Road blocks

 

Lately I have been missing travel and experiencing new things and knowing that at least for a while I cannot go anywhere (because work hours have been cut and that dints my future travel plans momentarily) I have found myself in a rut. So I did what any Gen Y person would do and headed to the Internet for answers. Wow there is a myriad of information you can get your hands on. If I went with the first few pages on how my ‘rut’ feels at the moment I would come away with the idea that I am in fact clinically depressed. Enough to make you go mental right? Looking at all the websites I have gathered a far better understanding now as to why doctors get so concerned with their patients self-diagnosing conditions from their home offices. Who would have thought when the Internet became so much of my everyday life that it would create a paradigm shift from ‘worldwide wealth of knowledge’ to ‘average person’s bible to masterdom?’ Either way I am glad I was lucky enough to be blessed with the ability to decipher real science and the home kitchen lab.

When I got down to the bottom of it all I understood the very thing that really I knew in the first place- I miss travel, I miss my overseas friends and I  miss the adventure my life used to have.

 As I went through the tips to get out of the travel rut I read about how it’s important to plan for your next trip seriously- month by month. What needs to be paid for next, how much money you need etc and have celebrations along the way of your achievement so you don’t feel bound in chains by your next grand adventure. I knew this, I’d done it before. But I found myself thinking, ‘but I’m never going to get there’. For some reason I decided (I never usually do) to proceed to the comments, it is here where I met Anna from New York City. She appears to be a 50 something lady (possibly older) with 2 grandchildren, in an unhappy relationship where her boyfriend doesn’t allow her to see her grandchildren so she has to do it on the sly all the time. Some of her comments I could understand, but then she just seemed to be roadblocking the whole entire way. Once I read it everything became ridiculously clear to me. I like Roadblocks. Roadblocks are stupidly enjoyed by me somehow, on a small level. You see yes I’m currently stuck living in a town I’m not terribly fond of, living with my parents (since my last trip left me broke), had my work hours cut, been sick, struggled to write and scarcely have much to do because it’s such a small town. But here’s the good...I pay little to no board for staying with the olds, I get to house sit regularly, I love love love my workplace, I have some great friends, I’m singing in public which is an accomplishment I never thought possible albeit karaoke for the moment and I have formed up some good relationships with people I grew up with here, just years later. Things are in fact good. But when I get down that nothing’s happening I really feel it, what’s worse is seeing the pictures of other peoples’ adventures overseas while I’m still sitting with the olds waiting for the cash flow train to fill up and my life to take off on its next journey. But whether I like it or not, I’m living here and I must make the most of what I have now. Since we all get stuck in ruts, and some not just travel but writing and otherwise, I created my own little list to help you if you ever feel like you’ve hit a ‘rut’ & shared with you some of my favourite images from photographers on Pinterest. Do enjoy!  

RUT BREAKING TIPS..

-Do something you would consider to be BRAVE..go to a bar on your own for dinner/drinks, sing in front of heaps of people, go to an event where you don't know anyone, buy an outfit that is a completely different style for you.
-Get out of the place that reminds you of why you feel 'stuck' the most- even if its 15minutes drive to a different coffee shop- difference is bliss
-Look at beautiful artwork & photography- wierd and wonderful pieces. No local gallery or don't want to spend money- take your computer/iPad/phone to a wi-fi zone chill out & absorb what's on the net.
-Ditch any unhappy music- this includes songs with happy beats but sad lyrics. Only happy ones, if you have to go back a few decades- do it. MJ, Creedence, Pointer Sisters- there's gotta be something there.
-Have a shower, get dressed to the nines (dude or gal) and enjoy looking fab. 'He looks terrible in that over dress Boss suit, said no one ever.'
-Clean out anyone/anything that leads back to your rut. Surround yourself with people who ooze being who they are and not caring
-In a rut about money? Get social networking organise a picnic or a fitness meet that requires little to no funds & get those loyalty cards, the more you have the merrier you'll be when cash really gets low...freebie coffees here I come!

