Wednesday 5 February 2014

The Cheer Up List (from damn unpretty to pretty damn happy)

So this post is a follow up to my last post Damn Unpretty (read it here). I thought I would share with you the list of things I do to cheer myself up when my self esteem or my mood goes on the down swing. Try any of these when you are having a particularly bad day and I guarantee you will feel better :)

 
Nails in Hip Hop by Rimmel London Salon Pro Plus
      
Paint my nails - Usually red, red is the colour of confidence and it seems to be my signature colour (I love that). I love painting my nails it's really therapeutic and I like looking at them when I've finished, it gives me a small sense of pride (particularly when I don't smudge them) and seeing the pop of colour on my nails makes me happy.

 

Put on lipstick - I think my lips are my best feature. Elizabeth Taylor famously said 'Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick and  pull yourself together.' I love that. Whilst I'm not a big drinker, I feel like I can face anything if I've got the right lipstick on. My favourite winter lipsticks are: #1 Seduction by Collection 2000, #500 Diva Red by Rimmel London & Pom Pom by Soap & Glory. I am also obsessed with Apocalips by Rimmel London in Apocaliptic (pictured).


Happy Place :)

Go for a walk - I live a five minute walk away from Bedford Park, which during the summer is absolutely beautiful. Whenever I feel myself stressed to the point of breaking I put on my iPod, listen to happy music and walk round Bedford Park until I feel better. It's so peaceful and secluded that even though I am in the middle of the park it feels like I'm the only person in the world. It's my happy place.



Listen to music and dance my face off - I defy anyone not to feel better after dancing around and getting out of breath and silly. My personal favourites to do this to are: ACDC's You Shook Me All Night Long, Journey's Don't Stop Believing,  Amii Stewart's Knock On Wood and Grace Potter's Something That I Want.


Read - There is nothing I love more than forgetting my troubles and immersing myself in a good book. I don't have a definitive favourite book because I love so many but some of my favourites are: The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, How to Love by Katie Cotugno, The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins, Harry Potter (obviously) and The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. I love anything by Jodi Picoult, she's a fabulous writer. I also just finished reading Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by the gloriously funny, beautiful and amazing Mindy Kaling, I strongly recommend it.



  
                 
Knit - Knitting is my therapy, and I'm not alone Amanda Seyfried, Ryan Gosling, Zooey Deschannel, Julia Roberts and Tom Hardy all enjoy knitting. It's so therapeutic and calming because you have to concentrate and can't think about anything other than what you are doing. It really quiets a frantic mind and I always get something cool out of it. Win-win.



Baking - Is amazing and when done right results in untold deliciousness. It is simply not possible for anyone to feel sad whilst baking and then getting to eat chocolate fudge brownies. I'm not the world's best baker (I'm trying to get better) but I love it so much.


Have a bubble bath - Normally I prefer showers to baths, I have to really be in the mood for a bubble bath but when I am there is nothing quite so relaxing as a hot bath full of gorgeous smelling Soap & Glory Calm One Calm All bubbles (my favourite bubblebath). My flat only has a shower, so whenever I go back home to see my mum for the holidays I make sure I have as many bubble baths as I can to make up for it.



Wear super fluffy slippers - I was originally going to say wear high heels around the house just because. But I wore heels out last night and my feet have not forgiven me yet for subjecting them to shoes that torture them no matter how beautiful. So instead I'm saying slippers. Slippers are one of man's greatest inventions, closely followed by Smartie cookies, the iPhone and MAC make up. These beauties are currently adorning my feet.


Honestly it is not physically possible to be down about life when I have the plush, yellow face of Homer Simpson's face looking back at me. Plus if I wiggle my ankles it looks like he's eating my feet, there are literally hours of fun to be had in these slippers.  

 

Go swimming/for a run/to the gym - I will be the first to say that exercise SUCKS. However the feeling of accomplishment when you have finished coupled with the endorphin high does not. I personally prefer swimming because it's like a form of meditation. I just zone out and before I know it I've been swimming for over an hour and am exhausted. Before I came to uni I used to go to the gym at home twice a day. There were 2 reasons for this 1. There was an instructor there who was so beautiful and amazing I was hoping he would become the next Mr. Lauren (he didn't) and 2. I got a little bit addicted to the rush I got after, which is not the healthiest thing in the world.



SING - Singing has been scientifically proven to improve mood. On days where I am feeling ugly or sad (and I have the house to myself) I love nothing more than expressing my sorrows through the medium of song. My favourite songs to belt out are Barbra Streisand's Funny Girl, On My Own from Les Mis, Don't Rain On My Parade again by Barbra, Idina Menzel's version of Let It Go from Frozen, The Rose by Bette Midler, My Man (Barbra again), Defying Gravity from Wicked, Don't Stop Believing by Journey and anything by Queen or Meatloaf (as you can see I do this a lot). No matter how bad I sound I always feel so much better after. It's really therapeutic. I find it's best to choose a song where you have to belt out the notes, because you can let all your emotions out with the song and afterwards you feel so much better.

I have loads more - including a Pinterest session involving animals wearing hats/pyjamas, watch a film or a entire TV boxset (I strongly recommend Scrubs) in one sitting, facemasks and surfing youtube but I think I might be starting to bore you now. Hopefully this list helps you go from this...


to this...


Until next time lovelies check me out on twitter, facebook, Bloglovin, instagram & pinterest :)


Love love love xxx

No comments:

Post a Comment

Latest pins