There comes a time in your life where you want better than what you have; where quality is much more important than quantity. Our very own human nature is to create and thrive and while we can't fill in every crack that we find along the way, our drive to improve the quality of our life is perfectly normal. In fact, it's necessary.

    For example, when our home is messy, we get an urge to organize and tidy up. When our job is no longer fulfilling, we suddenly want one with better benefits or pay. If you discover you spend way too much time on social media than your own hobbies, then maybe you'd adjust your priorities. The quality of our life matters and when we get that push to do or be better, it's our inner selves trying to bring more happiness into our lives.

    As complex as we humans tend to be, this internal system of ours attempts to guide us in a better direction so that we are more in tune with ourselves. Nature always finds a way to restore the balance and we are no different. If our lives do not reflect what we truly want from ourselves, we will naturally get situations that will challenge this. When this happens, something either needs an upgrade or needs to be replaced. We either have to let go and move on or welcome new adventures into our lives. 

    For the longest time, I didn't understand the importance of having a life of quality. I simply lived every day filled with obligations and I always ignored the signs from the Universe. I was on autopilot and internally suffering just like many others around me. It was only when I turned to my hobbies again that I found myself able to see beyond the walls I had built for myself. It was astonishing how a small tweak in my routine changed my life forever.

    So, here are some ways you can improve the quality of your life right now and you may be pleasantly surprised by how easy it really is!

1. Develop A Hobby

    If you have an itch to try out something new, find ways to start now. Take that art class you found on Groupon, join that Facebook group, or buy the supplies you need from Amazon. Starting your hobby sooner than later can really enrich your daily life. 

2. Spend Time In Nature

    Do you spend too much time indoors and can hardly remember the last time you felt the sun on your skin? Go to your nearest park and explore the trails or bring some friends along to enjoy outdoor activities. Being in nature is a great way to move stagnant energy while getting some fresh air at the same time. 

3. Have Fun

    If you're all work and no play, you'll eventually get burnt out! Whether you like playing video games, going out to social events, or even engaging in your own hobbies - everyone should learn to embrace their own inner child.

4. Quality Time With Loved Ones

    If you know you have been absent from those you love, reach out to them and plan something that everyone can get involved with. Check up on those you haven't heard from in awhile or invite friends over to lighten up your home. The best memories are the ones we can share with others!

5. Mend Your Finances

    It can be absolutely hard to enjoy life when you have a dark cloud of debt hanging over you. Rather then letting it suck the life out of you, find small ways to tackle your finances. Or, if you want to start increasing your earnings, look for ways to bring in passive income or learn to invest. Money dictates a lot in todays modern world so finding creative ways to improve your finances will give you more freedom.

6. Follow Your Passions

    At the end of the day, if you aren't doing what you really want to do, you aren't going to be happy. You will either find external objects to make you happy, or live with a void in you that you'll try to cope with. If you aren't satisfied with your career, change it in a practical way. If you want to start a business, give it a shot. If you start living a life driven by your passions, the quality of your life will increase dramatically!

7. Meet New People

    If your circle of friends is small or a bit...outdated, why not meet new people? The power of having friends that compliment us is so rewarding. If you're an introvert like I am where making friends can be a bit challenging, make connections through social Apps and see what interesting souls you meet.

8. Work/Life Balance

    Similar to having more fun, establishing work/life balance is paramount for everyone. Work can often find it's way into our homes, disrupting the time we spend either with our loved ones or the time we spend on ourselves. Whether you work from home or not, find creative ways to keep your work separate from your personal life. If this means being more upfront with your employer or even switching to a new job, it's worth considering if you lack work/life balance. 

9. Declutter

    Personally, I find that having junk around me is a representation of my mind. A clean home is a home with better energy and it's much more inviting to those around us and our own psyche. Spend time cleaning your home (or wherever needs cleaning) and getting rid of what no longer serves it's purpose. By freeing your environment of junk, you'll feel so much lighter. When you think of quality, it involves higher standards; bring those standards back into your life by keeping your environment clean and organized.  