IMAGES TO MAKE YOU SMILE...

 

 

 

 

 

Kicking goals

Hello! Happy March people! This month brings on many new things. I'm starting a hardcore detox and that sadly begins with my coffees but thank goodness you can still have great teas in the comfort of your local cafe. After a few days of feeling blergh (I think its the still rainy weather!) I am back with a punch thinking about goals, writing, blogging, fitness and lifestyle goals. I've found myself so caught up in what's next that I've stopped thinking about enjoying now. Couple that with what 'should' I have done and its a recipe for overwhelmedness. This month I offer out no challenges but I am personally setting some goals about what will happen, setting in some little milestones that I can triumph on about the way. Plenty more to write but at the moment, my real work calls...bon voyage.

Thank you!

First & foremost today...Thank you very much for reading since this blogs conception in the end of January. I'm so pleased to have people coming on board from what is now 10 different nations, with over 720 views since the beginning. I get so much joy out of writing things with you. This morning I was totally gutted to find that a post I had written didn't post yesterday. I had written an epic post yesterday at my local Maccas (I know classy right?) to finish off the Love Challenge Month of February and to share my joy with you. I guess yesterday wasn't the time to be sharing that with you. So....today's the day! Again, thanks so much for reading I really appreciate it! Today I want to know about you...all I can see is statistics of my readers which is great but that tells me nothing about who you really are so....

What are your passions? Other than literature?
What & who do you love reading?
What are the best things about your nation & culture?

With people from American, UK, Trinidad, Russia, South Korea and many other places reading including Australia I would love to know what makes you tick. Plus let's face it, learning about each other is the most irefreshing thing we can ever do for ourselves, it takes us out of our own world. I love learning about others and their cultures and in my experience Australia has MUCH to learn from many other nations, despite how 'lucky' others think we are our country could always be better. I hope your Friday is fantastic, I thank you again for your support & I so look forward to getting to know more about you.

If you want to follow, just become a Google+ member and then click on the side panel that enables you to follow this blog! It is available in all smart phone/tablet applications as well as internet interfaces.

Ciao,

Jules! :)

February 27's forecast

So its the second last day of Feb hey?! I wonder how those February 29ers are feeling? Ridiculously young and good looking? I can imagine all the age cards you can't get on this day. Today its raining again like crazy, it has been raining in Queensland for 3 days now and already people are dreaming of sunshine again because hell we are feeling sad. To me this is quite ironic because when I lived in London I was told to be aware of the 'SAD' syndrome where weather affects how you are feeling and to take a break to the sunshine. The difference? London might see 3 days of sunshine in 3 weeks consistently and Australia has seen 3 days of rain in 3 weeks of sunshine. hahahaha. What great little idiosyncrasies you find in humanity when you travel.

Last year I went to the Brisbane Writer's Festival. It was fantastic. There was plenty of authors to see who a mind field of interesting tips you could take on and assist you revolutionise yourself and your writing, but the biggest thing that kept patterning its way through conversations was the fact that the authors encourage you to canvas society and look for the idiosyncrasies you find, the interesting things that we do and the comparisons we can make between people who are otherwise no different to us. Australia is full of idiosyncrasies because like many other nations we are abundantly multicultural; makes for some damn good writing. With this is mind I am going to share with you a piece I wrote in the Brisbane Airport as soon as I landed back from London, it sheds light on the immediate differences I saw between my longest standing experiences. Living in Queensland, Australia and Living in London. Unfortunately I cannot get the link to work, so please read...A 'Duality of sorts...'

As you ponder on those thoughts, here's an image summing up the current situation here. Enjoy your day! No matter the weather!

                                                    Image courtesy of Jason Vella

A full circle

How often do we do something just because we are 'told' to? Not necessarily by our parents but by society who silently whispers (and sometimes not so silently) their opinions. You know I can completely understand that there are 'appropriate' ways to do things and then there  are just ways things are done. But who makes up the rules? A mathematician would say that there is a formula and with that formula will come a certain response. However what then for failures? Science would argue that something tried at least 3 times with the same outcome is therefore true (what I learnt in school); its own kind of formula; yet Science cannot explain everything. Linguistics; linguistics can teach you how sentences cannot purely exist with one word, but are we really sure about that? No. So what is the formula for success?

