I have been trying to expand my life in lots of different ways! My goal is to always be growing. Lately, it seems like life is going so fast. I want to enjoy it and try to slow down a little bit. Here are some of the things I have been doing to increase my quality of life and expand my horizons.

Audiobooks on Audible

I have listened to Girl Wash Your Face and The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck. Self-help books are some of my faves. Girl Wash Your Face talks about some of the lies that we all have engrained in our brains that aren’t actually true. The author unpacks the beliefs with facts and real life examples. The Life Changing book references the tidying up book and takes it further into your brain instead of the stuff around you. It really helped me think about the mental stress of all the dumb things that I let roll around in my brain that do not matter. Freeing up the clutter in my brain helps me put more focus towards the things about which I actually care.

Yoga

I had been getting into HIIT and cardio workouts but just didn’t feel excited. I started doing yoga again to switch it up. After buying myself a new yoga mat I was motivated to actually stick to the practice. It is peaceful for my mind and my body. My muscles carry so much tension and I can feel it releasing as I move through the yoga practice.

Meditation

I got the meditation app called Simple Habit. The slogan for the company is “A daily vacation for your mind.” After the trial period of 30 days, I decided to buy the subscription for a year. I have not been the best about doing it every day but I enjoy every session that I do. It helps me so much to have a 5 or 10 minute time period to relax and let my mind calm down from the normal bouncing around that it does.

Budgeting.

One of my credit card companies offered 0% interest until October. Up until recently I have been to the point where I pay the full balance every month. That offer led me to get slightly careless with money and I pushed up the balance more that my usual spending. I want to get all of my cards down to $0 balance and get back on track of paying it off every month. It would also be nice to cushion my saving account and save extra money for longer terms goals.

Cooking at home.

Brian and I love going out to eat! We go to a lot of fun restaurants. It is a lot cheaper and healthier to cook at home though. Whole Foods has become our main grocery store. We have surf and turf nights on the regular and Brian loves to come up with random exciting dishes. I love the way his brain works and the combinations of flavors that he uses.

Power hour.

This is one of my favorite things. It involves taking time to do little annoying things around the house by setting aside a specific amount of time to power through all of them. I have hung up the shelves in the apartment, cleaned out the clogged drain, decluttered my bookshelf and gotten rid of clothing that I no longer wear. My Texas license plate has now been updated to a Tennessee license plate. I try to make lists of the things that I want to accomplish and check them off little by little. It feels so good to cross things off the list and move on to new things.

All of these things have helped me in various ways. I’m calmer and more flexible in both mind and body. Here’s to constantly becoming a better person and living my life like a vibrant badass.