Category: Lifestyle Design

10 Reasons Why Travelling is Good for You

Posted in destinations, Food For Thought, Holidays, Lifestyle Design, TravelTagged , , , , , , 2 Comments

In the cover picture, I am in front of the Met in New York, a place I wish to return one day to explore it more! It has always been my dream to travel the world. Why Travelling is Good for You? Here are 10 reasons:

  1. You Learn About Yourself
    đź’­ “A long stretch of road can teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet .” Patrick Rothfuss
  2. You Improve Your Mind
    💭 “If you allow it, travel has the ability to expand your mind in a way you never realized was possible,” Trusted Travel Girl, Valerie Wilson.
  3.  It Strengthens Relationships 
    đź’­“The shared experience of travel brings people together. A family getaway, a romantic trip, or long weekend with the girls or guys can strengthen important bonds.” Betsy Goldberg

  4. Boosts happiness and satisfaction
    💭 “According to a Cornell University study, the anticipation of a trip can increase your happiness substantially, even more than the anticipation of acquiring something tangible, like a new car.” Riyaz Babu Shaik from Medium.com

  5. It Puts Life in Perspective
    💭 “Traveling to other countries, particularly those in the developing world, can be a big wake up call and put your own life in perspective. Things that you may take for granted, like having running hot water, modern appliances and the opportunity to study and get a well-paid job at the end of it are not available to everyone, purely because of where they were born. You’ll probably come away with a new appreciation for everything you have and the opportunities that life throws your way.”  buildabroad.org10-Reasons-Why-Travelling
  6. You Get More Social
    💭 “It’s sink or swim on the road. You either get better at making friends or you end up alone, crying each night into a pillow. You learn to make friends out of strangers and get more comfortable talking to new people.” Nomadic Matt
  7. You Won’t Regret You Didn’t Do Something or Never Visited a You Always Dreamed to See
     💭 “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” Mark Twain
  8.  It’s an Investment in Yourself
    💭 “The money you spend on travel, is an investment in yourself. Travel doesn’t make you feel as bad for spending money.”
  9. It Increases Your Mental Wellbeing
    💭 “Travelling more is likely to have a tremendous impact on your mental well-being, especially if you’re no used to going out of your comfort zone.” The Claimcompass Blog
  10.  You’ll Have Incredible Adventures (and Stories to Tell)
    💭 “Whatever your initial expectations and travel plans are, it’s more than likely that you’ll have incredible adventures along the way that not even J.K. Rowling could write the script for. Sometimes it’s everyday encounters that dish up unimaginable experiences, or wild side trips that you take on a whim, but chances are you’ll be going home with a few tales to tell.” buildabroad.org

Which one is your favourite?

This year I made a promise to myself to go away as much as possible. And I did so – visitng Denmark, USA, France, Romania, Germany, Netherlands and Lithuania (a few times as my family lives there) this year. Might not seem like a lot to some but it felt to me like I’m always going somewhere! I loved it and I hope the next year will be just as eventful. Please visit my Instagram to see the visual diary of my travels. And my recent post about where to go for a great cocktail in Amsterdam.

What are your dream places to visit?

Love,
Justina

Yoga Morning Flow and 3 Youtube Channels to Get You Moving

Posted in Lifestyle Design, Movement, TipsTagged , , , , , 2 Comments

Continuing the Summer Wellness Challenge theme I started with my previous post and the Day 1 Challenge – 10min morning yoga stretch, I thought I will share a Youtube video I would recommend to try and  3 yoga channels to check out to get you started on the yogi journey. And if you are already familiar, maybe you’ll find something new for inspiration!

Morning Flow

 

 

3 Youtube Channels about Yoga I recommend

  1. Of course, The Bad Yogi

    Capture 1

    As Erin describes her channel:

Hi everyone and welcome to Bad Yogi! My name is Erin Motz & I’m not your traditional yoga teacher: I’m the carnivorous, red wine and French cheese-loving type, and my aim is to keep my classes fun and accessible. You won’t hear much Sanskrit, I totally forgive you if you don’t know your asana from your elbow, & I firmly believe that yoga is for everyone, from the kale-loving vegan to the prize-winning deer hunter.