Recently I've been reading about how people have learnt to cope with struggles and how they have overcome them.  Some have been successful by hiring help, talking about their issues or relearning things that were once lost; the ability to function normally for example; however if you put them into a formula they would never be considered successful. Why not? This takes me back to a lecturer at University who was teaching the biomechanics of sprinting to me as a first year uni student. He explained the correct technique for effective sprinting, that it was the fastest and most efficient way of moving the body down the 100metre track and then he paused and said...but if someone gets up and runs like a gumby and beats everyone are you going to force them to change their technique because its not going to be the technique you want it to look like when they are running? We all of course laughed because we were imagining chickens running down a tartan track dressed in Lycra but his point was clear. So it takes me back to writing. Don't know what to write? Who cares. Start small and get bigger. Worried about writing successfully who cares? Just start writing. Writing is the best thing because it gives back to you. It revolutionises you. I'll explain.

You are sad. You write, you get happier. You are happy, you write, you get happier. You are angry, you write, you burn your writing, you get happier.

Each time writing makes you happy, it doesn't matter if someone else was going to pick it up and say, that's not really worth publishing is it now- you've wasted my time! Tssk tssk. All it matters is that your mood turns full circle when you write, you feel better, your world becomes better. Now that might sound airy fairy but I can guarantee you that if you would talk to a shrink they'd advise most people who were worried about their success or any other issues to write them down on paper and throw it away at the end if you want to. The process is not so much the writing but the process. Now your really thinking I'm airy fairy right?! Writing is for us first and foremost, if we right for us it will in its very nature become transparent to somebody else and there you will have your audience. If I write in a journal about sadness, someone even just one person will read it and feel the same afflictions as I do...with that the purpose of writing is achieved, except this time you've created a revolution in someone else. Even if you are just starting small.

So the next time you hear these things:
-Why did you do it that way?
-Why didn't you do it like this?
-I think you should be doing this now.
-You won't be successful if you self publish
-You must make your blog like this
-You know you have no chance without an agent

Give those comments the proverbial rude finger, shake it off like water off a duck's back and say, well you know what...I'm not mathematical and I don't need a formula so just watch, someone will pay attention to my work & when they do I'll be grateful.

Enjoy your evening/day lovelies! Happy Writing & thanks for reading! :)

PS: This doesn't mean though to not take peoples advice, just remember that you don't lose sight of the direction you want your writing to go because someone is advising you on your writing ;)

Typewriting the placard

Ever wondered what it would be like if writers had there own sign up days like sports days? Placards would litter city streets requesting the company of talented artists to a coffee shop nearby where, if in an alternate time, people would flock with hard leather cases unclip their heavy duty bags, and sit on top of the wooden legged desk a rather heavy duty type writing machine. The click, click, click would permeate conversation about what to write, how to change what had already been written and the notes on where the group would meet next. These days I turn up to Coffee Club with Snow White, my aptly named white Toshiba laptop and I am a pleb of the technological world because I do not have an IPad. I'm already backwards. I might as well have entered the cafe with a brick, but still I love Snow White. She grabs the attention just as I would like her to, for her beauty not her savvyness. I'm not shallow.

This weekend it seems there is stacks of sports placards around the place and so many things for people to be able to get involved in, its fantastic. I cannot remember seeing this many anywhere that I lived. So it got me thinking again what team sport am I going to get involved in and what can I be putting on here to be getting our bodies endorphinised that we are propelled from our couches to our desks putting down our myriad of fantastic ideas?! Here's some I thought you mind like to try over the course of the weekend...no links to follow. If however you want more..go here...Julia's Fitness Programs I hope you enjoy the workouts & the endorphins racing around your body! I'm off to a different beach this weekend to go Surfing again. Can't wait for it! Will blog soon, but will be writing even sooner! :)