10. Travel More 

    I'm guilty of this but I do not travel as much as I want to. If you're like me and you need a vacation, start planning or saving up for one. It's been statistically proven that even a short vacation is enough to improve our level of dopamine and that says a lot about traveling. Whether you travel to a new city or out of the country, traveling is a great way to change up your daily routine. 

11. Treat Yourself 

    Restricting your ability to treat yourself can easily become overbearing. You can treat yourself without overdoing it by simply giving yourself small rewards that are of high value; monthly get-a-ways, eating out every now and then, or even having a savings account that is specifically dedicated to splurging. Try not to be so caught up in the destination and learn to enjoy the journey as well. 

12. Take Charge Of Your Health

    One of my goals this year is to lose weight in a healthy manner; meaning no strict diets. For many, tackling their health goals can be exhausting and intimidating but in the long run, it's so worth it. If you're ready to turn your health around, consult with your doctor or start changing your shopping habits. Maybe even consider joining a gym with a friend too if you want to exercise more. You can't enjoy your life to the fullest if you don't look and feel your best!

13. Limit Social Media 

    We all know it; social media is fake! Nothing is what it seems on most social media platforms and sadly, many of us fall victim to admiring false idols. The best thing many of us can do is limit how much time we spend on social media so that we can start prioritizing our life instead of idolizing others. 

14. Relocate

    As a city lover, you wouldn't find me moving to the country side anytime soon. I thrive from activity and interacting with my surroundings which is why I have plans to move to Florida. I've always lived in Virginia but Florida resonates with my energy. Sometimes the hard truth is that where we live may not be right for us and it may be worth relocating.

    And that's it! This small list should get you started towards a path of improving the quality of your life. Such changes will always require you to be honest with yourself, but it will only benefit you in the end. So if there is a part of you that is trying to reach out from within, have courage to see what it's trying to say because it may just change your life forever.

Until next time! - Sarah xoxo

       The other day, I was in the car and I couldn't breathe. Both of my nostrils were stuffed up and I didn't have any saline spray on me to help. Usually I keep saline spray on me at all times because I'm fairly sensitive to allergens and pollutants. Dimitar also keeps a bottle in his car because he too gets a stuffy nose every now and then. This time though, we didn't have any around and I didn't realize it would cause me so much distress. 

    We had hit traffic pretty bad and it felt like time was moving by slowly. What seemed like a few minutes felt like an hour because I was constantly focused on the traffic or the fact that I couldn't breathe. As hard as I was trying to keep myself calm, I could feel the tension within me build up with every minute and I become more and more uncomfortable. Everything around me was as normal as could be, but deep down I was beginning to panic. 

    Since I never had a panic attack before, I didn't really understand the symptoms or techniques to use to keep myself calm. I just sat in my seat trying to control my thoughts but it was extremely difficult. It took one thought though to set my panic off (a thought too personal to share here on my blog), and I quickly felt myself become extremely claustrophobic. 

    As we turned the car into a dark neighborhood, I struggled to breathe even more and the music playing on the stereo seemed louder than usual. The space in the car felt like it was closing in on me so I rolled the window down to see if fresh air would help. Along with my thoughts, I felt my breathing pick up and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't breathe, I felt alone, and whether we stopped the car or not, it wouldn't help. That's when it hit me that I was having a panic attack. 

    On top of those feelings, I also felt ashamed. Whether that was because of my panic attack of just my experience being the younger sibling who always felt like an inconvenience, it left me a bit traumatized. Why? Because it was the first but not the last time I'd have a panic attack and I didn't understand why. It seemed fairly random since I'm normally a pretty composed person. 

    The second time I had a panic attack, I decided to leave the house without my glasses; we were making a quick trip to Subway and for some strange reason I thought it was a good idea to leave my glasses at home and sure enough, I had a panic attack. The third time, I was at work and I remember looking at the lights and thinking how unnatural the lighting was; I had to step out of the store to get a drink just so I could calm my thoughts down. 

