Day #1 : 30 Day Writing Challenge

Hello, 2017! 

2016 was a disastrous blogging year for me - Bohemian Muses was unfairly neglected and to be honest, I think I'm going to have a pretty hard time starting her back up... but to help me along I've decided to do a 30 day writing challenge. Each day I will be given a prompt and need to write about whatever is handed to me. I am also journaling in a 2017 diary and have filled each page for the year thus far - that's exactly a 2 week run! So far, so good. 

Today's writing challenge is quite simple, really.

List 10 things that make you really happy:

1. Reading, anywhere, any time. 
2. Booktube. Watching other booktubers videos, filming my own, editing my own, interacting with other book lovers. It is the best community and changed my life. Here's the link to my booktube channel: Boho Bookworm
3. Writing... yeah, I can't really validate this one right now. Since November I have been in yet another dark place of serious writers block for personal reasons.
4. Travel. Oh if only you knew the latest travel fantasies swimming around in my head.. I'll give you a not so subtle clue... a beach bungalow in bali, all mine... yoga, meditation, temples, spirituality, surf, culture, food, finish the first draft of my novel, read books, start up a new blog called Jetsetter-Jade.com and write about my time in Bali to heal my heart. Like I said, just a fantasy...
5. Hiking. Particularly in forests, they seem to be my happy place.
6. Yoga. I procrastinate against it a lot and must admit I'm lazy to do it most of the time but whenever I DO dedicate myself to some freaking sun salutations, I am left feeling zen. 
7. Running. Not away from my problems, but physical actual running. Getting those endorphins flowing. It always calms me down.
8. Cooking. It gives me such a sense of accomplishment to create something delicious. Get creative, use new ingredients, use basic ingredients and make something incredible, throw dinner parties. I find cooking so therapeutic. Insert 'cooking classes' into my Bali fantasy... that would be pretty amazing.
9. Romance. I've had rose petals scattered into the shape of a heart in my driveway, 'I love you' written in shaving foam on the bathroom mirror, I've been picked up from the airport by a guy in a tux holding a flipfile and pretending to propose to me on Valentines Day... I've had some beautifully romantic things happen in my life, things worthy to be put into romance novels... and they make me feel good. Special. Loved. Wanted. Needed.... and at the end of the day, that's what everyone wants right? A bit of romance goes an extremely long way for me. 
10. Tea. I spelt wine wrong... I know. 

Bonus:

My cat. India. But she also makes me miserable because a) she only comes to me when she wants love... and b) she's all the way in South Africa and I live in Mallorca, Spain now. The heartbreak is quite literally palpable.

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A lot of what makes me happy seems to be things I could do on a daily basis, especially right now while I am unemployed. I need to start implementing things like this into my day to day life. Maybe then I'll be happier. I'm not going to lie, for the the best 3 months I have been depressed for personal reasons. Who I was this time last year got broken. But I'm on the mend.

So I will try and read every day. The last few days I wasn't able to focus on a book... my world was spinning too fast. There was too much filling my head to be able to deal with Caroline Kepnes's main character, Joe, being obsessed with Beck and murdering people. But I'm almost finished the book and I'm also listening to The Great Gatsby on Audible which I think I need to restart because I wasn't really paying attention. 

I usually read at night, curled up in bed just before sleep. Sometimes in the morning too with coffee in bed but that's also my time to watch booktube videos and now write on Bohemian Muses too. One day I'll start writing my novel, The Eulogy, again too. I'm just not ready for that yet. I am scared to start writing my novel again and ruining it.

Travel is a harder one to implement into my daily life - but I am going to be traveling to South Africa in a months time and having a month on holiday before coming back to Mallorca for another season on the boats. After the next season on boats I will have more savings and will be able to travel more... Ireland being the place I absolutely MUST get to this year.

Hiking I can do when possible. I have no transport here so I can't get to many of the hiking spots very easily - but when possible, I need to start walking up mountains and wondering through forests. Connect with nature.

Yoga = Procrastination with me... but this year I need to try harder. I say that every year.. but if I know it makes me feel so good afterwards, I need to suck it up. 

Running... I wanted to do this every day for the year, every day possible that is... so far I've gone running twice in two weeks. 2/14.... CONGRATULATIONS! Haha.... BUT in my defence I had pneumonia for the first while and yesterday when I was going to go running it was so windy I could quite literally have been blown off my feet. I'm going running today. I am. I swear..... once I get out of bed... whenever that might be........

Cooking, I need to do it more. I know. It's pretty hard living with a chef who doesn't want my help when he cooks and when I do get the chance to cook, if he's around he just takes over. Tres annoying. But I'll try harder. I will. Pinterest is a gem filled with exciting new recipes to try out. #chefjade

Romance isn't really up to me, is it? What makes me so happy is when a guy WANTS to be romantic. So aforementioned cheffy needs to help with this one. Pah :)

Tea... ahem... wine... that's definitely an every day thing, the tea, not the wine. I didn't drink for the first 5 days of 2017 and I didn't drink wine yesterday either. #winning.

This was quite a fun writing exercise and I wrote more than I thought I would. It just flowed out of me and I played. I love playing with my keyboard.. that is NOT supposed to sound sexual...... 

I recommend everyone writing down a list of 10 things that truly make you happy. It's refreshing to think about the positive things in life, especially when times are tough.