Please note these images are used to provide a visual of exercises I normally complete myself as part of a program I design for myself as a sports trainer. These images are not my own. The connections to the originals can be found by clicking on the pinterest link.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is said to be many things but in my experience being in love is something you don't need to think about, the three words leave your mouth as a natural exhalation. They are a confirmation of one's actions not a solitary effort. Therefore, not needed to be said but essential to say if you want your special someone to feel loved. Love manifests itself in many forms, friendship, relationships with family not just with a person who makes us feel validated most. The most important love though is honest love of yourself, without it no one can truly love you or love all of you. So alone or not Valentine's day is a sweet day. Celebrate your awesomeness, the awesomeness of your friends, your partner, your husband, your wife for all of who you and they are- good and not so good. If you have a someone special enjoy your blessing. If your single; enjoy your chance to be independent that bit longer and look forward to that exciting moment where your stopped in your tracks with the realisation of the awesomeness you have just found in another person. I hope you all enjoy Valentine's day!

Jules

Sundays

It's Sunday, I'm chilled out on the sun deck, two gorgeous golden retrievers at my feet and a spa sitting metres away borking at me as if to say 'you know you want to.' It's right I'm totally keen to jump in and become attacked by its mischievous bubbles. But for a moment I want to spend time with you, it's short & sweet today. I'm writing this bit of text as it comes to my mind, so excuse it's rawness..

Time is the most important thing you have, we each have 24 one hour slices of our pie a day. We may choose to spend it on what we desire, some things we give more hours to and others less. We are told that when it counts at the end our pie pieces don't count, but in fact they do. You see pie is not about eating it for ourselves and being nourished its about getting nourished to commit to the pie again. Those around you, black, blue, purple, Muslim, Christian or not will look at your pie and see in very short spaces of time what you care about the most, they will then hear your words...the mouth never spoke for the feet. Cherish those who are honest but not harmful and pray for those who are contradicting the very persons they are. For those who are afraid give them the ability to have actions that silence the loudest. Don't burden yourself with changes that you won't see n your lifetime or that cannot be made regardless of what you do. Know yourself, love it & when someone tries to rip you to pieces don't forget how brilliantly strong you are. Love others but don't be fooled into using time unwisely who claim to hear but have no ears. Sing loudly, kiss slowly, dance properly, take some stupid risks & enjoy those who imprint positively on your life. You'll never look back and say they weren't worth their slice of your daily pie or your life...no matter how short or long they were there.

Day 8 &9 Love Challenge....I love that great friends become family & I love love meeting new ppl and they suddenly become protective because they think a person is worthwhile, I love that in the country ppl are simple and carefree..city ppl too but it takes stripping off a few layers (metaphorically of course!)

Make it a passion

Passion. Possibly one of the most overused words, usually decorated in saucy cards to suggest a spicing up of relational flavours, but its the long lasting passion that never goes away and grants the most satisfaction. Whether you decide to pay attention to the passion or put it off, real passion will never go away. When I started writing it was a way a communicating how I felt about the boy I liked for 2 days in year 9, as I grew older it became very much the vessel for what so many thought was its initial purpose; to entertain whilst communicating some very important social/life lessons (at least). But sadly what I have found is there are so many book that say the same things, that present peachy views of life, that don't depict a view of having and harvesting a healthy passion that is long lasting.

I have many passions, which I have mentioned before, but one things for sure, my passions never require me to 'stop' - as in I never want to stop doing them because I gain so much joy from them and I don't care how silly I look doing them. When I first moved to an outback town in Queensland I used to have people stare at me and comment 'What's she doing? Why is she a loner? Why does she choose to be a loner?' Little did they know I was concocting my next book/ prose and in fact I was well and truly entertained. Once they knew what I was doing they were interested in my projects and wondered how you find time for writing when I work pretty long hours, but when I write I'm not looking at the clock going 'dang it another hour.' Saying that I make mistakes. Note my previous post. Total shocker. I didn't take time and care, but I totally love that you enjoyed editing my work...perhaps I did it on purpose huh?! :p

Today I wanted to share with you not only this quote but another blog I have started following, Ladies Holiday, you should get on board and have a look at the images they post taken by their followers each week, they are impressive. Plenty of inspiration to draw from..its always good supporting others, after all I think we are all artists in our own right. So go to http://www.ladiesholiday.com/ to check it out NOW!