    Although presented with different situations, each time I felt myself on the verge of having a panic attack my thoughts always got the best of me. Since these incidents, I have learned to practice controlling my thoughts and my breathing since those are the two things that can make the symptoms worse. Most importantly though, it made me aware of how I wasn't taking care of myself mentally and that I needed to do better. I have always been an advocate for mental health so I needed to play the part. 

    It also helped to have Dimitar around to help calm me down. When my mind was racing and I wasn't thinking clearly, it's was great to have him around for comfort. Experiencing such things when you're alone is fairly scary! 

    Some things I've been doing so far to take care of myself are; taking more vitamins, eating cleaner, going outside when the weather is nice, listening to better music, having more fun, and doing more daily affirmations. Having panic attacks made me realize how vulnerable I was to stress because even though I didn't feel overly stressed out, my reactions to such events told me otherwise; it was truly a wake up call.

    If you find that your mental health has taken a turn on you, please consider getting professional help! There is a mental health crisis in America that many of us overlook and such things will never improve if our lifestyles don't change with it!

   Until next time - Sarah xoxo

    I have been on a mission to lose weight...again. For anyone who has struggled with losing weight (specifically, keeping it off!) you know how hard it can be to feel like you've tried it all but nothing seems to be working. Well, that's the point that I'm at and it sucks. I kept losing weight and gaining it all back and I just couldn't understand why or how. Was my body out to get me? Was I just destined to be a default weight of obese?

    Now, before I start this post,  I don't want my health goals to trigger others. I know the ideal weight I should be at and since I strive to be healthy, I know I can't be healthy and happy if the scale says otherwise (Again, I'm using myself as an example here). Also, this post is not for those who struggle with eating problems already - if you find yourself with an eating disorder or have underlying health conditions that need to be evaluated by a professional, I highly encourage you to get medical help as soon as possible. 

    With that said, I have opened up about my experience trying many different diets; each came with their own success but it was always short lived and I would just end up gaining all of the weight back. The most successful diet I tried was doing Keto but my diet was very restricted and often left me frustrated since I had to maintain a low carb diet every day. While it came with added health benefits, I just couldn't see myself doing it long term. 

    This year, something clicked in me where I thought about counting calories. I have never considered it before and instead always thrusted difficult diets onto my body with no questions asked. My diet is already fairly healthy but I wasn't losing any weight, which led me to wondering if I was eating too many calories than I was actually burning. 

    This is how I started counting calories. I downloaded an App called "Lose It," and did my best to track my calories every day. It's a fairly easy App to understand but unless you upgrade, you have to enter what you eat manually. I didn't upgrade and have come to enjoy putting the foods I eat in myself but some of the App's features like tracking your carbs or scanning a barcode seem pretty useful for those willing to pay.

Lose It App

    Also, when you setup the App, you can personalize your goal according to what you want to achieve. Since I wanted to lose weight, my first plan was set up so that I was eating 1200 calories a day which meant I'd achieve my weight loss of 25lbs by November. It seems like a long wait to see results but I was so used to trying diets that gave me fast results that I was ready to try the complete opposite if it meant the weight staying off. 

    Unfortunately, after several weeks of counting calories with the scale not moving, I lowered my calorie intake down to 1000. For some, this many seem too little but I knew my body had more than enough fat on it to sustain itself; I just had to be extra mindful now of the food I ate. Just like that, the water weight was first to go and I started to feel like I was making progress. 

    My day consisted of a protein shake in the morning, a small snack afterwards, a light carb meal for lunch, another small snack, and then dinner is where I'd cook something more elaborate. Since I was consuming less calories, I had to be mindful of everything I ate since I could easily go over with a simple snack like chocolate.

    It was hard of course but not as restricting as doing Keto or water fasting. I felt like I could splurge if I wanted to just as long as I was not going over my calorie intake. Of all the diets I have tried, being mindful of my calorie intake was a great way for me to hold myself accountable for everything I was eating because I genuinely had no idea how easy it was to eat 1500 calories or more! Tracking the calories forced me to be honest about my eating habits without my diet being so restrictive. 

