Let’s be real here. We all have our own version of the past. And regrets often stems from our actions in the past. While it is common for the word ‘regret’ to be associated with older people, I believe that having regrets as a young adult is completely valid too. We too have had our fair share of adversities that we faced as we grew. The point is, regret should not be marked by age. Most of us, in some ways do get affected by past incidences. Just a quick note, my post today is targeted specifically towards young adults.

The feeling of regret itself is very personal and it differs from one person to another. Our source of regret differs; some blame themselves for their past financial mistakes, others ponder upon lost opportunities. The intensity of our regret varies too. Some have regrets but do not take it too seriously, while some still berate themselves over it. The harsh reality of clinging to regrets is it accumulates over time. This is because everyday we stray further from our past and that simply means we have endured more difficulties and undergone more experiences and definitely increased the number of mistakes we made in the course of time.

Personally, I really have no regrets in life. And hey, my life isn’t all chocolates and unicorn! I have encountered numerous problems in life (I still do). But if I’m given the opportunity, would I turn back time and change any of what I went through? No. I’m only 22, I do not have all the wisdom in me, but looking back I feel that everything in my life panned out nicely and brought me to where I am today. I am the person I am today because of my past. And yes, I made a lot, and by that, i mean A LOT of mistakes in my younger days, but isn’t making mistakes help us all grow?

Viewing it from another perspective, if you still have deep or immense regrets accumulated in you, instead of continuously berating yourself for it, try using it to make yourself a better person. Your past business flopped? Now sit back and reflect. What was the reason? How can you rectify the situation? Is business the right path for you or not? Use your regret to motivate you to do the right things in the future.

The key to any form of regret is to bounce back as fast as you can from it. Take it as a learning experience and not as a tool to bring yourself down. Pondering continuously over the past is clearly not good for one’s health and well-being. The truth is, learning to cope with past incidences and regrets is extremely beneficial. As young adults, InsyaAllah, we still have a long way to go in life. And life, as they say, is a roller-coaster ride. Sometimes we will be up, and sometimes we will be down. We will DEFINITELY be making even more mistakes in the future, so instead of dwelling and clinging on the past, let’s try to learn from it and avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

Till then,

Aishah.

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Do you feel lazy? Not the normal lazy where you can snap out of it, but lazy lazy- the kind of laziness that lasts more than a few hours and could even reach days. Yes, that’s what I am talking about. You have a long list of work to do but you choose to turn a blind eye to it. You start procrastinating- you lay in bed, scroll through social media, do anything, ANYTHING, just to avoid your to-do lists. You are aware of what you are supposed to do- you realize that you still have to endure it somehow but you just don’t have the drive to push you towards it.

Instead of actually ticking off your to-do-list, you wallow in your laziness. And that laziness then turn into sadness and further develops into self-hate. You become comfortable with the laziness, you accommodate and acclimatize to your ‘lazy situation’. You are conscious of the fact that you should be diverting your energy towards your work but alas, here you are- in bed.  

So here comes the million-dollar question:

How can you get out of this mess? How can you stop being so lazy?

Here’s one thing you have to realize. We often create excuses for ourselves. The keyword here is ‘create’. We turn nothing into something and start believing in it. We are all guilty of this- whether you want to admit it or not.

“I’m not really in the mood.”

“I’m not in the right state of mind.”

“Wait till I feel better.”

Well, guess what? None of that is happening. Yes, NONE of it. Your mood is not going to change anytime, you won’t be in the right state of mind or feel better because there’s always something to worry or care about. You are making up excuses to back up your laziness and you are encouraging yourself towards it. We are never going to ‘feel like it’. You just have to do it. You have to start parenting yourself because as an adult, no one is going to start nagging at you like your mom did, no one is going to stand there and start lecturing like your father did. The point is, you just have to be responsible towards your own self. It’s adulthood, honey. No one is coming over to spoon-feed us anymore and that’s just one of the many harsh realities of life.

Once you start eliminating your mental excuses, get up. Get up from your comfort space. Whether if it’s your couch, your bed- just get out of it. Your brain is designed in such way that it labels everything around you. To put it simply, your couch and bed is probably labeled as ‘resting space’ in your brain which means every time you come across your couch or bed, your brain equates it to resting. Therefore, getting out of your comfort spaces will erase the idea of lazing around and resting.

Next- well, here comes the hardest part. You have to start moving. And by moving I literally mean MOVE. You don’t want to put pressure on yourself and do anything extravagant, so start small- maybe start cleaning your room, wash the dishes or do the laundry.  Once you move around you will start feeling pumped- its a natural bodily process. What you are actually doing is you are building the momentum for yourself. You start to feel energized and enthusiastic because you feel like you are actually doing something. The feeling of accomplishing something begins to excite you.

Finishing off a task makes moving on to another task easier. For instance, if your first move was to clean your room, once you are done cleaning it, it’s highly likely that you want to resume the momentum and not get rid of the nice fleeting feeling of being productive you have at that moment, so you move on to another task. The cycle repeats itself and voila! You are no longer lazy.  No more wasting your life away in bed.

The key is to just GET UP and MOVE. Remember the aforementioned excuses? Once you start moving, you will feel better, be ‘in the mood’ and be in the right state of mind. This is what I do every time I feel extremely lazy. Try to put it into practice and see the effect for yourself!

Till then,

Aishah

Hi.

This is my first blog post and I lowkey hate to begin this with such a deep question but I’ll still do it.

Why?

Why did I make this blog in the first place?

In today’s world, oftentimes we seek for online personas or sources to emulate or at least, to connect with. Simply put, we enjoy seeing someone online and say “hey! I know exactly what you mean!” And as a 22 year old juggling university and life, I wish that people of my age were as upfront and as honest as possible with their lives on the Internet. I wish young adults like me were more interested in sharing their life experiences, struggles etc compared to sharing their reviews on the new Maybelline foundation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all up for external beauty but I think it is high time that we focus more on the internal beauty because it is exactly what you need till the end of time. Of course, internal beauty does not happen overnight, it takes time and it takes a looooot of effort- from recognizing your weaknesses, accepting some of them and to overcome some of them and finally- to become the best version of yourself. And these are just a wee bit of it.

I am not saying I’m an expert or a self-love/self-care guru (whatever you call it). I’m simply here to shares (as the blog title suggests). I am here to build a safe space to hopefully connect with maybe one or two souls who read my posts and say:

“Hey! I know exactly what you mean!”

Till then,

Aishah.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
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Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.