Category: negativity

what I learnt from singing with strangers.

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Have you ever had one of those weird experiences while driving? You’re driving on the freeway. It’s 100km/hr. There’s this one car cruising at 90, so you decide to overtake. Fast forward a few minutes and the stranger has magically decided to drive the speed limit. Now they’ve overtaken you and within a matter of seconds, you’re tailgating them. Before you know it, it’s this game of leap frog. It’s awkward, hey?

Or my personal favourite – you’re matching speed with another car and awkwardly make eye contact. One of you speeds up, but then suddenly you’re both stopped at the same set of lights.  Yep, can confirm I feel you cringing from here.

GIF of Homer Simpson slowly disappearing into a bush.

Well, I have one to add to my list. One that had never happened before. The other day, I was driving by myself and had stopped at a set of lights. I looked in the rear view mirror at the car behind me to find a young couple absolutely belting out a banger.

Usually, I would smirk a little and exhale slightly at this sort of behaviour, because I know well and truly that it would be something I would do. However, this situation deserved something so much more. Their passion and enthusiasm were somewhat invigorating.

Naturally, I wondered what song they were listening to that required such aggressive dance moves. I began channel surfing, flicking through the frequencies trying to determine the song that, unbeknownst to the pair of strangers, they were performing for me. Eventually, I reached The Edge 96.1 and Dessert by Dawin was playing.

Now, if you know the song – this next part will make more sense. Confident that I had tuned in to the correct backing track to their lip sync battle, I lingered a moment on the station. As I continued watching, eagerly awaiting the chorus – the couple delivered precisely what I had been waiting for. Right on time with the “boop bup dippity dup, doopy dip dup” part, they reached their peak performance.

Would you believe me if I said, that this wasn’t even the best part? The lights turned green and I figured that was the last time I was ever going to see the dancing pair. Little did I know that we would stop beside each other at the next set of lights.

As I glanced over at the other lane, I looked over at them both smiling (the boyfriend low-key head banging at this stage). They caught me watching, so I knew this could go two ways: I either pretend like I wasn’t some creepy chick staring at their mini rave party to save embarrassment, or I do the only sane thing any normal person would do – start head banging as well.

Obviously, I immediately chose the latter. I began singing and dancing along and the couple quickly realised that I was listening to the same song. Their smiles grew even larger than I thought possible. Who knew sitting in traffic could actually be fun?

Other than being hilarious, the whole experience of singing with these strangers made me think. Perhaps the kind of attitude that I have and the type of energy that follows, not only impacts me. I have the opportunity to share my gratitude, thoughts and positive energy with those I come in contact with. Likewise, when I’m not feeling overly happy and bubbly or I have had a bad day, others see that negative energy and I am potentially feeding theirs too.

I’m not saying that we should never show that we are anything but happy. Rather, I’m saying, how about we start actively recognising how our attitude can positively or negatively impact not only our perspective but others, too.

The people we choose to be friends with generally share common values and interests. We naturally gravitate toward people who make us feel comfortable. It makes sense. To feel supported, encouraged, loved and happy. Who wouldn’t want to feel all of those things? After all, they do say, “your vibe attracts your tribe”.

They also say that “the grass is always greener where you water it”. But something that I have realised is that people are the same. Fill yourself with negative things and you will wither, but surround yourself with good people and their positivity will be a catalyst for your growth.

So I want to ask you this: if we have the ability to unintentionally make someone’s day, imagine the difference we could make if we all intentionally tried to spread positivity. With everyone actively seeking opportunities to make someone smile, laugh or turn their entire day around – imagine how different the world would be.

Sure, we might not be able to change the world, but you can make a difference in someone’s life which could mean the world to them. And I think that’s pretty damn special. I want to be that kind of world changer. Who’s with me?

Keep smiling. x

Ten things I hate about you.

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Yes, this is a rant post. But it’s not your usual rant. It’s a rant about me, to me. The other day my best friend asked me that wonderful question, ‘if you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?’ But of course, rather than just making myself feel a small portion of self-loathe, I used up all the fingers I have to list a whopping ten. So no, this isn’t a juicy rant about an old friend or even a movie review (how good is that movie though!?). Instead this is a reflection about those ten things that I want to change about myself.

I strive for relatable content and each of my blog posts are one-hundred percent honest. A lot of the things I am going to share are very personal and with that comes vulnerability, so please, be nice. Before I start, I want to make it clear that the last thing I want this post to become is a sympathy call or a way for me to fish for compliments. I am sharing this, because I feel like self-loathing is, unfortunately, something natural that we all do on a regular basis, whether it is intentional or not. No matter how hard we try, it is incredibly difficult to be completely happy with ourselves – our appearance, behaviour or personality. For me, it’s a mixture of all three.

