How I find motivation for running

      In this whirlpool of private experiences and philosophical thoughts, this will be something different, more lightweight. 

Sports is my passion - running, volleyball, cycling, badminton, you name it. However, I do it not just because I can. I have my goals and I work hard to achieve them, but this is the tricky part. This is where laziness comes in. I like to share my progress in social media and the response I usually get was my major inspiration to write this post. 

When I share my workout results, sometimes people leave a comment or message me saying they wish they were as motivated as I am. First of all, let's make this clear - my motivation is not a given. Just like everybody else, I have my lazy days and dozens of silly excuses in my head (it's too windy, the park might be too crowded, I have a lecture in five hours etc.). I am always on a hunt for good motivational quotes and tips and over the last couple of years I have developed a coping strategy for my laziness when it comes to sports (to tell you the truth, it's not 100% per-cent effective and will never be - after all I'm a human, not a robot).

So, here's some tips and tricks that help me stay motivated.

1. Set a goal. It can be absolutely anything from fitting into your favourite jeans that became too tight to a thigh gap, toned arms or a flat stomach. This is probably not news for you, but it really matters. However, it didn't work well for me on its own, so here's another tip from me - buy an item of clothing that will not be flattering unless you reach your goal. For example, my goal is to have a flat stomach until the middle of June, so I bought this beautiful crop top. I promised myself that even if I don't get a flat stomach, I will have to wear it at least once in June. So now, when I am all cozy in bed and I want to stay there the whole day, that's what I tell myself. Trust me, it works!

2. Earn your shopping day. I discovered this tip only a couple months ago and now I don't even know what I would do without it. I'm sure everyone knows the feeling when you see something you really like but it costs so much you would feel guilty if you bought it. So earn it! Set up a cute little jar and put some money in it after each workout. However, it is very easy to cheat here, so I would recommend to define what a "workout" is (is 20 crunches same as a 5k run?). For example, I put 10SEK (around 1€) for each workout that is no less than 25 minutes long. This has two major outcomes - you don't waste money on expensive things you don't need and it's a big pleasure to buy an expensive item you worked so hard for. 

3. Find a gym buddy. This is probably the hardest thing to do. I haven't found people motivated enough to run with me at least a couple times a week. Also, making a running schedule can be really complicated if you're both busy. However, now I know what it feels like to have a gym buddy and it's magical, especially on days when you feel really lazy. You just get up and do it, knowing that someone is counting on you. This one helped me even in my darkest times.

4. Find some motivational quotes that make you want to do a workout. These might be really cheesy, but there's something in them that gets me out of bed and into my running shoes. They're very personal and what works for me might not work for you. I usually find them on WeHeartIt. Here are some of my favourites at the moment:

And (surprise surprise) Ryan Gosling

So, that is all I have to share with you for now. Writing this type of blog posts is new for me, but I enjoyed it. If you would like me to talk more about sports, workouts and my lifestyle, let me know and I'll see what I can do :)

Thoughts about saying good-bye (II)

Until I graduated from high school, a good-bye was never a big deal for me. It usually meant "see you tomorrow" or "see you after the weekend". However, the concept and the aftermath of good-byes have been keeping my mind occupied for quite a while now.

Not too long ago "have a nice life" seemed like a cool phrase to throw at your enemy. Now it's something I say to friends. People have a tendency to be optimistic and say "see you soon" in all sorts of situations, but sometimes you just know you are never going to see them again, simply because you reach a parting of your ways. My university town, Malmo, is the only connection I have with most of the people I met after I graduated from high school. Everything is so unstable here - people come and go, knowing that even if they come back a year or two later, things will never be the same.

But what's been really bothering me lately is the classical situation - one person stays and the other person goes. I have been on both sides.  Leaving home for the first time, I looked ant my brother and tried to picture what he would do after I'm gone. He would go to the kitchen, grab a few candies from the yellow bowl on the kitchen table, lie down on the sofa and watch TV all afternoon. I left my classmate in a train station in Malmo a year ago and flew over to England, thinking how she would go home and wrap herself up in a blanket, just like every day. I left my housemates in England, knowing that nothing really changed for them and they will soon welcome a new person who will sleep in the same bed I slept in. With or without me, these cycles never stopped.

