it was the most random and weird one I had in a while, I hope you enjoy it, at the end of the day I really enjoy writing this. Have a great beginning of the week and don't let the bug beds bite you!

Mayte.

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Traditions give us a sense of belonging, is something to look forward too, something that stays with you and that can be in your family for generations with out you knowing, here in my country we have a lot of them but one that stands out here and internationally for it's beauty it's The Day of The Dead.
"Dia de Muertos" or Day of the Deads is a tradition that comes from way back before Cristobal Colon discovered America and we had the Catholic institution, this day was created to remember and commemorate our beloved ones that left early, this is a celebration.
It's believed that on the night of the 31 of October the gates of heaven are open letting the spirits of the children come down to visit their families for 24 hours and of the night of the 1 of November the same opportunity is giving to the adults, for them to enjoy what their families prepared for them.
Every family celebrates it in a different way, some families go to the cementery, to clean the grave and spend the day with them, some other families, like mine, enjoy going to the cementery and coming back to set up an "Ofrenda"
An "Ofrenda" is an altar where you put candles (in my case, one for every family member that is gone) photos of them and food or treats that they enjoyed when they lived, it can be anything from candies to cigarettes if the smoked, we also add some food and water because the trip they made was too long. Another thing are "cempasúchil" that are believed to keep the light of the sun, that way their way can be lighten.
Finally on the night of the 2 of November the festivities began, they are really different from place to place but one that is well known happens in Patzcuaro, Michoacan, where you can see and enjoy a lot of activities that come from our ancestors like the ball game and many other things, that's one thing you really have to experience to understand why we love it so much.
This is a tradition that has grown and everyone does different but at the end of the day the bases are always the same, all of this is worth preserving, that's why every year I enjoy setting up the altar and remembering all of those that left us behind.

Mayte.

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