At Bad Yogi, we’re redefining the image of yoga culture. It’s time to remove the snobbery, pretense, and endless “prerequisites” to fit into this community and that’s why we’re here. I may be a Bad Yogi, but if I’m being totally honest, teaching yoga has been one of my greatest pleasures; I practice to feed my teaching, but I teach to feed my life. Here you can expect to find yoga classes, Q&As, vlogs and some stuff just for fun. Can’t wait to “see” you in class

 

2.  Ekhart Yoga
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A brief description by the team curating the channel:

EkhartYoga.com offers high quality online yoga & meditation classes so that you can enjoy yoga anytime, anywhere. Your yoga, your body, your way

With EkhartYoga.com you can begin and advance your yoga practice with great teachers and the support of your fellow EkhartYogis. Led by Esther Ekhart and joined by world class teachers including David Lurey, Julie Martin, MacKenzie Miller, Joey Miles, Nichi Green, Katy Appleton, Lisa Petersen, Anat Geiger, Jennilee Toner, James Reeves and more.

 

3.  Method Yoga
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Channel description:

Method Yoga is designed for those interested yoga, fitness and cross training. Because we confined to this body how we move and train is essentially important to wellbeing and success. Any movement system that lacks key insight gained from the biological sciences and modern athletic training principles is outdated and omits key features necessary for students to excel in today’s complex world. Method Yoga represents the current drive of Integral theory though movement and bodily training. Method Yoga is an inclusive system that dissolves the boundaries that isolate and separate various approaches that lead to fragmentation and division. Disunity occurs through recognizing differences and forgetting the implicit unity as well as key drivers. Thus Method Yoga offers the student a processes of development and transformation by uniting methodologies of old and new so one begins to experience true liberation, wholeness and actualization which is the definition and purpose of “yoga”.

 

No doubt yoga or any other way to move/sport is very personal, however, if you would ask me, yoga is probably the easiest to start and if you stick to it for an even short while, you will find many benefits and long-lasting love for mindful movement.

Hope you find this useful!

Love,
Hewnly

Free printable 28 Day Summer Wellness Challenge

Posted in Freebies, giveaway, Inspiration, Lifestyle Design, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

I think a Summer Wellness challenge is something we all think about doing but what stops us to start is to find the right one and have easy access to it.

As I was prepping one for myself, I decided to share it with you!

Just click on the image below to save it.

28-day-challenge-#1-preview

Love,
Hewnly

3 Daily Habits to Start in 2018

Posted in Diet, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Lifestyle Design, TipsTagged , , , , , , , , , , 13 Comments

Feel stuck in a routine or standstill? Can’t move forward with your goals?

It’s the little things you do that often determine success or failure.

 “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
Just like many, when the New Year starts I spend quite a bit of time contemplating what’s next for me, what have I achieved during the previous year and how would I like to better myself. I try to be as realistic and honest as possible – that is the only way this can work, the only way to improve and change your life, steer it in the direction of your choice.
It seems like not an easy task to change yourself. Trust me, I get you. Sometimes, you just gotta do it for you. And if you’re struggling to keep it all together then take a breath and start with this challenge outline of which I found on zenhabits.net :

How to Develop a Habit
Do a 30-day challenge, focusing on just ONE habit.

  • Write it out on paper, along with your motivations, obstacles, and strategies for overcoming them.
  • Commit fully, in a public way.
  • Log your progress.
  • Remain publicly accountable — report on your progress each day.
  • Have support for when you falter — either in real life or online.
  • Reward every little success.
  • If you fail, figure out what went wrong, plan for it, and try again.

Read full article here

Last year, one of the habits I vowed to myself to start is reading every day. Now, I have a book with me anywhere I go and read (mostly) on my commute which adds to about an hour a day. For then I can’t have a book with me or forget to put it in my bag, I have the Kindle app on my phone with a range of books already downloaded, just in case. Now I feel anxious if I don’t get to catch up on my reading! I try to read a different type of book every time. I alternate between non-fiction and fiction, self-help, historical novels, autobiographies,…

If you don’t read much or at all, this is probably the first habit I would recommend to pick up.

