Winter Running Playlist

I do not understand people who can go for runs on their own without music, an audiobook, or some other sort of entertainment to keep them distracted. If all I had to listen to for 40 minutes or more was my own breath, I would not be able to push myself to keep going at that point where running seems to cause nothing but agony to my body. A good beat is what gets me started after I step out of my front door, motivational lyrics make me run that little bit faster at the middle of a run and the comfort of an old favorite song reminds me that I've been through this before and therefore will get through it again even if my legs are screaming in pain. 

It might seem counterintuitive, but music actually allows me to think better, drowning out the noise of my own, unproductive thoughts and giving room to new ones. therefore, when I know i have a brand new playlist to power me through my run, I am much more likely to actually get out there and I immediately look forward to those 8 kilometres, no matter what the conditions are.

 These songs have been my go-to choices for the past week and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do!

(I've created an 8tracks playlist as well if you don't use Spotify)

still i'd rather be working for something than praying for the rain

I stayed home sick today as i was feeling really weak this morning and my coughing was even worse than yesterday. As i already felt much better by noon, i had the time to play around a bit with my new lens - the two selfies are the result. I can't wait to take pictures of someone else with it as it is a bit difficult to adjust the manual focus on myself as well as think about the aperture.

The book you can see on the third picture is my Q&A 5-year-journal. Basically there's 365 pages with a question for each day, which you should then answer every day for 5 years. This far i've been quite good at doing so and haven't skipped a single day - i really hope i follow through with it as it would be so interesting to see how my answers change over the course of a few years.

Not only do i love the concept, it's also just so pretty to look at! If you're interested, you can get it at amazon.

I honestly don't know what i would be doing without my kindle. Since i got it 2 years ago i've been reading much more than before as it cuts out the step of having to either wait for your book to arrive or go to an actual store and buy one. It also makes english books far more easily accessible to me, seeing that most book stores near me don't really carry that many. While i still love the way an actual book feels and smells (yes i am one of those book-smell-lovers), the size of the kindle simply makes it easier to carry around and actually read in - no weird turning around in your bed trying to find a comfortable position to read a 500-page book.

Currently i'm reading (or rather i've just started) 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R. Covey. It is supposed to be a manual for performing better in your personal and professional life.

 So far i absolutely love it and i can clearly see why it is such a bestseller. I rarely read books that are non-fictional or at least tell a story but this one already has me sucked in. I might give you a short review once (or if) i've finished it.

Basically i just wanted to show you a few thing i'm really liking at the moment - this song is one of my absolute favourites. It's one of those songs that i listen to on repeat for a while, forget about it but somehow i keep coming back to it and every single time i realize once again how amazing it actually is.

We Don't Eat - James Vincent McMorrow

(Higher Love is also pretty great)

what kind of a fool thinks love's a prison or a handicap?

share the love

After reading a post on Hello Giggles (such a great website, if you haven't heard about it, go check it out), I went on to PS22 Chorus's youtube channel - and watched video after video for almost an hour.

PS22 is the largest elementary school in staten island, with kids from all different ethnic groups. Their chorusconsists of 60-70 fifth graders.

Watching these kids sing with such joy and passion made me so happy that I was literally smiling at my computer screen. I think it is truly amazing, how the teacher encourages these kids to show their emotions and talent.  So i thought I'd share these videos with you, maybe you get as much joy from them as I did!
I literally love every single one of their covers, these 3 are just some of my favourites so far (yep, still watching).

"And if one door opens to another one closed,

I hope you keep on walking until you find the window,

I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,

and you help somebody every chance you get."

My Wish - Rascal Flatts 

This post is pretty random - I just wanted to share a few pictures I took sometime last week, and some song lyrics I'm absolutely loving at the moment.

I used to be the girl that always wore makeup - even if it meant that I'd had to get up much earlier than actually necessary, I wouldn't leave the house without something on my face.

So not wearing any makeup to school is a huge deal for me, I'm extremely insecure about my skin (thank you blemishes) and I've always felt like my eyes look awfully tired without mascara.

And I am still insecure about those things - I just don't really care anymore that people can see them. ok, I'm also just very lazy.

If I'm having a particularly bad skin day or look extra tired I will put on a bit of powder or my bronzing primer, and on the weekends I like to take my time to make myself look pretty.

The fact that I can shamelessly rub my eyes just makes it so worth it - best feeling in the world.

As these pictures were taken on a school day, I'm not wearing any makeup. Which is probably why I'm not looking directly at the camera in neither of them.

I am not trying to say that it is bad to wear makeup on a daily basis, it's just that I can't be bothered. I admire the girls in my class that seem to look put together all the time!

So enough for the makeup-talk: how beautiful are these song lyrics?!

I don't really like the actual song, but it has such an amazing meaning to it. I've been feeling a bit down lately and listening to this song always manages to give me more motivation.

I hope you had a great weekend!