ABOUT FIGHTING ANXIETY WITH CREATIVITY

Here's a story from yesterday...

This morning I woke up, nothing on my schedule. Within minutes of waking up I started feeling anxious. The uncertainty of how I was going to spend the day, about how I'm going to spend the next few months of my life until uni starts, about when I was going to see some certain friends again, immediately made the worries kick in, and made my brain and my body go nuts.

I had to force myself to have something for breakfast, because anxiety for me always results in a loss of appetite. Somehow I managed to make it through a tiny piece of bread and a smoothie. I went up to my room, not wanting to waste another day on worrying and staying in bed only watching a ton of Gilmore Girls episodes, although not knowing how to fight the creeping anxiety either. Doing that would just make me feel crappy, useless and like I'm wasting my time and I hate nothing more than that. 

I decided to try and get my mind off things, by finally putting proper time into editing my book, which I just keep and keep putting off every single day. I turned the tv on on the side, which I usually never do at this time of the day, because the stuff that they show at this time of the day just gives me headaches. But it worked. I didn't get much done, but it helped keeping my mind off things. 

And just when I felt like I needed a break and my anxiety immediately started creeping back, my mum came in, and I realized I'd barely done a thing today whilst other people had already finished work. Somehow the scrapbook material in the box on my floor fell into my eye, and within seconds I had gotten up and started working on it. And I put so much work into it today. 

It is now late at night, and I have spent approximately around 7 hours today working on my scrapbook. It got to the point where I had to remind myself to get some food, and ended up eating whilst working, because I was completely in the zone and in my zen mode. It wasn't until almost dinner time, that I realized, that I had literally been in a little bubble all day, pretty much since I started working on my scrapbook and living out my creativity, and I had barely given anyone or anything outside it a thought. 

But, most importantly, I had conquered the morning anxiety that had been creeping up on me. And in the end, that is what was and is most important. Not that I didn't go to a place to work and earn money today, not that I didn't have a bunch of things on my to do list today that I could tick off, but the fact that I found a way to make myself feel good when I had nothing to do and felt like everything was going wrong. 

I realize, that this is probably not going to help everyone that suffers from anxiety, that my anxiety differs from other people's anxiety, and even I can't always get myself to a point where I can manage to try and fight the anxiety either, but I think it's a starting point that we remind ourselves, that we are able to find it, even if it's just every once in a while, and that if we ever feel like we are strong enough to fight our anxiety, we shouldn't just give in and let anxiety take over. Sometimes you just need to fight. We all have to find our own ways on how to best channel our energy to fight through anxiety. Try getting creative like I did, try meditation or yoga, try listening to music or audio books. Find a way that can take your mind to a different world for a while and it may hopefully help.

I'm looking back at today, and I am proud of myself that I managed to do it and fight the anxiety, and I feel grateful for getting the strength today to do so. I'm praying, that if you are also suffering from anxiety, that you may find that strength too, next time you feel anxious and liking giving up, before the day has even started. 

Happy 1st Birthday!

Welcome to a new post!

I can't believe I'm actually typing this post already! Time has gone by so quickly, I can't even believe it. It feels like yesterday that I was preparing my first few blogposts to go up, yet today we are celebrating the first birthday of this blog! How? :o Exactly one year ago I published my first blogpost, welcoming you all to this new adventure.

I've owned a blog before, but never managed to keep it going as I wasn't only talking about things that I wanted to talk about, nor did I have the motivation to keep on writing posts. To be honest, I had that feeling a few times in this year as well, but I guess that's pretty normal. Everyone feels stuck at some point in their life, whether that's with school, work, friends, love, life in general or simply their hobby.

Leaving that aside, I've had the best time ever sharing my thoughts with you on so many different topics, and there are so many more on my list that I want to talk about in the future. I didn't force myself to write certain posts. Instead I posted the stuff that I felt like both writing and posting.

View numbers keep telling me what posts you guys love, which ones you didn't like as much, and which ones I definitely didn't promote enough. That is definitely a goal for the future year of blogging. I really need to get better at sharing.

I would like to say that I also want to write more posts in the future, but you should never promise anything on the internet, and with A-Levels getting closer and closer each month I'm pretty sure that's not what is going to happen. However, I do have so many fun things planned already for next year, and you will probably be bombarded with pictures and posts during those fun times, and I can't wait for you to see it. Not everything is fully secure yet, so I'm going to keep you on hold with that for a little longer, but if everything goes well in a few weeks I will be able to tell you about some cool plans for the next year! :)

One thing that has kept bothering me whilst owning this blog and blogging it away, is that I never feel like I engage with my readers enough. I've only gotten one comment on this blog the whole year, but I guess I can't blame any of you, and I am really not doing that. Please don't take this in the wrong way. Not even I comment 98% of the time when I read a blogpost, because I purely want to read and enjoy it. As my blog is still really small as well I can't expect that to happen.

