achieve
One Month Of Love
Wanderlusters it’s been a while. Sorry I’ve been away from you all so long. It has been a bit tough adjusting to being back in Australia again. I’m still going through the process of finding my place in the place I called home for oh so long. But I’m back – with a mission.
February – the month of love.
Like I said – I’m finding it tough to see where I fit in all the madness. I’m starting all over again. I feel like I’m stagnant – inspired yet unmoving. I don’t like feeling this way so I’m taking action. This month I’m going to make myself my absolute number one priority. I’m going to love myself first every day this month. It’s not a big task to be honest. I’m just going to take time every day to mindfully do something nice for me and periodically fill you all in.
Wish me luck – send me love.
JW x
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DAY ONE : Febfast! After killing my liver in London for two years and then arriving in Melbourne during the silly season I recognise that I need to give my body a break from drinking and raise some money along the way (DONATE HERE). I’m hoping that it’ll also motivate me to generally be more active and healthier in my everyday life and kickstart me in to creating more positive and healthy routines for everyday life. Today I also decided to document my month of self love here – something I absolutely love doing but haven’t been giving time to since I’ve moved home.
I look forward to seeing where this little self love-fest takes me. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I’d love to see more people get involved in this little journey. So please get in contact with me. You can tweet me @jessicaswander or find me on instagram @jessicaswanderlust
Winter in London – Shooting with Swedish Photographer Maja Johansson
Photographer: Maja Johansson
Makeup: Zaida
Model: Jessica Nicole Griffiths
It was a cold and dreary London winter day… everyone got rained on… But we still managed to create something beautiful.
tweet me @jessicaswander or find me on instagram @jessicaswanderlust
Dreaming my life away
About six months ago I woke up in the middle of the night knowing exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I ripped off my covers and walked naked over to the window of the loft bedroom. I opened the window and sat cross legged staring up at the unusually starry London sky with infinite gratitude – I could feel the cold seeping in to my bones and I’d never felt so happy and so alive. It felt so surreal and like everything had just shifted in to place. Now I have something amazing to work towards – something that drives me and inspires me to do better – to be better. I am ready for the challenge.
Wish me luck wanderlusters x
Embrace The Weird – Love The Strange
Crazy times. I feel like a crazy person (not actually crazy). My mind and my body are going at 100 miles ( or 160.9344 kilometres in case you’re interested) an hour – I feel inspired and mental all at the same time. Loosing my marbles and then finding them again (and more) – I don’t know where to start and I love it!
Embracing the weird – loving the strange.
Enjoy the craziness in your lives lovelies
x
Change is as Good as a Holiday
Recently my whole world has been turned upside down. Everything I knew is suddenly gone. it’s been tough – very tough. But through this I’ve learnt that I am stronger than I thought – more resilient – and I deserve happiness.
Some of it shocked me – I had no idea it was coming. Some of it I instigated myself – and it was long overdue. But knowing that something is ending doesn’t ever make it easier to deal with. We have these ideas about who we are and what we are – and those are challenged and criticised not only by the people around us but by ourselves. We can be our own harshest critics – I know I certainly am.
Change can be painful and uncomfortable – the fear of the unknown can be paralysing – what to do next? Where do I go from here? With change – comes opportunity. You can reinvent yourself – find new meaning in the chaos of it all – dream new dreams – chase those dreams – become inspired and motivated all over again.
This has been one of the hardest and most daunting times of my life – but I am grateful. I am grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow – to move forward and to take charge of what I lost control of. I have learnt to put myself first – that fear is normal – that people are not always as good as you hope they are – that I trust myself – and above all else I deserve to be happy.
This period of change certainly isn’t comparable to a holiday at the moment – but I’m sure i’ll look back on this time in my life and see all that has come from it.
Sending love wanderlusters – you’ll be hearing from me again soon. Until then you can tweet me @JessicasWander.
100 Days of Living Out of a Bag
Oh dear wanderlusters, it has been a while… I’ve missed you dearly I promise.
I’ve been mega crazy busy – I finally found an incredible job! I’m working in digital marketing and events management for a company called Gertrude & Ivy in Battersea. It’s a big career change for me but a very welcome one. If someone wanted to pay me to be a full time wanderlusting gypsy princess/blogger then that would be fantabulous – but until that day comes I’ll content myself by organizing super fun events and creating engaging content for our clients.
Settling in to London is taking a lot longer than I thought it would. I’ve been looking for a flat and viewing lots of places that seem promising – which means I’m still living out of a bag and staying at friends places. I’ve learnt to accept peoples kindness – which was a surprisingly hard lesson to learn. I wasn’t really accustomed to people giving so much and I’m eternally grateful for the lesson and to them of course.