  1. Comparing. I compare myself to others all the time, it’s actually ridiculous. I know how unhealthy it is, but there are days where I will just come across a picture of a flawless woman or walk through a shopping centre and see a girl with the perfect style, beautiful hair and not a pimple in sight and automatically feel less happy with my appearance. 
  2. Impatience. Crying children, people taking too long to tell their story (which to be honest, I probably do way too often myself), waiting in queues . . . yeeeah, no thank you! 
  3. Forgiveness. I hold grudges. If someone took advantage of my trust or did or said something that hurt me in some way, I find it difficult to just forgive and forget. Moving on from situations, no matter how big or small, is something I struggle with. 
  4. Temper. I get frustrated very easily. If I have already mentioned to my Mum what days I am working during the week or what my plans are for the weekend, and then a few days later she asks me to remind her, I get annoyed and fail to recognise that I have lost my temper at something so insignificant. That said, I am never angry for very long – it really only takes a puppy, a shower or a Tim-Tam and I’m set! 
  5. Head to toe. I told you this was a personal post, so get ready for TMI (apologies in advance), but as most people, there are things I would love to change about my appearance. With a European background, I naturally have darker and thicker hair than most people, which is all well and good as I doubt I will ever go bald, BUT hairy arms, a snail trail and a girl-stache aren’t generally that attractive. I also hate my feet (actually, I just hate feet in general) and am in a love-hate relationship with what have remained my ‘bee stings’ since Year 7 (girls, this one’s for you). 
  6. People pleaser. Although I claim that I don’t, I care too much about what other people think of me. If people aren’t sitting right with me, then I’ll let them know and even if they are the ones in the wrong, I will still put in my own time and effort to try and fix the problem. 
  7. Organised. I like being organised, which is usually a good thing. If a plan hasn’t been sorted or if there is an issue that needs to be resolved I will do all I can to get it done, but this can sometimes come across as being bossy. 
  8. Easily distracted. I am great at the whole ‘talking’ thing, but unfortunately I am a terrible listener. I try really hard, but I get distracted incredibly easily. I need to be completely focused and in the right frame of mind, otherwise I can almost guarantee that you don’t have my full attention. 
  9. Stubborn. I stand up for what I believe in and I like to think that I am open-minded. However, when I get passionate about a topic, particularly in conversations with my parents, I will go out of my way to get my point across and in some cases disagree just to prevent giving in or avoid admitting that I am wrong.
  10. Delegation. This goes with being organised. I hate telling people what to do – I get awkward and it feels uncomfortable, so instead I just do it all on my own. I get bogged down with a lot of tasks, but in my head it’s easier to do it yourself and know the exact process of how it’s being completed. That way there are minimal mistakes and there is no one else to blame but yourself. It all sounds like a perfect plan to begin with, but I have realised that although being a leader of a team requires a lot of effort, your team members are there to be given jobs. My job is to delegate and not doing that means I am not only giving myself more work, but not actually doing my job properly. 

After I finally took a breath and finished recalling the endless things I wish I could change about myself to my friend, the look on his face said it all. He looked at me so upset and when I asked him what was wrong, he simply said that he wondered how I could list to him all these things I didn’t like so effortlessly. It got me thinking, we so often focus on the things we would love to change about ourselves, whether it be physical or not, but rarely are we able to so easily list the traits we love. 

The thing that I have learnt from this is although self-loathing, to an extent, is almost a natural process, it is unhealthy. Why do we find it easier to hate than to love? Why is it easier to pick out our imperfections, rather than be content with the fact that no one else is flawless either? I am not saying to simply ignore these things, but if there are traits or habits that can be changed, like impatience or constantly comparing yourself to others, then make it a goal to do something about it!

In order to show love to others, you must first love yourself. I know I’m not the only one that struggles with this, so I encourage anyone else to join me in writing down a few things you don’t like about yourself on a piece of paper and then go outside with a lighter, some matches or a lit candle and burn that bad boy up, because the negativity and the self-loathing stops here. You are so much more than those words on that paper. Your value and worth lies beyond that. Focus on the things that make you beautiful, caring, funny, loving, loyal, strong, trustworthy – the things that make you, ‘you’. We live in a pretty messed up world. Don’t waste your time trying to achieve the unattainable standards that society sets for us. Learn to love yourself for who you are and always strive to be the best version of you that you can possibly be. Who’s with me?

Keep smiling. x