Reflections with Raa

They're all linked so you should just be able to click on them! :)

Have a great rest of the week!

❤️, Raashi

Living by Mantras Challenge I Part 2 I

And here we are, back for Part 2!!! ☺️

If you guys didn't get a chance to read last week's post, I undertook what I like to call a Living by Mantras Challenge ☺️

Each day for seven days, one of my besties (thanks Ace! ❤️) sent me a motivational life mantra/life inspiration/quote photo - whatever you wanna call it - that I hadn't seen before.

Each day, I had to incorporate it into my life (to the best extent I could!), after figuring out what the mantra means to me.

If you read the first three days of the challenge, you would know that I ditched organising and tidying, didn't walk anywhere - just danced, and splurged on jewellery - interesting combo, hey? :P

Here’s how the next four days played out…

DAY 4: "TREAT. YO. SELF."

Legitimately, Ace sent me the above gif, it made me so happy haha.
This mantra was so exciting hehe, and probably one of the most fun - I was sooo going to take full advantage of this. I went to my friend's house that day and I decided pizza for lunch and ice-cream afterwards was definitely treating ourselves :P

I had work that night, but there was no way that I was going to let "Treat. Yo. Self." day to just end like that. One of my best friends was keen to join, she picked me up after work and we went to a dessert place near us called San Churros, because I had been wanting to try this specific dessert for SO LONG and I felt like this was the perfect opportunity:

HOW AMAZING DOES THAT LOOK. Churro/Waffle/Pancake, just yes.

BUT -
They had run out :( :( :(
However, in true dedication to the mantra I was determined that that wasn't going deter me and put an end to the treating - hence, the churros photo underneath the mantra ☺️

(But don't you worry - Funnel Cake, I'm coming for you...)

DAY 5:"You can't just give up! Is that what a dinosaur would do?"

HAHAHA YES ACE. Fun fact about me: I. LOVE. FRIENDS. I have watched every episode probably 2-3 times ~~(or 5-6...)~~, so if you can quote and reference anything and everything Friends in daily life (like so many of my friends and I always do) - you are epic.

This mantra was very fitting considering my plans for the day - study, study, and more study. Wooo.
I went to my Uni Library and stayed there all day working on my assignments. I came home, and worked on my assignments some more.

There were so many points in that day where I was incredibly tempted to give into some distractions and just give up working on assignments for the day.
But did I give up? Not a chance. Because a dinosaur wouldn't do that ;)
Oh, the wise, wise words of Joey Tribbiani.

When my friends were linking videos to watch in our group chat, I just replied with this:

Hahahaha, I love that my friend didn't even question it,
she was just like "Yep. Whatever you say, Raashi".

DAY 6: "Never get so busy making a living, that you forgot to make a life."

Sooo...I was working a 9-5 day that day. On a Saturday to make things even more exciting, haha.

Hmmm, so basically this is about making sure that work isn't the only thing you're focusing on, making sure to enjoy life in whatever ways possible.

My boss wasn't in the best mind-space that day and I knew I would be super busy, so I was trying to figure out a way to make this happen!

I didn't even get my full break that day BUT, instead of sitting in the back room scoffing down some food, I decided to venture out into the sunshine and enjoy the outdoors ☺️

DAY 7: "There are dreamers, and there are realists in the world"

Read the photo above for the full mantra ^

I had made it to my final day! And this final one was beautiful and so true, but also hard for me to figure out how to tackle for the day!

The main thing to take out of this one was that both components are important - other people balance us out and we balance others out, yin and yang, opposites attract, whatever you want to call it, balance in a form like this is beautiful - it brings out the best and full potential in people.

I definitely believe that all of us have a bit of a dreamer and a bit of a realist within us, to varying extents - and we need to let each of them be, exactly what they need to be, when they need to be.