Wow, I sounded so moody there, didn't I? I'm really sorry, I'm actually in quite a happy place right now. I haven't got any part of this blogpost planned, so again I'm just sprinkling it down as it gets into my head. I'm so so grateful that I have the opportunity to even share all of these thoughts and things that I enjoy and love with you. A few generations back I would have never been able to do this, and I don't know how I would've coped with all this inspiration and creativity wanting to burst out of my head. (To be honest, I probably would have found a way, but still.)

I'm so grateful that you guys read my blog, and that some of you actually keep coming back to it from time to time. Even if I don't know anything about you, I am so grateful that you take that time out of your day to read the words that I wrote. I've always loved writing, and I still do. I've always wanted to share my stories with people, and in some way this blog really satisfies that part of me and my childhood.

How crazy even is it that we now have the technology to share out thoughts with people that are thousands of kilometers away from us without needing to travel anywhere? We are so privileged, and we really need to be more grateful for it, as many negative sides there may be to it as well. We take it as self-evident (I hope that's the right word for it?), that we can do all of these amazing things, and that we don't need to read through a whole library in order to find an answer to our homework or have to travel somewhere to be able to chat to people all over the world and all that stuff.

Gosh, were is this leading, a few seconds ago I was still talking about this blog and you guys haha. Sorry about that.

Thank you so much to everyone who has read anything on this blog in the past year, whether it was one or a million times. Thank you for taking your time to read these weird thoughts that my head creates and makes me put down and publish for you. Thank you for giving me this tiny and cozy space on the internet and making me happy. I feel like my readers are my friends, even if they only listen. I can tell you whatever I want, and there's always at least one person that cares enough to listen.

Blogging has given me so much, and I feel so relieved that I no longer need to search for ways to share my opinions on things, instead I can share them with you directly. One day I might be looking back at this post and cringing at what I wrote. It's always that case anyway, isn't it? I'll probably be cringing about it by tomorrow, but whatever, that's life. Sometimes you need to put in a little cheese.

This one year has gone by so quickly. It feels like it passed in the blink of an eye, and now we are already off into year 2! So many things happened over this year, so many different blogposts and insights, so many pictures and words. Looking back, I don't regret any of them. Whether the post had 5 or 50 views.

Numbers don't always matter. My blog has currently been read a little over 2,8K times in one year. To some of you that might be such a small number, but to me it means a lot. I am thankful for every single one of them. This blog might be growing slowly, but who said big bloggers were able to pay their taxes etc from their blogging money after just one year of doing so? Zoella didn't become a huge blog from one second to another, nor did SprinkleOfGlitter or TheAnnaEdit.

Right now I am pretty happy with what I have achieved on this blog, and I never would have thought to even reach 1K views in a year, so that is pretty awesome. Who knows what will happen in the upcoming year of blogging?

There are so many possibilities, but we will all have to accept and live with whatever life throws at us. That's how life works. I have really been trying to work on that part in the past few months - accepting that things happen for a reason. There's a reason why you missed your bus this morning, because otherwise maybe you would've ended up in a car crash. There's a reason why you didn't do well on that exam, because maybe you need to stop thinking that you are too good to even study at all. There's a reason why you are having a bad day today, because there would be no rainbows without a little rain. What all of us need to remember at the end of the day is that:

(Source)

There's a reason why this is my favourite quote, and there's a reason why it was the inspiration for my blog name. It doesn't mean that I think my life is perfect and that I'm happy with everything that is happening in my life. I rather see it as a motivation to think more positively and remember that bad things happen in life, but there's a reason for that, and you need to make the best of it.

You've all probably stopped reading this already, right? :D Sorry if I bore you. I get a little carried away with my writing sometimes, but that's what you might get to see a little more often if you read this blog for a little longer. :)

As you are also part of this blog, because you are reading it, I thought it's only fair to share some 'numbers' with you. Here's a little recap for you. So here's a list of the most read posts:

1) Rituals Carpe Diem Shampoo Review

2) Girl Online On Tour by Zoe Sugg #BOOKREVIEWS

3) FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Danielle Peazer's Peace Eye Shadow Palette

Funnily, the number 1 post is actually one of my least favourite posts. I don't really know why, but you seemed to have loved it, so I guess I'm going to keep those reviews coming in the future. I love the other two posts in your favourites though! Great choice :D My favourite posts are all in the TOP 10 so I guess we pretty much agree in that case, which I'm really happy about.