But sometimes I get to be on the other side. Looking at my boyfriend in the train window after he visited me, I knew it was just the beginning of his journey, and I just went back to my apartment. Nothing was different, except the fact that he was there, with me, only half an hour ago.

It just gets so confusing at this point - you always hear how important you are for people, but when you are gone, are you really missed?

Beautiful as we are (III): Mind the tights

Sitting on a tram this morning, I was wearing a short dress and thick tights. You know when your stop is nearing and you get ready to quickly stand up and get out? At this stage I caught myself thinking whether there were any sharp angles on the metal seat that could potentially ruin my tights. And then I asked myself - do men find themselves in this situation? What about other hassles that not-entirely-comfortable clothing leads to? Shoulder bags that always threaten to slide off your shoulder, high-heels that slow you down or make-up that prevents from enjoying the rain? I'm not sure about the shoulder bag situation, but others are only lived through by women.

In Sweden, men ride bikes in expensive suits and women ride bikes in high-heels. Because why not? 

Getthing back to the topic though, whilst on my stay in Newcastle, England, I wrote a paper on how clothing is meant to restrict women. I stumbled upon that topic barely out of curiosity. I was in the library and I randomly opened a random book that happened to be about gender performativity. And it definitely drew me in. I read plenty of book chapters and articles on it. I read way more than my paper demanded. 

And now I see it. Women are unconsciously restricting themselves every day with their clothing. I sat there on a tram this morning thinking about my tights, and that girl stood under a roof in pouring rain the ofher day for half an hour to save her makeup. Yes, my tights are alright, but maybe that girl got a cold afterwards? Again, I'm going back at the #LikeAGirl campaign I mentioned in "Beautiful as we are (II)" - yes, a woman can be physically powerful and open jars in the kitchen herself. She just doesn't know it most of the time.

Beautiful as we are (II) : too beautiful to be smart?

This post has been in my blog as a draft for nearly five months by now, and there are so many things unsaid that I don't really know how to say. A few days ago I came across an article that did what I seemingly cannot. It viewed gender inequality in the job market objectively.
I don't have many front-row experiences of when a woman was denied a high position because of her appearance. However, I have minor stories, and I believe that they plant the very same seed in young and perspective women that grows to prevent them from high positions in their fields of expertise.
Compliments, when spoken out, have to be differentiated. Not all of them seek to flatter.
"What do you know about struggles for recognition, you are pretty and it's way easier for you" - I have been addressed one of these as well.
"I will shed all of this skin down to the very bone beneath it if that's what it will take for you to come to the realization that appearance is not what makes a human beautiful" - this quote basically says all I think of it better than I ever could put it in my own words (I've posted it in one of my older blog posts).
Beauty is a 'given' and intelligence is an 'achieved'. Why is it so hard for some people to see the distinction?
Self-confidence is not a 'given' as well, and not only the 'ugly' ones lack it. Many girls stay in lower positions, never daring to think of having more power and, instead, leaving it either to the 'hungry for power' women (in their opinion) or men. They keep all their ideas in and stay in low positions with their mouths shut.
A lot of damage has been done for the physically beautiful, but I won't blame men. Some things are done just because things 'have always been like this'. We all do it - through advertising, media, movies. Music videos are not even worth mentioning in this case, I guess - some of them are the perfect demonstration of beautiful women doing silly things and exposing themselves to be recognised. We need to make them realize - everybody has the equal and basic right to...be intelligent. There's just no other way to say it, really.

Here's a video from #LikeAGirl campaign that majorly inspired me to get back to this post:

The situation is starting to get better with Emma Watson and other famous women speaking out about gender inequality, but the change is slow and will take a lot of time to spread worldwide.

Beautiful as we are (I)

This post has been here as an empty draft with only a name on it for exactly one month and one day. Everybody starts with a blank page, but I don't usually struggle with it as much as I did this time, not sure if it's because I have too much to say and I don't know where to start, or because I'm just afraid of being misunderstood, my words and thoughts being misinterpreted or thought of as egoistic and narcissistic.

I'm pretty sure I'll write more on this topic because I have way too many thoughts on presently existent perceptions of beauty and I don't want to make my posts too chunky and overloaded. I know - I'll make a series of posts on it :)

So, to start off, a few days ago, a friend of mine recommended a book called "1984" by George Orwell, which I will definitely read. From what she told me, it's about how societies can become dull only by narrowing down people's vocabularies and making them use basic words. As I think of it, it hits me just how true it may be.

