Concepts We Build On - J.I.V.E (Joy, Integrity, Vibrancy, Encouragement)

Hey awesome reader, thanks for coming back.

Today we would like to introduce the pillars we built our foundations on. If you have read are introductions post then you will know we love acronyms around here, and our blogs' pillars are based on this.

So to do this, we are now going to look at each word and what it means in the context we use it. Then we will look at a few other little things that tie up what we build our blog on.

The Pillar of Joy

Our first word is Joy, we did say that this could be an acronym of its own we will get to that in a moment.

Joy to us is about chasing fulfillment not happiness. We need it to be our strength when things are not going so well, it is not just a feeling it is a lifestyle.

We haven't made it a secret that Christian faith-based elements will be incorporated into this blog from time to time and the concept of joy for us is the faith-based pillar we build on. 

Building on the concept of simple temple living we talked about the last post, joy represents the spiritual element of our pillars. We put Jesus first, then the fun stuff can follow.

Joy as an acronym stands for

 Jesus

  Others

You

We put Jesus first, and so we take care of others, but in order to do this we need to take care of ourselves so we are able to handle taking care of others.

You have to take care of yourself or else you won't be effective at caring for others or building a relationship with/serving Jesus. 

Rest is super important and this element allows us to build our little blogger house in a state of calm.

The Piller of Integrity.

In an age when super polished youtube videos and crazy- profitable blogging is a thing, it can be easy for people to lie about pretty much anything for money.

That will never be us.

If you sell your integrity, how exactly are people suppose to trust you?

Even when we do bring out products, do collaborations or encourage you to follow an affiliate link, we will do our best to get you a super sweet deal from an individual or business we actually trust ourselves.

If they do something to lose our trust more than once, we will no longer support them because we want to take extra special care of our awesome readers and to be honest, anything less wouldn't feel right to us.

We believe in transparency and authenticity is a dying art, we don't want to contribute to making it extinct online.

This is the soul element and pillar of our little blogger house.

The Piller of Vibrancy

So as is probably obvious, this is the body element of our little blogger house.

If you think about it though, this doesn't just cover our physical body, but the environment we live in also.

Everything we do on this site is going to have a fun, vibrant vibe to it.

Why?

Well, we happen to think that fun can be injected into just about anything, and life throws us enough hardships without us adding to our own sorrows by not choosing to see the glass half full.

Going back again to simple temple living, this does also mean that we will be recommending fun self-care, products, and quirky fun items for your home and wardrobe. 

Expect to see cosplay, blind bags and lots of other happy vibe items recommended here for the young and young at heart. ( age is just a number to us remember)

Also on this note, this would be a really great place to let you know that Lambi-Lambs is our blog mascot. She and her friends will be hanging out here to help us explain our points in various posts and to be your personal cheerleader as you learn to dance with life, but more on this later.

Right now we need to move onto the 4th pillar. of little blog house.

The Pillar of Encouragement

So we have already covered body, soul and spirit in our simple temple living pillars, so what could possibly be left?

Tone.

As we hinted at just a moment ago, our goal is to be your personal cheers leaders as you learn to dance with life. I, (Hayls) am a born encourager.

Nothing comes more naturally to be then complimenting others and helping them to see how awesome they are.

 In the name of authenticity and because being kind can go along way in this world, everything we share with you will be done with a tone of encouragement because we believe that you are worth it.

We don't take for granted the fact that you are choosing to spend some time with us, so we make it our mission to make you feel really special for as long as you choose to follow our work. 

Encouragement is the pillar that holds the other 3 in place and together these 4 pillars lead to the final concept we need to talk about.

It's time to put it all together, it's time to J.I.V.E....next post. 

See you then guys! 

Read More →

How To Handle Hard Times ( In A City Like London)

Disclaimer :The following post is written purely from experience, if you are going through a hard time and feel the need to do so, you should seek professional assistance from the reverent sources. I am not a doctor, counselor or therapist, if you choose to take my advise you do so at your own risk. 

Before I get into this, I need to say that although I have acknowledged the king of this blog, in so much as I have asked permission to do this, I act alone in the following...

The nature of what I am about to share with you, is not something that anyone else should bare the weight of, since this is my decision, based on my own convictions.