Now let's talk about the least loved blogposts, you got to show some negative sides as well. Maybe someone actually would have liked this post and has just never seen it before? Think positively :D.

1) Beauty Wishlist

2) My Kindle Bookshelf Tour

3) 17 years, 17 places I have loved

Whaaat, I actually loved those Wishlist posts :o Wouldn't have guessed that, but okay good to know I guess. :D I'm not even going to try and bother to find an excuse why that happened. All three sadly are posts that took up quite a lot of time to write and edit. I'll take that into consideration on my future blogpost choices, and hopefully get an even better idea of what I will post about on my 18th :P

Let's talk about where most of my readers are from, as well, because why not? :)

1) USA

2) Germany

3) France

4) Russia

5) Ireland

I love that my readers come from so many different places, a few of them actually being on my list of places that I want to visit, so that is awesome! Also, these places are very different, so that's also lovely to see! :)

I guess you all must have enough of my talking that just won't stop. So I will try to keep this ending short, before we officially start into the second year of DANCINGINTHERAIN23. :D

Thank you so much for being part of this blog. Thank you for reading and thinking about what I am saying. Thank you for being awesome readers! Let's hope we'll one day be able to look back at this together and laugh about the good old times! I really hope you found joy in it, and will keep doing so. No matter what life throws at you, always remember the quote behind this blog name. Thank you for everything.

Have an incredible day!

Lots of love ♥

Jacqueline Xx

A New Chapter

Welcome to a new post!

The time has finally come, that my blog has had a makeover! I've been wanting to change the look of it for a few months, even though I've not even owned it for a whole year! But I'm a person that loves a change of design, whether it comes to my room, my school supplies or my blog.

I have to say, I learned whilst playing around with the settings and templates, that I am not as good with this thing as I thought I could be. I really want to have some swishy pictures at the top, and have it really monochromy but still really pretty and full of colours. That didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to, but I feel like I've still come up with a pretty decent result, which I am a lot happier with.

I added a little more purple, as I really like that colour, came up with a new header, changed up my whole side bar, to make it better and prettier at the same time, I corrected my 'ABOUT' and 'CONTACT' pages, and added some other little things.

I'm really looking forward to working on this blog even further, and write more and more blogposts. I've got quite a few lovely ones planned for the next few months, which I am really exited to share with you.

I've also put up a little poll on the side bar, where you can vote your favourite type of blogposts, so I have an idea of what you would like to see most of. You can also find my most popular blogposts of the past few weeks in the side bar, as well as being able to translate my posts, view every blogpost I ever made There are all of my Social Media links, where you can follow and contact me, as well as my most favourite quote, which gave me the idea what to name blog in the first place.

I'm now at 2,2K views as I am writing this, which for some of you might be pretty lame and not a lot, but to be honest, I am happy about every view I get, and I love seeing where all of you come from, and what blogposts are most popular. I won't end up as the new Zoella, I know that, so I'll not take any of these views for granted. I love this blog a lot, as I can talk about everything that I feel like getting off of my chest. I really want to thank every single one of you, that have ever read a blogpost of mine, everyone that is reading this right now. Thank you for giving me this space. Thank you for listening and reading.

If you are thinking about starting a blog, I can only recommend you to start right now. Go do a little research, and then start straight away. What the hell are you waiting for? You ain't going to be able to talk about all the stuff you love, if you don't start right now. It might be a little hard to keep up at some points, but if you really want it, it will be worth it! We spend way too much of our life time doing things we don't want to do, and waiting till we do the things that we actually do want to do.

I'm still not 100% happy with the design, but it's a start. I might as well take it as a chance to learn more about this stuff, to keep on making it better. I'd love to see you guys engage in it. What do you want to see? What don't you want to see? What do you want me to talk about that you would love to hear about? Is there a certain topic you think I should address, or a certain product you would like me to try and talk about, would you like to see more personal stuff, or stuff about people I adore? Tell me anything, and I will make it work out. This isn't only my blog. It's also yours, and I want you to be part of it.

I'm going to spend a few days in Berlin soon, where I'll have some blogposts prepared, and I am about write something else that I am pretty exited to post about, apart from my Berlin adventures of course,  - Potterheads get exited! ;)

Also let me know, how you like the new design! And tell me how your day has been so far!

