Brienne writes

The day when you don't want to write will come. When you're exhausted, you have zero readership and the end point seems so far away. But if you stop right now, think about the one person who's reading this at the moment, looking to you for inspiration.  Looking at you to see what you do whenever you hit a slump.  Do you give up and just let whatever progress you made go to waste? Or do you put in your 110 percent to put your feelings into words to share with others that you too experience bad days, you too experience tiredness and wanting to give up... But you don't. Because people are watching.  People are looking at you to learn what you do. Write. Share your struggles.  Know you're not alone. 

Did something different and watched a video on @Keltieoconnor trying out @hubermanlab 's routine for a year. Totally inspirational. Ties in perfectly with my 60-day experiment with no Instagram. Then I'm going to try out his routines. One at a time. Who's with me? — Brienne (@rienneb) March 22, 2023 Second time around doing the 60-day experiment and I'd like to provide some updates.  (Click here to read about the first 30-day experiment.)  6 days into the 60-day experiment, I've found that: I'm watching more podcast episodes.  I'm reading more pages of books I've loaned in Libby and I find that I have almost no time to do anything else except writing. So. How. Did. I. Used. To. Spend. So. Much. Time. On. Instagram? I don't know.  I have a theory: Instagram will take how much of your time you give it. Especially if you don't have better alternatives.  When I'm on this side of the world (not using it),  I feel so absolutely freeing with load...

How you spend your time is how you live your life. Cliche. I know But how many people you know are constantly on Instagram or Facebook or Netflix,  watching other people's lived lives or watching some fantasy/romance on the screen? When you could create your own adventure. Start by thinking how you want your life to be if it were a movie Who's the hero/ heroine in it? Who's the villain? Is it possible that the villain turns out to actually be the good guy? What did the main character have to go through to make it today? What obstacles did she have to jump over, crawl through or get the help of someone? Who's her mentor? What different endings can you put in the story?  you know the ones in books where you used to flip through as a kid,  "Go to page 14 if you choose to see Anna fight the dragons in the dungeon..." Or "Go to page 58 when you and your friends decide to explore the unlocked door hidden behind the huge painting hanging in the basement......

Am reminded of something I read on twitter. Have nothing to tweet about? Have a life outside of twitter.  Someone asked me before where I get my inspiration for writing.  I get them from podcasts and audiobooks I listen to or ebooks I'm currently reading. I get them from living life.   Life is an adventure.  Stop scrolling and looking at other people's lives on Instagram.  You'll only be filled with envy for not having the life they are living.  Not only that, you forgot that people only post their highlight reels.  I'm back on a 60-day no Instagram experiment after finding myself scrolling whenever I am bored.  So difficult to quit.  So easy to get sucked back into it and continue with bad habits. I'm 4 days into the experiment and I'm finding I have so many things I want to do to bring me closer to my goals. My goals of becoming a writer, working remote and travelling the world at the same time. If you're thinking of making a change to your...

My father.  He taught me how to solve my own problems.  When I was in primary school, I remember going to him with Math problems I did not know how to solve. What did he do? He took a long look at it and asked me for the textbook. When I brought it to him, he asked me to search for the answers myself.  He said the answer must be in there, somewhere. Growing up, our house was a constant work in progress.  Things needed fixing. Like I believe all houses do. When he fixed a light bulb, he got me to hold the ladder. Trim the wires for a faulty power cord, I was asked to watch. The roof needed fixing, I was his assistant tasked to pass him all the tools he needed.  He once demonstrated how to suck out the gunk from the AC pipe.  Mom stopped him before he could ask if we wanted to try. He let us squat at the back of the lorry while he drove around the neighbourhood. Then, it was just me and my sister.  Mind you, we were still in our diapers. He dabbled into ...

If you're a big Huberman fan like me, you've probably listened to his podcasts really slowly and have taken so many notes about the science behind getting enough sleep or getting sun from the sunset to offset the negative effects of using your phone before bed. His podcast episodes are long and filled with so much goodness. To be honest, I think I'm only halfway through some. To my delight, this popped up on my Youtube feed today.  Keltie O'Connor have tried many of Huberman's routine for a year and documented what she found in this Youtube video .  Clink here to watch the full video.  I've tried cold exposure, sleeping in a cold room and time blocking.  I didn't try them enough to collect enough data to share how I feel about them. In 2023, I hope to try them again.  But today, I've declared Gonna go on a 60 day no Instagram experiment after realizing I’m spending so much time on it again. Yes, again because I went on a 30-day one, reaped the ben...

Back to reading Matthew Dicks's Someday is Today and he wrote how we often remember the bad stuff but forget the good things that people tell us, save for the ones that are truly memorable. He recommends building a file of compliments to refer to when our days get ridden with bad things happening or on days we need a little sprinkle to push forward. I'm trying to remembering the compliments I've received to start building my treasure trove of compliments.  I can't think of any. I remember one of my exes calling my unreasonable. Another one called me crazy. But I consider this a compliment because I believe all geniuses are blessed with a tinge of craziness in their blood. I remember my boyfriend telling me how he likes my writing and he can never write like me. Those are what I can think of in 3 minutes. Matthew also shared he forwards the compliments to himself in the future to resurface them and it always put a smile on his face when he receive one he has completely...