03. Three is my favourite number
Astrology, recommendations, I deleted Instagram and sheep!
Happy Monday friends and welcome back!
First of all, thank you so so so so SO much to everyone that has messaged me to say that they enjoy reading my newsletter, it makes me so happy.
It’s been a pretty intense week for me if I’m to be honest. There’s been a lot going on inside my head and I’ve not been feeling my best but I think we’re getting back on track. I had a great idea for this week, as I said at the end of last weeks post, but I’m not really feeling it so I thought we’d save that for when I’m a bit more motivated, it won’t flow properly if not, and it’s best not to force things when the time’s not right.
If any of you are into astrology, you’ll know how September was supposed to bring the calm water after the tsunami of shit we’ve had throughout the summer, especially in August - if you have no idea about what I’m talking about, I’ll leave you this link.
Either-way, I have felt that September has brought settling and routine, but this also takes a little bit of getting used to. Is this all down to astrology? well, I have no idea but it’s still fun to read every so often.
One book to read and three series to watch
In my free time, I’ve been enjoying Steve Job’s biography, written by Walter Isaacson, it’s actually rather funny and if you have any interest in business or Apple or just cool people’s lives, then it’s a great book to read once you get over the 700-800 pages brick that it is.
I’ve also found a new love within documentaries! Yep, I said it, animal kingdom documentaries to be precise. I’ve started watching Fantastic Fungi and Our Planet and wow. I feel a bit stupid even saying it out loud but, when you see the absolutely mind blowing creatures that exist on this same planet as us, going about doing their own thing and chilling, you begin to see how the world is so much bigger than you’re individual reality.
I’ve fallen in love with otters and the marine animals episode of Our Planet had me smiling for the whole duration like a little girl, seeing the fish swim in the sea and seeing this whole underwater world was so comforting 🐡
I have another recommendation for you, this one isn’t as chilling and comforting, quite the opposite. It’s called Nine Perfect Strangers, you can find it on Amazon Prime, they release a new episode every Thursday and let me tell you… it’s intennnnnnse!! But, worth it. I won’t speak too much about it because I don’t want to ruin it and I probably will if I say anything specific. There’s only five or six episodes so far and things are starting to become clearer and I think the viewers can now start to understand what message is trying to be conveyed. It’s mind opening, let’s put it that way.
I deleted Instagram
It’s not the first time I’ve done it and it probably won’t be the last, but at this moment in time, I’ve felt necessary to disconnect from this online life. Certain things have been causing me negative thoughts and feelings and I just needed to cut it out of my life. I was starting to spend too many hours a day on it looking at well, nothing really. I was feeling impulses that weren’t coming from myself, and even my head and eyes were starting to feel the strain of staring at a screen for too long. Social media is fantastic if you know how to use it well. Having self control is crucial nowadays and knowing how to live without 24/7 connection is as well. It’s extremely easy to become addicted to picking up your phone, unlocking it just by looking at it and opening up IG, TikTok, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook… and scrolling endlessly for hours on end. The worse thing is that you think that you’re actually doing stuff, looking at stuff or even learning but in reality, you’re not.
Since I’ve deleted the app, I’ve noticed my brain subconsciously picking up my phone with the intention of opening Instagram, then I’m like “no, you deleted it. Pick up your book!” I personally do it when I’m a bit bored and wan’t to distract myself with something easy. I will come back to social media when I think I’m ready and have enough self control to not scroll for the sake of it. I love seeing what my friends post and what they’re all up to in their own adult lives where we don’t speak as often or see each other as often, but that takes literally 10 minutes, not 2 hours.
Maybe I’ll keep a little update on how this detox is going, I’ve not had IG for 4 days now, which isn’t long so I’m still noticing the desire to give it a quick look and see what people have been posting but then I focus and re-think why I deleted it in the first place.
What a strange world we live in nowadays.
A weekend in nature 🏔
Two of our friends asked us if we wanted to go on a weekend trip with them to Andorra which we were certainly up for. We got back today after being surrounded by 3.000m mountains, endless forests of deep green trees and no mobile phone connection for three days.
Apart from seeing the city, wandering around a few shops and searching for speciality coffee shops (of course), we drove up into the mountains and walked down trails. We noticed that one particular route we were following was actually a ski slope but without the snow. All of the snow machines, signs and fences were there ready for the season to roll around, it was pretty sick to walk where we might be skiing this winter ⛷
I have a whole essay in mind that I want to write about related to city and rural life but I’ve never gotten around to it, maybe it will pop up in a future post; but for now and to keep things short, I think that a life lived surrounded by nature works differently to when we’re buried in the middle of a city.
I’ve lived by the sea my whole life but I’ve never had the same feeling as to when I’m up in the mountains. Time flows differently, everything is simpler and slower. There are less impulses given by shop windows, signs, people, busses… it’s quieter and your brain stays more focussed to what’s going on inside it, rather than what stimuli your eyes are receiving and as a consequence, processing. It’s a feeling that I often crave and when I’m able to retreat and live life like this for a few days, I feel whole and grateful. I’ve not managed to find a way of living this way deep in the city yet, but I think that I’ll get there… more on this topic soon!
Here’s a photo for you to stare at for a few minutes:
