Be the change you want to see!

My life is so full of abundance! When you focus on abundance, the more abundant you become. For the last several months I have expressed gratitude and appreciation for what I have, and have thought very little about what I need because in truth, I already have everything I need. How lucky I am! And …

Impatience to achieve your life goals

About a year ago I was offered the option of working as a research assistant in the laboratory I'm currently studying my PhD in. I've nearly finished my PhD, so I was very much torn between wanting to take the job for financial security versus hurrying up and completing my PhD so I can get …

Opening my heart for direction

It can be good in our lives to regularly check in and make sure we are on the right path. If everything feels balanced, joyful and relatively easy, you can rest assured you're probably right where you need to be. Of course, none of us know our futures for certain and it's not uncommon to …

Some days finding the breath is just a little harder

This morning I struggled to find diaphragmatic breathing during my early yoga class. I kept reverting to shallow chest breathing and it took quite a lot of time to relax my diaphragm and breathe deeply and broadly. At first I was a little surprised and taken aback because it has just seemed so easy for …

New fitness schedule

This is my new fitness schedule which I'm pretty excited about! I joined a gym a few weeks ago and they hold some classes which are excellent workouts. BodyPump is a light/moderate weights class with lots of repetition; yoga focuses on posture, flexibility, strength, balance and the breath; BodyBalance is a type of yoga/Tai Chi/pilates blend …

Letting go of little frustrations

In Bratislava central station, my sister and I are waiting with a hundred or so other travellers for information on our delayed train to Budapest. We've been on our holiday in Europe for four weeks now. As we wait here quietly I'm reflecting with amusement on how we've dealt with these minor annoyances daily. Most …

Inspiration for decluttering my life

I'm a dreamer. I envision my life being a certain way and I immediately start buying goods to make it happen. I've struggled a lot with my identity in the last three years, trying to fit myself into neat little categories based on my career, personality and hobbies. I believe it was this struggle with …

Mood tracking for bipolar disorder

Here's a personal insight into how mood tracking can be beneficial for bipolar disorder and other mood disorders. A few weeks ago I wrote an article about mood tracking using the eMoods app which you can read here. The following graphs show how my moods changed earlier this year over a period of about six months: …

Confiding in friends about mental illness

One of the worst parts of having mental illness is feeling absolutely alone. It doesn't mean it's true - the illness itself can shroud our views and make it seem impossible to tell anyone what's going on. We can feel like the world is against us, or at least that no-one will be able to …

Tracking bipolar mood swings with eMoods

Tracking moods is a good way to document illness and recovery in mood disorders like bipolar and major depression.  It creates a real record of your health that's not influenced by memory. Do you track your moods? I only started tracking mine from the near beginning of this year on a mobile app called eMoods. …