One of my friends was discussing how she had applied for something new and was a little worried about it, to which I replied with all the gifs above :P
She definitely needed a dreamer to support her and give her confidence with it all, and I was meant to be it ☺️

UPDATE: SHE TOTALLY GOT IT :D

I guess the dreamer role comes to me very naturally? :P

But, at the same time, I can very much be a realist. And I decided to embrace my inner realist when it hit 11.30pm and my dreams of completely finishing off my assignment that night were looking bleak :P

The realist in me made myself go to bed by 1am and get a solid amount of sleep, to stop me from crashing the next morning.

The dreamer in me had ensured that I had started and got so much of my assignment done that day - I only had an hour of work left to go the next day! :)

Which brings me to the...

THE END. LA FIN. COMPLETED.

Most of the mantras I experienced really taught me to focus on myself, my life and what I want - and it is SO LIBERATING. Liberating and quite motivating to do what you want, take care of yourself, have fun, treat yourself AND also recognise when you need to push yourself.

I can't help but be curious how much this challenge would change if I was doing it during a normal week at uni when I would constantly be surrounded by people (Day 2's "Why walk when you can dance?" jumps to mind, for sure :P).

If you guys enjoyed seeing this challenge, let me know!
Maybe I can do another round later :)

Anyways! Thank you so much for following my adventures, I quite liked doing a challenge so maybe there are more to come... :)

New blog post will be up next Tuesday!!!

Until then, you can Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Or follow me below at -

They're all linked so you should just be able to click on them! :)

Have a great rest of the week!

❤️, Raashi

Living by Mantras Challenge I Part 1 I

Hi everyone! ☺️

I mentioned in last week's blogpost that I was undertaking a challenge and was pretty excited to see how it would turn out - well, here is Part 1 of the Results!!!

But firstly, if you haven't read about it before, what's the challenge?

Each day for seven days, one of my besties (thanks Ace! ❤️) will be sending me a motivational life mantra/life inspiration/quote photo - whatever you wanna call it - that I haven't seen before.

Each day, I will have to incorporate it into my life (to the best extent I can!) after figuring out what the mantra means to me.

So, here goes! :)

DAY 1: "I DO ENOUGH. I HAVE ENOUGH. I AM ENOUGH."

Ace - her name is Anna-Christina, we all call her A-C, but she's my Ace!☺️ - sent me my first mantra in the morning, and it wasn't too bad! I felt like I knew exactly what this one meant straight away, but I did want other people's opinions just because it's interesting!

One of my best friends, Fiona, thought it meant "I do enough to be happy/satisfied/content etc…it's like enough with trying to meet all your expectations, try to just get the basic fundamentals you need to be content, like just be present".

Ace felt like "it means you don't need to do more or change yourself or do anything, you are enough as a person."

And me? I think it means being ok if you're not getting everything you think you need to get done, done. You're enough just the way you are. Essentially, I thought it meant taking a step back and not being so hard on yourself - and appreciating what there is in your life! I started loving this mantra already - we all need a whole lot more of this in our lives!

How on earth am I going to incorporate this into my day though? This week I was on my mid-semester break from uni and the only thing on my agenda for today was cleaning my room (long overdue…sorry mum! :P). Throughout the day I was SO hyper aware of if I was giving myself any negative self-talk and immediately squashed it with 'I am enough', it's crazy how helpful a simple sentence like that actually is!

The cleaning day went on, I had cleared out my entire wardrobe and started sorting everything - but it became late night and I was tired. Had I accomplished my goal of cleaning my entire room? No. But, you know what? I did enough for today :)

I decided sorting out all the clothes to be hung was enough ^, dumped the rest of my clothes in two drawers to sort tomorrow (reference far right photo) and called it a night!

I definitely have enough clothes ;)

Usually I'm pretty hard on myself if I don't get things done, it was refreshing to ease up and say you know what? It's ok. It's enough!

DAY 2: "Why walk when you can dance?"

Oh Ace, you know me so well. I LOVED THIS ONE.

How was I going to take on this one? LITERALLY - for sure! :P

Figuratively though, I thought it meant find fun in everything, why do something a more plain way when you can do something in a more exciting way? I was discussing it with Ace and she added on another cool point: "Enjoying every moment and living life to the full for sure, and like work to our maximum not minimum, in a strange way. Like if walking is the minimum, then dancing is giving your full potential, giving everything you have." I love all these points so much.