The course I took on my Erasmus exchange this semester really got me thinking about so many cultural and social aspects of my life and my environment, and I think I might have found the connection between the ideas in "1984" and what I heard from my lecturers throughout the course- endless streams of academic vocabulary. Every time a simple word could be substituted for something more scholarly and professional - it was. It is shocking how much my own vocabulary has grown and how critically I started to see things since I started it in January, 16 weeks ago.

Even though I will be writing my own thoughts, mainly based on what I have read when I was searching for quotes to use in my exam papers, I feel like I need a disclaimer here: I do not intend to be egoistic or, worse, narcissistic. I have been told numerous times that I am physically beautiful, and it's not an achievement that I intend to brag about. And yes, technically, from the global point of view, I have, in fact, an "ideal body "- pale white skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, tall, long legs and all this shit that makes people think I am beautiful and assume I'm not smart at all, sadly. That is purely a social and cultural thing about which I intend to talk in my "Beautiful  as we are" series. Here we go :)

Why wanderers know themselves better

   I have been thinking about this for a while and yes, my conclusion is that people who wander are not always lost. There are so many controversies in their lives, so much chaos and movement, spiced with risk, instability, and longing that it seems to be the best condition to get to know oneself in all ways possible. Even though there is no way this lifestyle is suitable for anyone or attractive for everyone who sticks to it, this is the right path with self-omniscience waiting at its end.
   The main reason why I think so is very practical. I am not talking about a person who walks around with a wooden walking-stick and gives strangers advice, even though they were also considered more knowledgeable and experienced than the sedentary ones. Here I am referring to travelers without permanent accommodation, such as international students, couch-surfers, au pair nannies etc. So, when 'the sedentary ones' move out, it becomes an event of a decade. Collecting their stuff, putting it into boxes and getting rid of some of it becomes a burden, because that 'stuff'' turns out to be the result of years and years of piling it up, filling up the space, even without realizing it.
   A modern wanderer cannot afford this luxury. In this case, moving out becomes an annual, seasonal(?), once-in-a-term, or any other kind of a periodical thing. It becomes a well-practiced skill. But the hard thing is, we can never help buying new things,  and we are given things all the time as well. So, the so-called modern wanderer usually encounters the dilemma I will refer to as 'space/value judgement'. Every time he/she moves out, some things have to be refused. One cannot afford to pile up, or to store things somewhere. And if the space is limited, the judgement of personal value has to be done. And yes, even very precious things have to be rid of sometimes. And when the person goes through it again and again, it becomes a lesson for life. What it teaches, however, it not only the 'proficiency' in moving out.
 
   It is, most importantly, self-exploration. Every time you move out, you see how you have changed. Under the light of cardinal changes, some things suddenly seem needless, and new valuables emerge. And this, being so material (we often think the big self-discoveries are made within oneself), becomes a way to know what's happening even before you find the changes within your inner self.

Tattoos: representing thought or calling attention?

According to the statistics, 36% of US adults between the ages of 18-25 have at least one tattoo. This officially proves how fond young people are of expressing themselves in various ways.  Although most of them see this as a way to represent a unique way of thinking, others just seem to call for some  extra attention. Although there is no official proof of that and never will be, I think that everybody has thoughts about getting a tattoo and I’m not an exception. I have been constantly having thoughts regarding the location, the size, and, most Importantly, the meaning of what I would like to put on my body . However, the visualization of it in my head changes all the time. And that is for sure the only reason why I don’t have a tattoo yet. What keeps me from being sure about it is basically the thought that one morning I will wake up with regret. Images appearing in my head vary from band logos to quotes and those little fancy drawings that always look cute. For me they all have some kind of meaning or cause some kind of an association with what matters to me. But then I start to think about tribal tattoos or tramp stamps and what they mean to people, and what it is that causes them to want to have this kind of painting on their body.
Every person has his own reasons for doing things and even trying to be as tolerant as possible I cannot in any way understand some of them. For me life is a one-time chance to do whatever I feel like doing. A chance that just feels very wrong to miss. However, some people just seem to refuse to realize it and go with the flow.