Live your best life

When we think about our 'best life' we simply imagine ourselves in a place with no pain or suffering and where all our dreams and ambitions come full circle. We imagine ourselves being able to make an impact on not only our lives but the lives of those who have helped us in our journeys to where we are now. On a deeper level, living our best life means to find purpose and meaning in life, live up to your potential and do all the things you hope to do someday now instead of putting them off for the foreseeable future. 

We all have visions of a better tomorrow, whether that be to exercise more, find a career you actually love, earn more money, gain more free time and so on. However these visions lead us to a path where it's okay to want, we all have such high expectations of ourselves, because we want more and are capable of more but part of living our best life is learning to harness that power. It's natural to dream and wish, however life is temporary and you shouldn't wait for it to feel fulfilled, you should take action and take every opportunity as it comes. 

In order for our best lives to become readily perceived, we must embrace ourselves whether that's in terms of appearance, religion, gender or lifestyle. Being able to live comfortably, unapologetically and in disregard of all those who don't accept who we are is the key to unlocking your best life. Part of the journey is self inquiry and to uncover what really interests us and makes us feel alive. However discovering what we want in life also means facing what we don't want. Although this is a turbulent process, learning to live life with authenticity and honesty leads to rewards that often surpass our expectations. Even simple everyday life can feel amazing when we are living it with purpose. 

Life comes fast, there comes situations where we have to put in time and effort for, whereas others happen almost instantly. A particular situation that comes to mind is the summer placement I gained in my second year of university. The application process was quite stressful and despite a few rejections, I still had the motivation to persevere until I managed to gain several interviews. Regardless of how opportunities arise and the rejections faced along the way, the one way to ensure that your life goes the way you want it to, is to be grateful for all situations no matter good or bad and we just have to ride the waves, no matter how bumpy they may be you'll always find a way to conquer through. 

Ultimately, living our best life comes down to us being grateful. Grateful for getting more time to make a difference, grateful for the people that are in our lives and most importantly being grateful for who we are. In order to truly live our best life, you have to be selfish and think about yourself. This doesn't come easy to me however asking myself how the next decision is going to benefit me in the rest of my life is crucial. I've come to learn that living a life full of everyone's decisions instead of my own will slowly lead me down a path of always feeling sorry for myself and wishing I had come out it before it got worse. Though living a life full of my own choices, embracing myself and my actions, through strength, courage and self respect will ensure I create the life I desire. 

As Oprah Winfrey once said ' the biggest adventure you can take to life is to live the life of your dreams'

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The power of friendship

Friends come in all shapes and sizes, there's facebook only friends who you hide from when you see them at tesco's. There's friends who only pop up when they need something or want to arrange to meet up so they can spend hours whinging about anything and everything.There's childhood friends who you grow up with, no matter where you go, what you do they will always come by and take you back to the early stages of life, rooted in longevity. Though only the lucky ones will have the same childhood friends in all stages of their life. Finally there's life long friends whom you meet throughout various stages in life, who you see once in a blue moon but feel like no time has actually passed when you finally do catch up. 

People tend to say 'pics or it didn't happen' so does that mean your friends are any less precious? because you don't have pictures with them? They also say your true friends are ones you have the least or if any photos with, though sometimes we worry that we rush to document our every moment with people to the point where you don't live in the moment. Rather than living with them, you're just documenting it. And granted, if you don't document it, chances are you will forget it. I guess I'm still trying to find that balance, between making sure moments are memorable without making them seem superficial. 

A picture could hardly capture how deeply I feel for some of my closest friends, whether it's all the times of laughter, stress and tears we've shared or the times where we had no clue what we were doing, we've always had the support of each other to get us by, even if it is in the form of a 220 day snapchat streak.You know that they will always be there to listen to your problems, lend a shoulder to cry on, and cheer you up with their amazing sense of humour and comforting hugs. 

No matter how far apart friendships seem so transient, but the ones that last are the ones that keep us going, or at least I'd hope so. Ultimately good friends are like stars, you don't always see them but know they are always there. 

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