I hope you have an amazing day, and an amazing week ♥

Love, Jacqueline Xx

Baking Chocolate-Brazil Nut-Cookies

Welcome to a new post!

I've never done a baking post before because I was never quite sure what to show you, as we usually bake really easy and quick things on the usual days. However I recently bought myself a new cooking book, as I really want to do more of that. That is what also inspired me to make this recipe, which is inspired by one of the ones in the actual book.
Chocolate-Brazil Nut-Cookies sounded so cool and tasty, but not too exotic, so I thought I would give them a try!

To be completely honest I thought all together they were only around 130 calories if I would have made the complete actual recipe, but it turns out I forgot to read the 'each cookie contains' right next to it...:D *FAIL*. It was already way too late as the cookies were already in the oven, but whatever, they taste soo nice so I'm just not going to care and treat myself to one every once in a while!

They are really easy to make and even my brother and my father who are usually very critical with stuff like that love the recipe, so here's how to make them!

  You will need:

• 50g butter

• 50g vegetable fat

• 150g brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 5 drops vanilla flavour

• 1 TBSP milk

• 100g flour

• 100g oats

• 1 TSP baking soda

• 1 pinch of salt

• 175g dark chocolate drops

• 75g crunched brazil nuts 

Steps:

1) Mix the butter, egg, sugar, milk, vegetable fat and vanilla flavour with a mixer or Kitchen Aid for at least 3 minutes until it's creamy but still a little fluffy.

2) Mix the oats, the flour, the salt and the baking soda in a different bowl and then add it to the mixture you have made before. Also add the nuts (if you can't find any crashed ones, simply put them into a plastic bag and use something like a food hammer to crash them) and the chocolate drops at this point, and make sure to mix it all well, bevor you either close your bowl with it's lid or with a piece of clingfilm, and leave it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

3) Pre-heat the oven to around 180° whilst you put a sheet of baking paper on your tray. Then start making little chunks of dough, best with a spoon or two. Make sure to leave enough space between them as they spread out quite a lot in the oven.

4) Bake the cookies for around 15 minutes, and then let them cool for around another 15 minutes if you still want them to be a little warm and gewy, or longer if you want them to be completely finished.

And now - get baking, and enjoy your cookies! :)

How did you like this different style of blogpost? Do you want more baking and cooking bits on here? Let me know, what you would like to see!

Have a great day! ♥

Love, Jacqueline Xx

One Week Honest Food Diary Trial

 Welcome to a new post!

Around two weeks ago, one of the bloggers that I read most, Lily Pebbles, posted a blogpost about 'One Week Honest Food Diary'. Here's a link to it, if you haven't seen it yet. She wrote down everything she ate for a whole week, being completely honest, instead of the usual pretending to always eat like that. A lot of people always do food diaries, but to be honest, you always keep in mind while doing that that you are actually documenting that, and people might judge you for it. But this food diary is a honest one, not planning everything out so it seems like you are actually completely healthy, because let's be honest - who is?

 I got really interested in that post, as I feel like I haven't been as healthy as I intended to for the past few weeks, and it's really been bothering me. I want to get more creative and more into a habit of eating healthy. So I tried it myself, and here's my 'One Week Honest Food Diary' version, inspired by Lily, and what I learned from it. I did from a Wednesday to a Thursday, just to clarify.

What I learned from writing down what I ate for a whole week:

1)  I keep eating the same things over at least one day just at different times of it, and it usually doesn't have that much variation.

2)  I consume way too much dairy.

3)  I need more inspiration on things to make myself and eat, especially for breakfast and 'Coffee time'. 

4)  I need to take more time to prepare my food so I can be more creative as well, instead of throwing something together in a few minutes.

5)  I should go back to eating more fruit and vegetables.

6)  I eat way too much muesli, even when I don't even feel like eating it just because I don't have any other idea.

7)  I feel happier with the stuff that I eat on the days that my mum makes/prepares most of the food.

8)  I need and want to cook more for myself when I have the time to, and make more effort than just throwing a vegetarian meat thingy in the pan, just because it's fast and easy.

9)  I care more about my workout and my water impact than the actual things that I eat, even though I want a proper result.

10)  I should go do the food shopping with my parents a bit more often to find more things I could eat and make.

My goals:

I want to eat less dairy, and more fruit and vegetables instead. I want to cook more, and get more inspiration to be more creative with the things that I eat. I want to stop eating muesli all the time, as well as other things I keep repeating and instead eat different things.