I definitely apply this mantra a whole lot already when I'm around the house :P I don't know about you guys, but sometimes when I can take my time and cook some dinner I put on music and dance around the kitchen cooking :) Don't judge, join me! Hehe. But that day I took it to the next level - it was 8.45 am and I was jamming to Beyoncé - not mad about it. ;)

Besides the day being a constant work out, it was definitely a whole lot of fun!

DAY 3: "Listen, smile, agree, and then do whatever the **** you were gonna do anyway."

Ahhh, this will be interesting. I immediately sent Ace a message saying:

But also - this was so against what I'm usually like haha.

A while back I had mentioned to mum I was really wanting to buy some charms for my Pandora bracelet, but she suggested just waiting for a bit which normally I agree with, especially when it comes to shopping and the potential of sales.

Thing is, Pandora stores don't really tend to have sales… :)

If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen...I decided I was just going to buy some charms anyway *insert covering eyes monkey emoji*. It definitely made me happy haha.

I did struggle with this mantra a little bit just because it's not quite like me. But, after getting each mantra in the morning I would make a conscious effort to keep them on my mind all day: One thing I did notice about this day was JUST. HOW. LIBERATING. it was to put your feelings, thoughts, needs and wants as the first priority (even if in reality it can't and shouldn't always be the case).

It was a bit insane to see how focusing on one phrase a day could have such a big impact on your mindset and feelings!

The rest of the week?

Days 4-7 coming your way next week!

See whether following all these mantras took me down the path of enlightenment! :P

New blog post will be up next Tuesday!!!

Until then, you can Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Or follow me below at -

(R ead about it towards the end of this blogpost from last week)

They're all linked so you should just be able to click on them! :)

Have a great rest of the week!

❤️, Raashi

One Lovely Blog Award!

Hi guys!

A bit of random, unscheduled pop up from me! :)

I'm going to be honest and say this weekend has been crazy busy for me and today I have been slaving away at my computer working on two assignments I have due soon...I needed a break.

So, I decided there was no better time to do some quick, lighthearted writing, get refreshed and get straight back into the studyflow of things! :P

Last week, I was nominated by Aeriko for two awards, so I thought I would get around to doing one today! :)

Firstly - thank you so much to Aeriko at The Reading Armchair for the nomination :)

The rules for this award are:

Say Thank you to the person that nominated you
Explain the rules of the award
Say seven random facts about yourself
Nominate 15 other bloggers
Display the badge/logo of the award in your blog

Seven Random Facts About Myself

1. I lived in Holland for 3 years.

2. I have played the violin, piano and alto saxophone before when I was younger, I want to get back into piano soon!

3. If you think you've met the biggest sweet tooth, think again - I'm a next level sweet tooth. :P

4. I love proper breakfasts. Breakfast (and brunch for that matter) is one of the best meal times, in my opinion! Smashed avocado, omelettes, mushrooms, waffles, french toast, you name it! :P When I was little I used to get bored of cereal very easily and started really disliking it, I don't mind it now though.

5. I love, love, love reading quotes and motivational words all.the.time.

6. I love playgrounds a whole lot! I could chill on a swing all day long.

7. It is my dream to go to Paris one day - I have been there once before when I was little, but all I cared about was Disneyland Paris. :P I studied French all throughout high school and if you ask my friends, they know I adore anything and everything Parisian. Can't wait to go back and truly appreciate and soak up the culture!

Hope you enjoyed finding out seven really random facts about me!

Now, not often am I a rulebreaker but I'm totally going to do it now...

