CURLY AND CANDID

Hands up if you’ve ever had a truly rubbish day…..

My Perfect

What if you’re unlucky and have had a series of rubbish days? These things start to bog you down. They make you tired, you feel low and it may become harder and harder to see the positives that are going on around you because you’re too busy wallowing or fighting through the negatives.

This is where the My Perfect journal comes in. The brainchild of Ali Gill, this fun journal merges calming colouring (if you want to) with actively searching out a positive or a perfect in every day. I have this journal and have to say that once you’ve started using it, you subconsciously seek out something good in your day or even several somethings. It changes your outlook and encourages you to be more mindful of what is truly going on around you.

Take last week for instance. I spent most of it in a mad panic as Christmas is fast approaching and I have a ridiculous amount of work to do. I have a bad foot and it ached with the cold pretty much all of the time, everyone seemed to be getting grumpy and a load of bills hit my doormat. All in all, a pretty crappy week. Or was it? T had a fabulous week at school, K was happy, I had a lovely breakfast catch-up with friends and one had fabulous news. I enjoyed a lovely half an hour with just me and my book and another fab morning with a super friend and her daughter. By focusing on the positives and recording them I was able to completely change the way my week went, and how I felt about it.

I’m now entering a ridiculously busy week. I finish for Christmas at midnight (and it will be midnight!) on Thursday. I have a ridiculous amount of work to do, still have some Christmas stuff to sort, it’s still cold and I have to fit a hair appointment in too. I’m already seeing the potential perfects for the week ahead. I know that when I finish piece of work x,y or z that I’m going to feel great. I’m excited about Christmas. My hair appointment might be time out of the working day but the salon I go to treats everyone as a VIP and rather than simply a haircut it’s an opportunity for some pampering.

My perfect

All of this from a journal? Yes, actually! There’s flexibility in how you use My Perfect, however, I would say try and do something daily as doing so helps you form a positive habit. I’m a complete stationery tart as many of you know and this journal just feels nice! I’m not a big one for colouring however even I’ve been tempted to doodle and colour a little. On days where I haven’t, that’s ok too. There are no rules, it’s all about creating a bank of perfects for you to reflect on in the present and to look back on in the future.

If you are looking for a gift for yourself or for anyone else the My Perfect Journal is available via Amazon and is a wonderful treat, worth everything penny and many more asides.

*I was sent a review copy of this journal and fell in love with it. I’ve already mentioned it in my stationery gift guide but decided to do a bigger write-up, purely because I rate it so highly. Be assured that any reviews I do, I write up based on my experiences only, and nothing is written from a brand crib-sheet or similar.

Photo credit

Social media can be a wonderful thing. As someone who uses it professionally myself, and on behalf of a number of clients it offers opportunities to reach out to people in ways you couldn’t manage effectively offline.

Social media is fabulous for raising awareness, for sharing local information and international news. Personally, I use social media as a sort of digital scrapbook, a way to record and revisit memories whenever I like, and for years to come.

I love seeing what’s going on in my community, sharing news with others, celebrating and when needed commiserating with them. The online world is also a place to gain support. I know people who for various reasons, for example, due to dealing with mental health issues, find themselves isolated. The online world offers aid to those who find themselves alone, scared and in a dark place at 2am and that is a great tool to have around.

Social media is a wonderful thing however, there is also a dark side. People find it perfectly acceptable to say things online, behind their glass wall, that they wouldn’t dream of saying face to face. I’m not talking about these infamous trolls either, I’m talking about people you see every day. I find this bemusing on one hand and incredibly sad on another.

I see people joining groups in order to moan. Don’t get me wrong, I can whine and moan and rant with the best of them and yet I sometimes find myself asking “when did social media replace our ability to act in real life if there’s change needed?”.

Used effectively social media can be a wonderful thing but sometimes I think we could all do with taking a step back, to pause before we post (for our own sakes) and to remember what social media is, to consider its limitations and its dangers. Being behind a glass wall offers a perception of power and that power can be misused sometimes. People on the internet exaggerate, they out and out lie, they victimise, they bully and they convince themselves that they are righteous, that they do have the right to say and do such things. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, if not used by a wannabe vigilante mob, or by those who have lost sight of how to deal with issues in person, preferring the keyboard warrior stance and the little thrill it offers.

We live in modern times and as such have access to the most wonderful modern technologies. Take advantage of them but follow your own tune, be true to who you are, protect yourself where necessary and enjoy it. Make sure that you don’t take what you see on social media sites as being automatically factual, check things out. Use the internet and social media sites as a set of useful tools, not as a weapon against someone else.

PS: Please don’t disagree with anything I’ve written here, in my little corner of the online world where I like to ramble on sometimes about the thoughts and ideas rattling around in my head. Having a different point of view to someone online is a no-go so don’t be tempted. The backlash can be appalling…. 😀

Original content here is published under these license terms:		X

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License Abstract:	You may read the original content in the context in which it is published (at this web address). No other copying or use is permitted without written agreement from the author.

Original content here is published under these license terms:		X

License Type:	Read Only

License Abstract:	You may read the original content in the context in which it is published (at this web address). No other copying or use is permitted without written agreement from the author.