Xup: Archive

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Sixteen small steps to happiness:

1. Push yourself to get up before the rest of the world - start with 07:00 a.m., then 06:00 a.m., then 05:30 a.m. Go to the nearest hill with a big coat and a scarf and watch the sun rise.

2. Push yourself to fall asleep earlier - start with 11:00 p.m., then 10:00 p.m., then 09:00 p.m. Wake up in the morning feeling re-energized and comfortable.

3. Erase processed food from your diet. Start with no lollies, chips, biscuits, then erase pasta, rice, cereal, then bread. Use the rule that if a child couldn’t identify what was in it, you don’t eat it.

4. Get into the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. Fry tomatoes and mushrooms in real butter and garlic, fry an egg, slice up a fresh avocado and squirt way too much lemon on it. Sit and eat it and do nothing else.

5. Stretch. Start by reaching for the sky as hard as you can, then trying to touch your toes. Roll your head. Stretch your fingers. Stretch everything.

6. Buy a one-litre water bottle. Start with pushing yourself to drink the whole thing in a day, then try drinking it twice.

7. Buy a beautiful diary and a beautiful black pen. Write down everything you do, including dinner dates, appointments, assignments, coffees, what you need to do that day. No detail is too small.

8. Strip your bed of your sheets and empty your underwear drawer into the washing machine. Put a massive scoop of scented fabric softener in there and wash. Make your bed in full.

9. Organise your room. Fold all your clothes and bag what you don’t want, clean your mirror, your laptop, vacuum the floor. Light a beautiful candle.

10. Have a luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. Wash your hair, scrub your body, brush your teeth. Lather your whole body in moisturiser, get familiar with the part between your toes, your inner thighs, the back of your neck.

11. Push yourself to go for a walk. Take your headphones, go to the beach and walk. Smile at strangers walking the other way and be surprised how many smile back. Bring your dog and observe the dog’s behaviour. Realise you can learn from your dog.

12. Message old friends with personal jokes. Reminisce. Suggest a catch-up soon, even if you don’t follow through. Push yourself to follow through.

14. Think long and hard about what interests you. Crime? Sex? Boarding school? Long-forgotten romance etiquette? Find a book about it and read it. There is a book about literally everything.

15. Become the person you would ideally fall in love with. Let cars merge into your lane when driving. Pay double for parking tickets and leave a second one in the machine. Stick your tongue out at babies. Compliment people on their cute clothes. Challenge yourself to not ridicule anyone for a whole day. Then two. Then a week. Walk with a straight posture. Look people in the eye. Ask people about their story. Talk to acquaintances so they become friends.

16. Lie in the sunshine. Daydream about the life you would lead if failure wasn’t a thing. Open your eyes. Take small steps to make it happen for you.

” —Emma Elsworthy (via healthspiring)

May 30, 2013483 notes

May 25, 20132,853 notes

Superhero Miguel

Superhero - Miguel

Still wouldn’t have the strength to ever leave you

Still wouldn’t have the will to ever want to

Still wouldn’t have the power it would take to walk away

Never could never would wouldn’t even try

May 24, 20131,492 notes

#superhero #miguel

When my favorite song comes on

whatshouldwecallme:

May 22, 20134,045 notes

One Life (Mastered Version) Madcon Ft. Kelly Rowland

While looking at the old me

And thinking back on stuff that all my teachers told me

You know it put that fire in my eyes and though I’m blind to the future, I’mma do it ’cause I owe me

You know, this grind is my religion

Got tired of modest livin’

Survival was my upbringing

My sky it has no limit

My time is all I’m giving

mylifeasamixtape:

Don’t let nobody tell you otherwise
Listen to your heart
And let your dreams fly
Never give it up, up, up
And even when you fuck it up, give another try
Never give it up, up, up
You gotta beat it
And when it rains, it pours, just stay the course

One Life - Madcon ft. Kelly Rowland

May 20, 20136 notes

#madcon #kelly rowland #one life

Brokenhearted (FULL) Lawson Ft. B.o.B.

mylifeasamixtape:

Expect the unexpected you never know what you learn
You never know what you do or what you’ll get in return
See life is like a mission, you only get what you earn

Brokenhearted - Lawson ft. B.o.B.

May 20, 201313 notes

#brokenhearted #lawson #b.o.b.

May 19, 2013163 notes

#the great gatsby

Something That We're Not Demi Lovato

Something That We’re Not - Demi Lovato

This isn’t love boy, this ain’t even close

But you always think we’re something that we’re not

May 16, 201316 notes

#Something That We're Not #demi lovato

Two Pieces Demi Lovato

Two Pieces - Demi Lovato

We don’t know where to go, so I’ll just get lost with you

We’ll never fall apart, cause we fit together right, we fit together right

May 16, 201363 notes

#two pieces #demi lovato

Really Don't Care (feat Cher Lloyd) Demi Lovato

Really Don’t Care - Demi Lovato

You don’t deserve to know the way I used to think about you

Oh no, not anymore, oh no, not anymore

You had your shot, had your shot, but you let go

May 16, 201317 notes

#demi lovato #really don't care

Here's To Never Growing Up Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne - Here’s to Never Growing Up

Singing Radiohead at the top of our lungs

With the boom box blaring as we’re falling in love

I got a bottle of whatever, but it’s getting us drunk

Singing here’s to never growing up

May 15, 201354 notes

#avril lavigne #Here's to Never Growing Up

On Writing

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 25 January

Happy Birthday, W. Somerset Maugham, born 25 January 1874, died 16 December 1965

13 Quotes on Reading, Writing, & Life

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.

There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless.

He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.

Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.

Writing is the supreme solace.

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.

The crown of literature is poetry.

The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Maugham was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. Born in Paris, he spoke French before he spoke English. His parents died when he was 10 and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage. He became a qualified physician, but writing was his true vocation. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.

by Amanda Patterson from Writers Write