My 2nd diet plan

    I also should mention that I don't really work out; I personally don't like to but I do wear a Fitbit that Dimitar bought me a few weeks back. It's pretty fun but sometimes also annoying; I got sick shortly after wearing it and it was annoying for the watch to constantly remind me to move when I was bed ridden! Other than that though, it's a useful device I use to monitor my steps. At the end of the day, I put in how much I've walked on the Lose It App; freeing up more calories that I can treat myself to if desired.

    I'm now going on my second week of my new diet plan and I know my body is getting a healthy challenge. I don't feel like I'm deprived but I definitely find myself craving stuff; a good sign my body is working. I'll know after another two weeks if this new plan is working and if it is, I may have found the answer to losing weight (at least for me).

 Until next time! - Sarah xoxo

    Everyday for the past three months, I made it a habit to write daily affirmations in a notebook. It's wasn't a special notebook or anything like that; just a regular notepad where I could dedicate my time towards being positive and focusing on my goals. I realized that in my intense life journey towards fulfillment, there wasn't a place where I could let my imagination roam freely. I have my daily obligations that aren't always exciting or inspiring, yet I didn't give myself a chance to be intentfully happy and wishful. So, I dedicated a notebook just for such thoughts and I was pretty shocked with what happened!

    Some important reminders to keep in mind is that I had one notebook dedicated to my thoughts; the bigger the notebook, the better too, so I highly recommend a jumbo journal if you can get your hands on one. Ideally, it should be a notebook you can take with you anywhere you need to go to make it easier to write daily. Also, I always wrote in present tense to help me focus on what I wanted to manifest; I have a successful business, I have happy & healthy pets, etc. By focusing on what you have (even if at the moment you don't have it) you help improve your vibrations which can in return help you manifest what you really want. 

     For this experiment, I wanted to see if writing daily would help improve my ability to manifest. Lately I have been hit with many obstacles that made me wonder if my vibrations were off. By writing for several months, I would put my own thoughts and vibrations to the test and then share my results afterwards. 

FIRST MONTH

SECOND MONTH

 THIRD MONTH

    Now that I've lived in my "new" apartment for almost a year now, I figured it was time to do a small apartment tour. It's a major upgrade compared to our previous apartment (ugh, how triggering it is to think about it), but so far we have really enjoyed living here. In case you're wondering why I have the Christmas tree up, it's because we love to keep it up all year round; we see it as a big plant that just makes our space feel much more cozier. 

    Our apartment is on the top floor and while it doesn't have as many windows as I'd like it to, the tall ceiling sure makes up for it. We have a 2br/2ba space that includes a small loft that is currently my office. While the lighting can be so wishy-washy from time to time due to the facing of the apartment itself,  in so many ways does this apartment exceed our previous one; the only major downside being the amount of carpet, lack of natural lighting, and...the price.

    For about $2,500 a month, we considered living here for awhile but the high cost of rent has pushed us to reconsider. As nice as the apartment is, Dimitar and I know we could get a better deal somewhere else like in either Texas or Florida. Does this mean we'll move there sometime soon? It's pretty likely! I used to live in Texas and Dimitar and I both had a blast when we went to Florida. Since Northern Virginia homes right now are way too expensive to buy a home, relocating seems fair. Just a few years ago, homes in this area were $300k but now they're pushing $700k! 

    The appliances are outdated and since we are renting, we aren't able to replace them for newer ones; one of the cons of renting. The fridge is also much smaller inside than what we are used to having so every time we go grocery shopping, it's a fun game trying to see how much of what we buy can actually fit inside.

    

Livingroom

    The Livingroom also comes with an attached balcony and a fireplace that is really pretty to look at; I say look at because we haven't used it yet and as it turns out - it doesn't work. While the Livingroom is cozy, there are a few aspects of it that I wish were different; no carpet and more natural light! My two biggest ughs that I wish I could change. 