Another surprising discovery is my desire to have a place to call my own. I have always been a little bit nomadic with my sleeping arrangements even when I was settled in Melbourne and working full time – I’d sleep over at friends houses or go visit family for the night and then commute back in to the city the following day to work but I always had a space that was entirely mine to call home. It was a tiny space in a tiny room… but it was my space. It’s where I kept my treasures – my photo albums, my journals, my sentimental belongings. It’s a comfort that I didn’t realise I so desperately needed.
As always I do love to hear from you, so please leave a comment or tweet me @jessicaswander
One more reason why travelling changes your life.
I had an “ah-ha moment” a few years back when I was in Bali for one of Eoin Finn’s YES (Yoga Ecology Surf) retreats.
It was the final day of the retreat and I was getting dressed for our last dinner together in one of the bigger houses. I’d already packed up my backpack in preparation to move on to beautiful inland Ubud for the next week or so and I realised just how little I had with me and just how little I actually needed.
Fast forward to November 2013 when I was packing up my bags and getting rid of all my possessions. It was absolutely liberating. I don’t want to waste money on trivial things like more handbags, ornaments, clothes, shoes, jewellery, cosmetics or perfumes. When you really think about it how much do those things actually add to your life? How many hours working did you spend to be able to afford that watch your wearing to make sure you catch your train on time? Now I’m not saying I’ve gone all minimalist and have gotten rid of all my material possessions because I haven’t. I just realised that some of the best things in life are not all that expensive and I’d rather spend my money on a grand adventure than a grand gown that will sit in my closet until I find somewhere to wear it. I’d rather work hard at what I love doing then spend each day commuting in to a job that I don’t enjoy just so I can afford the Claude Maus jacket I’ve been lusting after.
Less is almost always more,
Jessica xx
p.s. I always love to hear from you guys, so please leave a comment below, or tweet with me @jessicaswander
Happy New Years from Jessica’s Wanderlust
Happy New Years. I’m wishing you all a wonderful year full of love, adventure and happiness.
It’s been a crazy month and I can’t wait to share with you what I’ve been up to and what I’ve got inshore for 2014.
It’s going to be a magical year.
Big Love,
Jessica
I Don’t want to Party Party
Ugh, I’ve been partying way too hard recently. I’m absolutely exhausted! My rubber arm has gotten the better of me and I’ve been a super busy bumble bee buzzing about and getting stuff done.
Not that it’s a bad thing at all. I just have so much going on at the moment. Mostly for super sneaky exciting reasons that I’m unable to share at the moment but thats a story for another time.
All the drinking, dancing, dinners, photo-shoots, business meetings along with my full time job have just taken their toll. I’ve not had time to do all the things that I want to do and I’ve not been my usual bubbly self for the past two weeks and I don’t like it. But i’ve learnt a valuable lesson and that lesson is BALANCE.
Take last week for example. I had something on every single day after work. I averaged 5 hours sleep a night and was up and ready to go at 6am the next morning. By the time it got to Friday night when I was celebrating the departure of one of my lovely friends from work with a few drinks… two champagnes down i was wasted! This threw me a little bit but then later I realised that I had been so busy that day and durning lunch trying to work on everything else that I had actually forgotten to eat. This inevitably resolved in me being way too sauced to function, some reasonably serious phone conversations that shouldn’t have been had in the state that I was in, and feeling like a space cadet in the morning followed by a slightly awkward breakfast with a lovely human I’ve been spending some time with and his friends who also seem equally lovely….
**face-palm**
I’m still working out the finer details of the balance thing but I know I need to organise myself better and give myself an afternoon off from time to time. Being ‘on’ all the time is really exhausting. Starting today I’m writing myself an action list for the week and I’m sticking to it. I’m not going to try to do everything all at once like I have been doing because to be honest thats just silly and I will probably pass out if I do another week of this. I will also allow myself time to actually do the things that I want to do too.
Today I’ve taken a day off work to rest up, so if you need me I’ll be having a little lie in,
Jess. x
One Night Stand – Keeping Sleep off the streets
Link Posted on Updated on
One Night stand is a profit for purpose sleepwear company. Every time you purchase some super rad sleepwear the profits go straight into projects to help out those who are sleeping rough.
Oh how I wish there were more people in the world like founder of One Night Stand Jamie Green.
I was lucky enough to sit down with him recently for a coffee and a chat about business, life and everything else. What stood out for me was his genuine caring nature and his dedication to making a change in the world.
Everything about One Night Stand is just wonderful. With a huge focus on sustainability and social consciousness every detail seems to be thought of. Everything is made in Australia, they use organic fabrics and even bank with community banks.
Please help support the incredible things they are doing by clicking the link below and voting for One Night Stand in the Bank of Melbourne “the Local project” it only takes a few seconds and you’ll be doing your little bit to help change the world.
Dream sweet,
Jess.
VOTE FOR ONE NIGHT STAND HERE
https://www.facebook.com/BankofMelbourne?sk=app_569581529775133&app_data
VISIT THEIR WEBSITE
http://www.onenightstandsleepwear.com/
Jessica's Wanderlust 