I hope you enjoyed this kind of blogpost. Thank you to Lily for the inspiration (not that I think you would ever read this, but a girl can dream). Please make sure to check out her blogpost as well, and let me know what you want to change in your eating habits. :)

Have a great week. ♥

Love, Jacqueline Xx

Sticking to Your Fitness Goals

 Welcome to a new post!

I knew I wanted to make a fitness related post, but I didn't want it to be the typical post where I tell you how you get slim and healthy in three seconds or something like that. I ended up with the idea of telling you my tips on sticking to your fitness goals. I have tried my best not to come up with the ones that everyone has already told you tons of times on other blogs, youtube or whatever.

Sticking to your fitness goals doesn't sound quite as hard once you've come up with that idea, but then you find yourself snuggled up in bed again with cookies, crisps, fries or whatever, thinking about working out, but not ending up doing anything. I know there are a lot of people who have that problem, especially after New Years when they made it their goal to finally work out.

I have personally had that struggle, but finally found a way to overcome it somehow, and now I have been sticking to a proper schedule for a year, which is quite good for me. I tried sticking to it twice, and once completely failed after doing a 7 minute workout every day for four months, and once after doing it for 1 and a half months, but then picked it up again.

So here is what I find helpful, to now stop working out.

1) SPICE AND CHANGE IT UP

If you keep doing the same moves all of the time, you will immediately get bored of it and not feel motivated anymore to actually work out. Change it up from time to time, don't focus on doing the same things all the time. Make it harder, the further you get with your workouts. Try new workout guides, videos, routines, courses - basically everything that comes up to your mind. Don't wait until all your motivation is lost, if you feel getting bored of the moves, find something new.

I personally find the Blogilates calendars quite amazing, as the workout videos you have to do change every day and every month. Kayla Itsines's workouts are a bit pricey, but they are really hard and work pretty well, which might make you see your goals a bit faster than with Blogilates. Also the Nike + app is really cool, as there are quite a few different workouts for different fitness levels and goals, and it's also for free.

2) WRITE IT DOWN

Print your routine out or write it down. Keeping it in front of your face will remind you of the things that you have set as your goal. That way you keep it on your mind a little bit longer than just thinking about it.

Try it out, especially when you are just starting out. I did it, and now I don't even need to do it anymore, as it has become a complete part of my routine, which I always keep in mind, no matter what I plan.

3)  GO TO CLASSES

Have a look at your local gym and see what kind of classes they teach. I think basically every gym does it, and there is something for everyone to do. Even when you aren't feeling motivated, going to a class will motivate you when you see all those other people working out next to you and with you. Try it. If you don't want to go alone, go grab a friend, and it will be even more fun.

4) HAVE A ROUTINE

Come up with a routine, to be sure to stick to working out. It doesn't have to be planned out from the first second, but setting certain days and a certain time where you want to start makes it easier for you to plan your day and still find time for working out.

Don't forget rest days either! Have at least one a week for your body to rest, which it really will need after days and days of hard work.

5) BUY NEW GYM CLOTHES

Buying new gym clothes and looking at all of them in shop can really motivate you to actually do something. I mean who doesn't like a new set of clothes and gets exited to wear them, let's be honest! So try that with gym clothes, and it might work a hell of a lot than many other things.

6) GET INSPIRED

Read, watch, shop, everything that comes to your mind. Getting inspiration online, especially on WeHeartIt and Youtube, is personally something that really helps me a lot. By seeing other people succeeding in the things you want to achieve and do can really put you into a better mood, especially when you feel like working out, but don't. It doesn't mean that you should compare yourself to others, not at all, but taking it as a motivation to actually get your bum up is quite a nice thing to do.

7) TAKE PICTURES

Looking at before and after pictures is probably the best thing ever. You don't notice the difference as much when you are looking at your body from day to day, but when you actually see a difference in pictures, it really gives you the feeling that you have actually achieved something, and it will make you want to work even harder. 

8) DON'T LEAVE BUSY DAYS OUT

Of course you need to prioritize, but just because you feel like you have so many things to do, doesn't mean you should always leave out your workout. Actually, I find working out on stressy days quite relaxing, as it lets my mind concentrate on something else for a little while at least. Try to do a little workout at least, even if it's just ten minutes. A workout is a workout. 

I really hope these tips where at least a tiny bit helpful, even if they weren't the most original ones. I personally find these points quite important for myself to maintain my routine and stick to my goals to achieve them. Seeing results is the most motivating thing ever, and I really hope that you are able to stick to your goals and keep working out.

Let me know what you do to keep working out down below. :)

Have a good day and week. :)

Love, Jacqueline Xx