Hello! Welcome
back! Yay! We are now in May. April for me was super fun, like I had some ideas
that I couldn’t do them all in only a month. Haha. April also had some days
where it felt so hot, we could see the bright sunlight even at 5 PM, we had
heavy rain too. Unpredictable weather, haha. I listened to more songs during
May, for my private project “soundtrack” that helped me a lot with visualizing.
I also emptied one of my favorite skincare products, a bit shocking, I thought
it still had more left in the bottle.
1. Blog : weekly message new format, April Entries, domain renewal
I decided to buy a
domain on April 16, so April 16 is lailiving.com birthday too, haha. It means
that this month I did domain renewal too. There are some things I did for my
blog that are a bit different from my usual format. The weekly message and
monthly message formats are changed to be more practical than the previous
ones. I also decided to add some infographics I made myself to the post so that
it looks more informative and understandable.
2. Book : Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabbat-Zin
Yay, finally I finished
this book! It’s supposed to be March reading material, but as I mentioned in
March Highlight that a book wanted me to re-read it by appearing like
everywhere. This book is similar to the book I re-read in March which is about
being in the present moment. This is a book by Jon Kabbat-Zin that talks more
about meditation and the step-by-step for doing that. It stresses more to not
go anywhere else, but truly being in the current place you are in. it’s not
about being somebody else, but being who you already are.
Here are some of my
favorite quotes from Wherever
You Go, There You Are :
"If we are not fully
present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable
in our lives but also fail to realize the richness and the depth of our
possibilities for growth and transformation."
"...be yourself and not try
to become anything that you are not already."
"Stress is part of life,
part of being human, intrinsic to the human condition itself. But that does not
mean that we have to be victims in the face of large forces in our
lives."
"....meditation is about
letting the mind be as it is and knowing something about how it is in this
moment. It’s not about getting somewhere else, but about allowing yourself to
be where you already are."
"Trust that in this
moment, “This is it,” whatever and wherever “this” is."
"We don’t have to come up
with answers, nor think that there has to be one particular answer. Better not
to think at all."
"....walk in beauty, wherever
you are."
"You are not competing
with anybody else’s body or even aiming to improve your own. You are
not judging how your
body is doing."
"We resonate with one
another’s sorrows because we are interconnected. Being whole and simultaneously
part of a larger whole, we can change the world simply by changing
ourselves."
"It is so much easier to
find fault, to blame, to believe that what is needed is a change on the
outside, an escape from the forces that are holding you back, preventing you
from growing, from finding happiness."
"Nothing is isolated.
Each event connects with others. Things are constantly unfolding on different
levels."
"You might say you are
your name, but that is not quite accurate. Your name is just a label. The same
is true of your age, your gender, your opinions, and so on. None are
fundamental to who you are."
"Spiritual simply means
experiencing wholeness and interconnectedness directly, a seeing that
individuality and the totality are interwoven, that nothing is separate or
extraneous."
"Our demons, our dragons,
our dwarfs, our witches and ogres, our princes and princesses, our kings and
queens, our crevices and grails, our dungeons and our oars are all here now,
ready to teach us."
3. Skincare empty : PURITO Green Level Buffet Serum
Another skincare that I emptied was PURITO Green Level Buffet Serum which is my favorite, since it works well and smells so good (contains lavender oils - if you have sensitive skin, I recommend the unscented one in white bottle). This serum contains my favorite niacinamide and centella asiatica extract that calm my skin (especially when a new acne is about to pop out). It works really well with my combination skin, my skin absorbs the serum quickly and it leaves my skin hydrated. Not sticky at all. It came with a pump bottle and it can be disassembled easily for the recycling process. PURITO is also a brand that supports environment and animals, you can see the label cruelty free on its packaging and how they choose the packaging material like this. I will definitely buy another bottle. Haha.
4. Private Project : SNOW
My on-going private
project is a fiction novel titled SNOW. It's a story that contains many things I've experiences, my thoughts and my views about life, I believe it's the best private project I've ever made. I will change the title later if I find
another catchy title, haha. It’s a project for myself as advice from someone
for reducing stress and creating an outlet for my overload thoughts. By writing
the story, I feel so much better everyday. I ever written a story (I think it's
a darker one) and I always get nightmares when I write it before bed. Yet SNOW
is different, I usually write it before bed, and I don’t get nightmares at all.
It’s now reaching chapter 18 and 100-ish pages which makes me surprised. I
never thought that I would be able to write this much and to keep writing
consistently. If you want to reduce the amount of stress or the thoughts inside
your head, you can do a similar private project as mine. It shouldn’t have to
be perfect since it’s only you reading this. When you aim this project for the
public, it might cause another stress, haha, so it’s better to make it private.
Later, when you feel you want to publish it, you can polish the story more. I also made a playlist on
Spotify for this private project titled SNOW Soundtrack, that consists of the
songs that are suitable to be the background for certain scene / chapter.
5. Playlist : CLEAR, Princess, Who I Am, Again
CLEAR is a song by
famous singer Maaya Sakamoto which is used as the opening theme for my favorite series Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card. When I watched the series for the first
time, I didn’t really pay attention to the song, and it didn’t leave much
impression on me. But for April, I got the urge to listen to this song, and
magically I really like it more than before. My favorite line is “Even if I
don’t have wings to fly, I will run until I reach the place I want to be”. For
me, it’s a song for hope and it has the clear vibe that I really like.
Listen here : MaayaSakamoto - CLEAR (Spotify)
Princess is a song that was released 4 years ago by my favorite singer miwa. This song sounds suitable for my
previous 2 blog posts about wizards and ugly frogs that were inspired by
fairytales. It has a cute theme yet refreshing at the same time. Yes, we all
have the princess part inside of us, whether you realize or not. As Jon
Kabbat-Zin stated in his book that I mentioned above, we are all having those
fairytales’ creatures to work with. My favorite line is “I can ride the pumpkin
because I believe in magic”. When you believe, nothing is impossible.
Listen here : miwa -Princess (Spotify)
Who I Am is the newest
single released by miwa that is empowering and instantly becomes my favorite.
The repeated lines like You know who you are, We know who we are and I know who
I am really get engraved in my head. She also sang the song from her home with
only her playing guitar, and I really like it.
Listen here : miwa - Who I Am (Spotify)
Again (English Ver.) is
the newest song by my favorite singer Beverly that previously was released a year ago in Japanese.
This song was released firstly on Avex YouTube channel and I immediately like
it. Then it’s available on Spotify global as well. It became one of my most
listened to songs during the month of April. This song was released when I
wrote a sad chapter of SNOW where the main character had to say goodbye to her
family. So this song is really suitable for that chapter, that every time I
listen to it, I get reminded to that particular scene where she cried all
night. Haha. Also, Beverly's voice is unforgettable and super super cool. I can cry whenever I listen to any of her songs.
Listen here : Beverly - Again -English Ver. (Spotify)
All the songs I
mentioned above are all the soundtrack for SNOW that are able to wake up the
memories of some chapters that I had written. If I were given the chance to
make it into a series or movie, I would choose the songs from my SNOW Soundtrack
Playlist for it.
Oh, I think my April theme would be CLEAR,
since I feel like seeing some things more clearly than before. That’s why I was
drawn to this kind of picture and ended up making the title picture more simple
than usual. Yes, I have done updating, so that I can see it clearly. That’s a
good sentence! Thank you!
Yeah! That’s all for
April highlight. How was your April? Let me know in the comment box below.
Title picture by lailiving
Photo by Franco Antonio Giovanella from Unsplash
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