I am sorry this sounds so dramatic, but anyone who knew the old me in person will know, drama and Hayley Esther kind of go hand in hand. I admit to this fully, and it is for the purpose of leaning into a language I have taught those that love and support me, to expect from me, that I now choose to make my exist in a dramatic fashion as the writing of this post.

I have never been more sure of anything in my entire life.

You see the happiest day of my life was and is the day that I died.

For those of you in the UK you may have noticed that the closer we get to Brexit, the more uncertain things seem to be becoming, however even in these uncertain times, let me assure there is still hope.

All you have to do is learn to die.

Let me explain,

Often times, something has to die in order for something else to live. There are births and deaths everyday, these two things are the only certainties in our physical world. We humans like seasons, just think back a few weeks ago, the end of 2018 brought on the beginning of 2019. I'm not going to labor on this point anymore, but I think you get the idea.

The fact is in life, seasons change and so things have to come to an end in order for something to new to begin.

Bottom line is in order for you lead an amazing, abundant, joy filled life, you first have to die to some things that are no good to you.

Now I know this would be the perfect place to share my faith in Jesus Christ, but that's it. This short two sentences, does just that, if you die to the world and come alive to Christ, you will experience joy on a whole other level, message me if you want details, but this post is not about that. ( This is a note for our seasoned followers)

The gospel of Jesus Christ should never be for sale, therefore there are no affiliate links in this post, but if you do want to support us, so we can focus on creating great content for you, please consider either donating or checking out my store. Thank you. Now then let's get on with it.

Before we get into it, I need to first outline 5 things you should die to in order to lead a more joy-filled life. These are general tips, my London specific tips will be up later this week.

1. You Should Die To Perfectionism

This may seem like a obvious one, but honey you are not perfect, and trying to be is only going to frustrate you and deplete your energy. That energy can be spent better else where, and the fact is that irregardless of how close you get to the mark, you will never, ever be 100% pure in every sense of the word. For starters, you can't control the fact you have breathed air that is polluted at some point in your life, not to mention all of the icky feelings you have experienced over time. Emotion is a good thing, and keeping it disciplined is important, this is true, but the fact is you won't succeed with this 100% of the time. For your own sake, let your hair down and just be who you are, not who you are trying to be.

2. You Should Die To People Pleasing

This follows on from the last point and I know it's a hard reality to accept but we can't please 100% of the people 100% of the time. Diversity means compromise, and part of that comprise means you have a right to your own mind and voice irregardless of what you are about. You absolutely should be respectful, but if you feel strongly about something you have the right to back up your beliefs with words, and actions...and what's more, most of the time you should because evil only increases when good people do nothing.

3. You Should Die To Happiness

Happiness is fleeting, it is a feeling,but fulfillment goes deeper than that. You won't be happy every second of the day even if you are fulfilled, but you will be happier a lot more of the time, just by consequence of being true to you who you are, and building towards a life build on firm foundations. Building life on any feeling is not stable, but let me remind you at this point, joy is not a feeling.

4. Die To Legalism & Come Alive To Peace

My definition of legalism is anything that seeks to create unrealistic standards with rules and regulations that go beyond the basics of what is needed to maintain the illusion of fairness. This can be in organised religion, but sometimes its not. 

Apply this to your belief structure.

Results may be varied.

Point still stands for those of you I have aimed to communicate this point with. I know my niche on this point, but forget the points and geometric shapes, they are just as restrictive, I'm sticking to flowers!

Life is far more peaceful that way!

5. Die To Grace & Wake Up To Mercy

On the flip side, where are my white nights at?

Let me just make this crystal clear for you, even if your intentions  are the best in the world, in the end, grace won't save you, mercy will. Seek the one who offers mercy and you will find the abundance of security and life they promised you. Those who trade freedom for security wind up with neither, this is a fact, but it is also true those that rely on hyper gracious freedoms will one day wake up to find they were just as trapped as those they mocked for being trapped in legalism.

For us humans, extremes are rarely good. Mercy is for sure the way to go.

I feel like I have pushed about as far as is reasonable in this post and so I am gonna leave it there for now. Expect part two later this week.

Until then,  catch us over on social media.

At the moment, Pintrest is a massive part of our every day life, but we are also on Instagram, Facebook. DevientArt  and Twitter. 

Hopefully we will see you over on one of those.

Read More →