Why I Write Everything Down

“When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.”

Michael Leboeuf is totally right with that. In my experience, I always felt better after writing down whatever thoughts came to my mind. It seems like I could clean up my mind. Sometimes we overthink things and once we write them down, we can let go. Finally we have space in our head to focus on the important things now, how to reach our own goals. 

Today I would say, writing down my thoughts is one of the most powerful habits I have established in my life in the past few years. I still remember getting my first journal when I was eight years old. It had a dark red mystic cover and it said: "Book for witches". My mom gave it to me when I started getting into the Harry Potter saga, maybe because I played witches and wizards. 

Somehow I continued writing down my thoughts, worries and wishes when I was in high school. I learned how powerful and motivating this tool was. I had so many crazy ideas in my mind and I could save them by writing them down. I guess everyone has these days where your memory is just like a leaking bucket. 
Memorable situations and events were collected in this little book. Once I reviewed what I wrote down, I could easily recreate what happened. This recreation is directed by a number of things such our believes, our emotional state of mind and our self-image. And these things helped me a lot working on my personality. 

Also some ideas can pop up at the most awkward situations. They won't stay long, so I can highly recommend writing them down in a little notebook or even just the notes app in your phone. 

Having written goals is as powerful as a vision board. Its basically the same. A written goal brings clarity and focus. It also gives you a direction. A written goal is a powerful reminder of what you need to do to achieve your goal, to keep yourself on track and may even help you when you find yourself considering about a hasty decision. 
Call me a witch but every single goal that I wrote down came true so far. 

You can't hold that many thoughts in your head at once. If you have a problem, it can help to write everything down, not only facts but also feelings. This can help you a lot: You will have a better overview about what is best to do now. You will start thinking in the moment. 

And the most important thing is that by writing your thoughts down, you will get to know you, your life, your believes and your wishes. Maybe you have an image of your life going pretty well and then you realize that you complained about everything in too many entries. It can help you focus on being more positive. 

Healthy Eating starts with Self-Compassion

One of my friends told me about her experience that she had during another tough day at work. She forgot to have breakfast in the morning, so she was starving later. One of the mates at work offered to bring her some take away so she said yes. They had pizzas together and she finished her pizza quickly. One the one hand she was starving and hungry and on the other hand she felt guilty over eating so unhealthy again. Furthermore she felt way too full and was talking about her lack of willpower like this: "I shouldn't have done that, why can't I say no? Why do I always eat take away food that is so unhealthy, doesn't make me feel good afterwards?" 

When I tried to eat more healthy, this scenario sounded so familiar to me. What i didn't realize at that time is so important: The key to a healthy lifestyle which also includes a healthy way of eating is self-compassion. 

The more understanding and forgiving we are of ourselves, the better we can take care of our needs.

Self-compassion means to me the following:

• Self-kindness: Be kind and understanding toward yourself. Forgive yourself in situations of failure. It doesn't help you at all if you criticize yourself again and again.
• Common humanity: You are not alone. You share this experience with so many other humans. This is life. In most cases there are so many different things that are more important right now. 
• Mindfulness: Dont identify with painful or negative thoughts. Be aware of them but hold them in balance. Don't ignore them.

If we never allow ourselves to eat unhealthy, we automatically create rules in our mind. And I believe there is some excitement in everyone to break the rules. The more understanding and open we are, the more motivated and focused we are towards living a healthy lifestyle. 

A lack of self-compassion closes the door to learning about our daily habits, patterns, needs and triggers when it comes to food. 

Focus on a healthy relationship with eating and food and yourself, forgive yourself for the past. Give up black-and-white thinking. Healthy eating is flexible, it also includes being social and eating out. Healthy eating starts in the morning: No wonder you are starving if you haven't had breakfast in the morning. Healthy eating needs consistency: You can't expect to loose weight in a 30 day challenge. Healthy eating starts with a healthy mindset. Be positive. If you are thinking negative while or after eating like in the example above, you may be eating the wrong things, or you may be thinking the wrong things. 

What's this all about?

Hello and welcome to my new blog.
However you made your way to my blog, I want to introduce you to this blog in the first post.

What's this all about?
This blog is actually not my first blog. I've been blogging since 2007, but only in german language. (you can find everything about my german blog here.)
I've been thinking a long time about starting a similar project now, in english. I know I can reach so many people when leaving my comfort zone and finally I am confident enough to start writing in english. 
And if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, please don't blame me for that, I promise, I'm doing my best. ;-)

This blog will mostly be about vegan food, recipes, yoga, and anything similar that might be interesting. Why I am vegan and why I practice yoga will be discussed in the following posts. 
Also I won't introduce myself because I think it is nicer if my readers get to know me from post to post. 

This Wednesday, my yoga journey will start, so I will give you more updates soon. I am very excited for this project. 
Donna Karan, who's practicing yoga for quite a long time said this: 

"Yoga is not about getting your leg over your head, but about being present on your mat so you can be more present in your life."

I truly believe this: Whatever happened in your life, it started in your mind. Anything is possible, anything you wish for or you don't want to wish for starts up there. 
We are what we believe in. Even scientists found out that the most successful people have a positive mindset. Be present. Be in the moment. Be positive. In whatever situation you are, this will help you. 
Whenever I was overthinking anything, yoga helped me to reset my mind. 
And there's another thing that helps me a lot, and that is writing. So let's get this blog started!