Despite the confusing post yesterday I hope that you enjoyed my snippits of the Love Challenge. Today I have Day 7 for you, I'll post Day 8 later.

Day 7
- I love that when people are given a challenge they always want to rise to the occasion.
- Yesterday I learnt of several communities that are binding together to help other communities that are severely struggling after the floods. I love the people are willing to sacrifice their money but far more significantly their TIME to help others and they do it so happily.
-I love seeing husbands and wives both sacrificing things for each other and making comprises- saw a couple at karaoke who decided to sacrifice a television show to sing instead, sacrificed embarrassment and chose to share a moment together.

Day 8...we'll see I'm looking forward to it!

Now...since we are seeing what love is out there, what about spreading love, I'm not talking about the self gratifying ideas of 'love' which is actually lust, I mean actually caring about others, through the little things we do. What can you do? Share with me what you are doing to turn frowns upside down? Last year when I was living in London I used to get a little down about people who wouldn't make eye contact or even smile on the train, I have expressed that sentiment before, it not only compelled me to write but it also compelled me to DO SOMETHING. So I gave myself a challenge, which started out a little frightening but ended up giving me a great gut feeling and I was looking for the next way to complete it each day...click the link for a read on my challenge I threw myself.

Now for Already Read...this week its a segment from the first page of The Hobbit from JR Tolkien. The description at the beginning of the novel is exquisite. If it doesn't rope you in to working on your descriptive writing or reading the rest of his epic story instead of indulging in the movie, I don't know what will.

Till next time...

Jules :)

Fitness, Pinterest & Day 4 of The Challenge! :)

Good evening! Well its been a cracker of a day, 5am start at the gym to get the endorphins running, followed by work, catch up with a girlfriend and then a 4km time-trialled run to stretch out my legs from the morning's session. I don't know about you but those precious hours particularly in the morning are 'Golden Time.' It sets me up for my day & makes me feel ready to conquer anything & when I can't focus or write anything its the best thing to clear my mind. I used to run with music in my ears always, now I just soak up what's around me and listen to what's in my mind, I figure it needs to be paid attention to if its bothering me & worse case scenario I can push myself to the point where my muscles or my training partner feels the brunt of my thoughts and emotions and when I'm done my mind is clear again. So naturally I suppose you'll notice below that I have listed exercise as my love for Day 4 of the February challenge. I think exercise is important to love instead of loathe; let's face it regardless of your shape and size we all get a physiological kick (endorphins!) out of partaking in physical activity.

My love of physical pursuits, achieving things with others and individually has spurred on what some would deem a crazy quest to continually conquer higher and higher mountains & yes Mt Everest is on my bucket list & will be climbed soon :). But despite whatever pursuits one has with fitness, literature, art one thing never changes- do it for you & do it out of passion.

Interested in kick starting your fitness? Instill a love for a great healthy body (not a skinny one- that's overrated)! Then follow this link for some great exercises I use regularly- http://pinterest.com/juliatrask/fitness-programs/

Till next time, keep smiling, loving the simple things & taking chances! :)


DAY 4- THE LOVE CHALLENGE

#4 I LOVE physical activity & its ability to release you from all the stresses you can get from work etc, I love that it always gives back to you no matter what. You never feel bad for going for a run, doing push ups, kicking a ball or taking a hike up a mountain. Pretty sweet! :)

DAY 3- THE LOVE CHALLENGE

#3

This third love is something I did for the first time today- its the love of surfing. When you catch a good wave it's energy is encouraging you to stand, and when you do... the feeling of freedom. Superb! Of course couple that with the ability to jump in the car, partake in a roadtrip & mingle with randoms and you've got a sweet memory etched. February 3 what a great day. Can't wait for tomorrow and what it brings.


