Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Hopefully if you have eaten too many Easter eggs you are now going to veg out the rest of the evening all cuddled up on the sofa watching Disney films. The best way to recover!

I’ve had an amazing Easter weekend spending some much needed catch up time with my friends! I don’t have much planned for the rest of the bank holiday. If this weather clears a bit I’m hoping to go and take a leisurely stroll down the beach tomorrow maybe grab a tea on the beach. But again that’s if this awful British weather decides to clear off any time soon!

I should really be trying to finish off my deadline that is due alarmingly soon! But as with anything, I’m not really jumping at the chance of spending more time on Uni work. Thankfully as I’m doing a placement I only have one deadline of work. I shouldn’t really be complaining when my friends, all of whom are just finishing their final year have about four times the amount of work I do.
Naturally I’m doing everything I can to put off doing work! Piano always racks up a good couple of hours. But I don’t tend to see this as wasted time. I think of it as creative procrastination. Is that different?

*Random thought – I’m really enjoying blogging, as I find it helps me collate my thoughts. For example I had intended this post to be a little ‘Happy Easter’ and that’s it, but as I write I find lots of things come into my mind; thoughts that would have probably jumped into my mind the minute I wanted to go to sleep. This way, by allowing myself to identify and organise my trail of thoughts in a written way provides some clarity amongst the mess that can be left with my thoughts at the end of the day.

Well I’m just glancing at the time and realising that it is almost time to watch Game of Thrones, so I’m going to wrap up this post quite promptly!  I don’t know about any of you, but I’m quite addicted to the series!

Hope you all have a lovely bank holiday!

Ed Sheeran’s New Release

On the way to work this morning I heard on the radio the new track  by Ed Sheeran ‘Sing‘ which is the first release from the highly anticipated second album x, which is set for release 23 June.

This track is more upbeat and has a really catchy hook! Admittedly I do quite like the somber tone of his previous album,  however it’s a nice change and perhaps a glimpse of the style of the forthcoming album?

Ed Sheeran explains the collaboration with Pharrell for the track –

‘”Pharrell really pushes you and wants you to do the best thing possible. Pharrell must have been on about his 17th idea when he played me this beat. Instinctively, I dismissed it, but I had a guitar in my hand and started playing that riff absent-mindedly. From that moment, I was playing that song and… we just pieced it all together.”

Give it a listen …

Positive Thought #7

I must confess that I have been extremely lacking with my positive thinking tracking. I originally stated I wanted to blog every evening with one positive thought that came from the previous 24 hours. (See original post).

However the past week or two I have been extremely busy, so when the evening finally comes around – all I can think about is face planting my pillow. Rather annoyingly my positive thinking blogging has taken a back burner during this hectic time.

I have noticed a difference; when I haven’t taken the time during my evenings to sit at my laptop whilst drinking my cup of tea and reflect with positive eyes over the events during the past 24 hours. I can honestly say, having these quiet moments to understand your day and select these positive feelings/achievements/conversations brings another way of thinking to how you see your day. 
I would like to compare it to practicing yoga. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert in yoga either, but often I go to yoga classes in the evenings as a way of removing myself from the day and just relax. Spending dedicated time just with your thoughts is an amazing way to clear whats in your mind. I’ve found by blogging about my day I have this similar feeling of clearing my mind, filtering my thoughts into smaller pieces and understanding myself.

So rather than seeing the negative in the fact I haven’t been blogging in a while – I will try and put my positive hat on and see the good.

I have been manically busy, because at present I’m doing my placement year with a company whilst holding down a part time job. This means many of my days are split between the two and I feel like I’m running all over the place doing both.
I am really enjoying the challenges that are in both! I feel like my brain is constantly needing to be active and focused. My days are both filled with learning and work.

Recently I’ve had some really nice feedback of my work at both my placement and my job. Recognition of the hard work I’ve been putting in is welcomed tremendously! It’s nice to know that my hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. It just makes me more determined to do better. Doing my work placement year has been an invaluable experience! I’ve had a lot of changes throughout but I’m starting to understand myself a lot better; whats important to me, how I like to work, what is it that drives me, which is starting to help me understand how I want to live my life.

 

Something that I need to still improve on is prioritising my time better. In my head there are so many things I’d like to be doing better; playing the piano more often, reading, learning new skills (Photoshop, music production etc), blogging more often, seeing friends on a regular basis, going to the gym more often. I never seem to have the time to get stuck in and feel like I’m progressing in any one of these areas. I’ve been reading a lot on Quora recently, about how people learn new skills at different ages and what it takes to train yourself. It’s very interesting reading about people’s experiences with developing themselves.
One of my favourites was a question from someone asking if he was too old to learn an instrument. One of the answers gave an example of their grandmother who had started learning the violin at 60 and when she died she had been playing for 25 years.  This is an incredible example of how anything is possible at ANY age. It really does put things into perspective, and the possibilities around you.

🙂