    

    Above the Livingroom is my office which is in the loft. It's pretty hard to find an apartment in this area that has a loft so I was shocked to finally find one. It doesn't have a door but it's the perfect size for an office. I've never had my own office before since Dimitar and I always shared one together, so the loft was a huge upgrade for me. 

    The guinea pig's cage fit perfectly along one of the walls and I still haven't decided where I want my desk to face; I often rearrange my office layout until I'm satisfied. It's still in the process of getting decorated too but it'll get there eventually. 

    That's pretty much the entire apartment, apart from my bedroom and Dimitar's office. It's a nice upgrade compared to our other apartment and we'll enjoy it for as long as we can until our moving plans are more concrete. 

Until next time! - Sarah xoxo

    Since I last wrote about my favorite K-dramas for 2022, I figured it was time to update my list with this last years winners. Being a K-drama enthusiast, I always like to browse Netflix for new releases. My to-go to genres are dramedies, horror, and romance. I personally love feel good shows and while not all, but most K-dramas do a spectacular job at lifting my spirits up or tugging at my heart strings. Even if most shows are exaggerated (what show isn't?), I get annoyed at Dimitar when he insists on watching something other than K-dramas...it's crazy but true.

    Personally, I find K-dramas much more meaningful then American TV shows. The stories are relatable and unique, the acting is superb, and there is always a good amount of comedy that I have come to adore. As you all know, I love to laugh so when a show can be good AND funny - it's a win win. Plus, K-dramas are always on point about their aesthetics!

    So lets jump right into this list because it's going to be a long one! Also, as always, if you have recommendations for me, make sure to comment at the end of the post!

1. Reply 1988

Reply 1988

    I was genuinely sad when this show came to an end. Everyone essentially lives on this tiny block where their differences bring them together and it was this kind of rare community that made me love this show so much. In America, such community is so hard to find but this show did such a great job at making you feel part of it from episode one. From school, to love, to adult hood, and changing times, this show gives you a look back in time that leaves a profound message with you once it's over; connections are important, but so are your passions.

2. See You In My 19th Life

See You In My 19th Life

3. Mr. Queen

Mr. Queen

4. Like Flowers In Sand

Like Flowers In Sand

    I wasn't sure if I'd like this show since it was about Ssireum wrestling (I didn't know anything about it at first) but this show ended up being good! It was motivating to watch the main character develop his confidence as a wrestler while at the same time building his connection to his childhood friend. A combination of passion, family, love, and crime, all made this show worth it. An added bonus was that it took place near the water which always attracts my attention!

5. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

        This show is so easy on the eyes and soul without too much drama or politics - just how I like it! It takes you on the journey of a young girl who moves her dentist practice to a quiet village (by the water, of course) but has a hard time fitting in due to her city like expectations and attitude. This show highlights the importance of being down to earth, caring for your neighbors, and making peace with your past; of course with a hint of love too!

6.  Behind Your Touch

Behind Your Touch

    I hardly come across shows that have to deal with being in the Veterinary field so I was really excited to watch Behind Your Touch. Turns out, it's so funny with many twists and turns! After taking over her parent's hospital, the main character ends up with a unique ability that ends up working in her favor. With a touch of crime, love, and friendship, this funny show came with quirky moments that really brought everything together so nicely. If you like humor, this show is it!

7. Castaway Diva

Castaway Diva

    If you love singing, Castaway Diva will inspire you to go after your dreams! The main character gets stranded on an Island but is later discovered years later to the world's surprise. As the stars line up in her favor, she ends up working along side her Idol to rediscover her passion for singing. With hidden drama lurking as the story unfolds, this story was absolutely amazing and inspiring to me - not to mention, the vocals of Park Eun-bin are incredible!

8. Kingdom

Kingdom

    

9. The Glory

The Glory

    I was hesitant to watch the Glory because I'm not one who enjoys heavily dramatic dramas, but this show offered revenge every step of the way so it was pretty satisfying to watch. This show covers heavily on the effects of bullying and since I faced bullying myself in school, watching The Glory was a bit triggering at times. With intense moments that leave you shocked and emotionally involved, I was even more shocked to discover that this show was based off of true events...