(P.S. I can probably add another fact - amongst my friends I am known as the Emoji Queen - and I'm very proud of it. Hahahaha, I love emojis! I wish I could insert them everywhere in my blogposts, ~~it actually pains me that I can't~~, because I'm not going to lie - I'm somewhat of a professional emoji storyteller when I send messages to people... :P)

Anyways, totally diverted from the original train of thought there...whoops. :P

So, I was saying I'm going to break a rule today and not nominate any specific bloggers - instead whoever is reading this post and would like to put up a quick, random, fun Lovely Blog Award/Seven Facts About Myself post, please do! Be sure to leave a comment below so I can check yours out! :)

See you back here soon for my Living on Mantras Challenge!!!

So, so excited to share the results with you guys! :)

New blog post will be up this Tuesday!!!

Until then, you can Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Or follow me below at -

They're all linked so you should just be able to click on them! :)

Hope you've had a great weekend!

❤️, Raashi

Best Friend Breakups

Hi guys!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

This is a bit of a personal post and something I have wanted to write about for a while now.
Disclaimer: It turned into a MASSIVE essay, so if you're not really in the mood for a personal story/rant session (who can blame you!) - scroll down to the red text! :)

So, there was a group of us 4 girls who were really, really close throughout high school. Somewhere between end of Year 11 and start of year 12, something changed. Two of the girls kinda just stopped interacting with the other two of us.

Why? I still have no idea.

We all tried having an open, honest conversation about what had changed and it was apparently solved - but the awkwardness continued on. It was a VERY weird period and it affected me a lot because I'm a very loyal person.

One of the girls literally wouldn't acknowledge me, wouldn't even say hi back to me when I waved and smiled at her - how did it go from us having hour long conversations after school to being strangers?

Via

One lunchtime I flat out asked her if there was anything I did wrong or something that offended her (basically what caused her to hate and ignore me :P) - nothing really came out of it. At some point in that year, I realised I couldn't really do more (I had tried everything from my part) and I couldn't force anyone to like me - so I just left it.

Via

The other thing that was hard to deal with was that I knew exactly what those two girls would have been saying about me and my other friend behind our backs - because I knew how they dealt with other people they disliked, which is fine, that's their prerogative. But - to go from being such close, close friends who legitimately cared for each other, to the exact opposite - I just hated it.

I mentioned in last week's blogpost, if you're my friend I care for you beyond and I really stick by you. When people have no regard and respect for loyalty, it really gets to me.

Via

I had done so much for both of those girls - and they had done the same back for me, and it pained me that all of that was just love lost.

So much animosity, all so dramatic, huh? :P Hahaha.

Via

ANYWAY, this year I found out one of those friends was going through a bit of a hard time and instantly, I felt for her. I wanted to talk to her like I used to, I wanted to check on her and be there for her - but I couldn't, because she had cut me out.

The other friend, I feel so bad about my friendship lost with her. We were each other's support system for so long, we got each other on some deeper levels - this year, something awesome happened in her life. When I saw it, my first instinct was genuine happiness for her - and then the "ugh" factor of it all set in second :P.

Via

I could remember talking to her about stuff relating to the great thing that happened for her, her opening up to me about all her thoughts on it - all I wanted to do was message her being like, "I am SO glad things worked out for you, I am SO happy you're happy", but I couldn't, she would just think it was weird. It would just hurt me more, the way everyone ended up getting treated in this whole situation was unfair.

I ran into her one time on the bus, when we were talking it felt so strange pretending we were still friends - cause so much of it felt so normal and similar to how we were, it reminded me of her and our good side - but it was so weird.

Via

It's this strange situation that all four of us still stay updated on each others' lives, we're facebook friends, follow each other on instagram, but can I like their photos? So many times I want to, but I don't. Other times I look at their photos and am like "Ugh...". Same from their end, I presume.

Those two are best friends now, and me and my other friend are best friends - which I'm so grateful for, one good thing that came out of all this ❤️

Via

If things were how it was between us all earlier, everything would be so completely different. I hate conflict like this. So now we all avoid each other - it's awkward. I don't like it.

I am ALL FOR girl power and supporting and encouraging other girls, and I hate that we don't do that for each other now. It makes me quite sad to think about it, but we all brought it upon ourselves I guess?