As Todd Henry writes in his article on inc.com:

You can’t draw water from an empty well. Do you take time each day to fill yours? The quality of input that you curate often determines the quality of your creative output. As Steve Jobs once quipped, “creativity is just connecting things”, but to do so you obviously need things to connect.

I encourage you to set aside time each morning or evening to fill your well, to read inspiring or challenging books, to watch videos or listen to talks, or to otherwise fill your well so that you have something to draw from when engaging in your work.

 

There are a number of new habits I would like to pick up this year but I think I will start with these three:

1. Meditation

It trains the part of your brain that is responsible for willpower and self-control. Basically, meditation gives you the ability to train your mind, be more in control of your emotion, focus on your goals and ultimately – achieve them. Meditation also increases your sense of general well-being which makes you more positive and happier.

2. Excercise

I have an on and off relationship with working out, which, I guess, is not that uncommon. However this year I will make it one of my main priorities to have a more regular and frequent workout routine.

I read somewhere that most people who start sticking to a

fitness regimen will often find themselves adjusting their diet as well
even if they’re told not to. Two birds with one shot sound good to me!
It makes sense because if you’re working your ass off, you’re less likely to eat junk food right after because you know it undoes all your hard work.
Because these two habits basically come in a package together, it requires a lot of willpower to maintain – so if you can make them into full-fledged habits, you’ll be able
to take on smaller habits with ease. The more you train yourself to adopt new habits the easier it gets.
It is also likely that whilst you are working on a new habit, such as exercise and better eating as a result of it, feelings of being tired or foggy are consistently replaced with feeling better with every workout and/or choice of healthier dinner. And if you start feeling better on a day to day basis it makes it much easier to start adopting other good habits. This ability to improve your body’s day-to-day function makes fitness and diet an extremely powerful keystone habit.

3. Trying new things

Keeping your routine fresh will help you stay on track! I am a firm believer of this and whilst working on including more consistent habits of meditation, exercise and diet, I want to make sure to mindfully include new things to mix it everything up.
From cactus water to matcha tea instead of my morning coffee, making your daily routine exciting is the game changer.  It’s easy at first to stick to the same regime, but after a while, you’ll get bored. That’s why you need to switch things up!

It takes discipline & motivation.

In order to be motivated, we have to motivate ourselves every single day.

Motivation is like taking a shower.

Remember that every time you feel you are not and go take a motivational shower asap.

It’s up to you how much you’ll achieve, how far you’ll go or how fast you’ll get there.

Love,
Hewnly

50 Quotes that Will Inspire You to Do Anything (3 min read)

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To start the New Year!

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. —Vince Lombardi

Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. —Charles Swindoll

If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough. —Oprah Winfrey

Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. —Eleanor Roosevelt

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. —Jimmy Dean”

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. —Albert Einstein

I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. —Stephen Covey

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. —Henry Ford

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. —Alice Walker

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. —Amelia Earhart

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. —Aristotle Onassis

Travel Bucket List

Posted in destinations, Holidays, Inspiration, Lifestyle Design, TravelTagged , , , , , , 1 Comment

Happy Travel Tuesdays!

I could go on and on about how much I love to travel and even it is not so often I get to do it at the moment as my work keeps me in London (which I do love!) for most of the year and the rare occasion to travel is usually spent on trips to see family in Lithuania and Slovakia. I do not complain, oh no! However, one day I dream (and keep working on getting it) of having a digital nomad lifestyle.

There are so many places I would like to visit, and here are but a few of them:

  1.  Santorini, Greece
  2. Maldives

  3. British Columbia, Canada

  4. Vietnam
  5. Chile
  6. Iceland
  7. South Africa
  8. Nepal & Bhutan
  9. Rome, Italy
  10. New Zealand

I could put many more places on this list but these are my top obsessions at the moment.

Where would you like to travel to?

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you back soon!
~ H