Want to do the Love challenge this month? Write down the things that you love about people or experiences you have each day for the 28 days of February. The trick is that you cannot repeat previous 'loves' so to speak. Share what you've experienced each day with me online or link me up to your blog or page today!

LOVE CHALLENGE DAY 1 & 2

And so it begins!

#1  There's nothing quite like the wrinkle lines caused by the vivacious laughter of a school of men who gather each week to have some serious man time...no partners, no wives...just decent man to man time.

#2 Love the feel of breeze sweeping through your hair, relaxing your mind; the reminder that something doesn't have to be physically seen to know that it exists.

Want to do the Love challenge this month? Write down the things that you love about people or experiences you have each day for the 28 days of February. The trick is that you cannot repeat previous 'loves' so to speak. Share what you've experienced each day with me online or link me up to your blog or page today!

The irony of late

Irony. Isn't it funny how you still want something even though you are probably toxic to it?  That is how I feel about rain at the moment. My little coastal community has had approproximately 800mm of rain, the most ever recorded in history, yet here I am sitting at my computer desk willing it to rain after a weekend of flooding. Funny how things happen. Plenty has raced through my mind since the floods began, for those of you who don't know it started in Cairns a Far North Queensland city and continued on to my little town of Boyne Island and is still dumping hoards of moisture although now its ventured off to central New South Wales. I've never seen anything like it. I've also never seen such a great time to grab lovely inspiration from people. This afternoon I was walking along the beach looking at the beached boats; dead, overturned fish, and the cliff face of sand trying to recall where the sand dunes once were. There were masses of rocks, old and bleached coral underneath sand that once existed. There was even a long, concrete boat ramp that suddenly appeared. For 30 years my family has lived in this community in the same house right near the river mouth yet none of us knew these things existed. The boat ramp almost looked as if an out-of-work concreter organised its construction earlier on that day. Very bizarre & highly intriguing. I could literally walk up and down the beach, inspecting life, death and mangled wrecks and draw so much inspiration from what I see, but its not the sad things that come to mind when I look at them. When I was growing up in Boyne Island there used to be these basic, cricketty beach shacks that made the beach feel authentic, even though they were out of their time (before they were soon demolished and turned into million dollar homes) they held a great sense of wonder about the history of previous people and the old times in the area I lived in. Other thoughts that fleeted through my mind as I walked along what was left of the beach was all the different groups of people that had suddenly become acquainted because of a sad event/tragedy. Neighbours knew neighbours all of a sudden and were on the look out to help them. Some serious good spirit stood up in the community and helped out random people who had flooded homes. I love that kind of stuff. I could write, read about that stuff all day. Fantasy is great but let's face it the reality of pure humanity simply helping each other is a story line that never gets over done. So..today I'm not giving you an image of the beach in its 'sad' state, I'm giving you an image of the beach today when I was enjoying soaking up its beauty whilst doing yoga (at sunrise). It will be your Inspiration station- if you have gained nothing from my words. Also...I encourage you to do two of the following things...

1. Get on Pinterest and look at the YES board, it centres on positivity. If you're unfamiliar with Pinterest feel free to flick me a question and I'll assist. Basically once you find this board you'll have a series of oohh and ahh moments whereby you will be hanging out for the next post.

2. Check out this site for your Already Read segment- pick and choose from Elizabeth Browning's work. Let us know what you think!
http://www.poemhunter.com/elizabeth-barrett-browning/

PS If you have a blog I want to know about it! Let me know now so I can follow you!

Ciao lovelies!

Floods..

Turns out this morning the first writing I receive is to be warned to go to higher ground due to flooding in my area. Since I'm near the beach & high tide along with the added 200mm of water we are expecting today is approaching I will say bon voyage at this time until I go and check out the status of our place. Ciao & to all those Australians...HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY! I'll be celebrating our great country later no matter what! It can't be missed!

Jules :)