Us girls can be such a powerful force when we support each other :)

A little part of me would love for them to stumble across this post one day, I wonder if it would change how they felt about things? Sometimes I think about if for some reason things were to change on their end, would I want to be friends with them again?

Which leads me to the kinda funny part of this post - how much does all this sound like I'm talking about a relationship breakup? Hahaha.

ANYWAY - if you read through that whole vent/rant, wow! I'm impressed! Haha. Thank you for listening to my ramblings. Have you guys ever been in a similar situation?

If you ever find yourself in a toxic situation, there is only so much you can do/try/fight for that relationship - at some point you have to accept it, distance yourself and just let it be.

Via

If you've skipped down to here, below is something I'm so excited about!!

On a more lighthearted note,

I had mentioned last week that I was going to be announcing a cool blogpost idea...

It's time!

Now, I'm giving credit where credit is due, I totally stole this idea off of one of my favourite magazines - Style Magazine.

One of their journalists did a challenge on living living by "mantra memes", as she called it.

Essentially, my version will look a little like this:

Each day for these next 7 days, one of my besties (thanks Ace! ❤️), will be sending me a motivational life mantra/life inspiration/quote photo - whatever you wanna call it!

Each day I will have to incorporate it into my life (to the best extent I can!) after figuring out what each mantra means to me.

So, for example, the journalist got this on Day 1 of her challenge:

And you can see, she decoded the mantra to mean doing something she had never done before, something that pushed her out of her comfort zone - she chose to run every morning.

I'm really excited for my 'Living on Mantras' Challenge! I think it'll be super interesting - and can't wait to share the experience with you guys next week!

So, as always...

New blog post will be up next Tuesday!!!

Until then, you can Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Or follow me below at -

They're all linked so you should just be able to click on them! :)

Have a great rest of the week!

❤️, Raashi

5 Years Time

Hi guys!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Can I start out by saying how much I love the blogging community? Haha, I adore the fact that I have gotten the opportunity to connect with some talented, intelligent, supportive and lovely individuals!

And on that note, I was tagged by my friend Emma Parsons at My Slice to do the 5 Years Time post - her version is here and I just love it!

The idea behind this tag is to look forward to what you hope to have accomplished and be doing in 5 years time!

But to start off, we look at 5 years ago...this should be interesting haha.

Braces and a massive side fringe - 13 year old me.

Is it weird/bad that I don't look TOO different in this photo?

(That being said, I know there are HIDEOUS side fringe photos that exist...so maybe it's a good thing that this was the easiest for me to find haha.)

Five years from now though?

I will be 23 years old (which is crazy enough to think about!) and hopefully I would have achieved these five things!

NUMBER #1

I would have finished my technical degree by 21, so by 23 I would have either finished honours in Psychology, be gaining journalism experience, trying something out in the business world - or who even knows! Haha, I love all the fields I'm studying at the moment; all different, but all interesting to me. As to which one I'll end up in? I have no idea, and although that can be scary at times - it really excites me!

ALL THE CAREERS hahaha.

NUMBER #2

I really hope to have spent some time abroad by myself (on exchange or travelling). I adore my family and friends beyond and the thought of leaving them and going some place faraway is scary;

but, it's also something I SO want to do! I want to push my comfort zone, experience new things and see what I'm capable of.

Be my own person.

Via/Via

NUMBER #3

I so sincerely hope that the people in my life who are my closest and best friends right now, are still in my life in that same way. If I love you, I love you long time and you mean so much to me. That being said, I obviously hope I am blessed enough to meet new people who become just as important in my life over the next five years.

Loyalty to Love.

NUMBER #4

I hope I'm healthy, intelligent, passionate, caring, witty, ambitious and goal-driven. I hope I have a bunch of successes under my belt (and that I still have the mindset of embracing and learning from my failures), and that I'm a well put together person. I hope I'm incredibly inspired by something and am making a positive difference in whatever way I want to and can.

I hope I'm someone my mother is proud of.

One of my favourite quotes ever is - "My mother worked too hard for me not to be great.")