Love yourself. Be yourself.
Self-care above all else. Inspiration and stories in a quest to improve and maintain our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness.
Episode 3 of Soulful Branding Live with Lulu is all about life lessons. It’s my birthday today and, increasingly, the wiser I get, this time of the year calls for pause and reflection.
8 years ago, I created a 29 lessons from 29 years list. Now, I’m carrying on from there and adding the profound life lessons I’ve learned since – AND how they each apply to soulful branding.
9 years ago tomorrow, I published my first post on a new blog I named Afri-love. I had thoughts and theories I wanted to explore; discoveries I wanted to share; inspiration I wanted to pass on; and community I wanted to find.
I didn’t know it at the time but, my humble blog was about to be the most powerful vehicle for me to find my voice, to realise my purpose and to build some incredible relationships along the way.
If you’ve been reading for a while, you know I love creating lists of 9. Therefore, it’s thus fitting to share one with you, celebrating this 9th anniversary of what has become so much more than just a blog! Continue reading “9 years of Afri-love + so much more than a blog”
In August 2017, 7 weeks after my son was born, time for self-care – actually, time for anything, other than looking after Leko – seemed like the biggest luxury in the world.
So I gave myself a challenge: commit to doing something for myself, every day of the coming month.
Doing things with a community of like-minded people is always amazing and so I roped in Afri-love Women and others to join in. Sharing helped with accountability, motivation and inspiration.
After the success of that challenge, I’ve decided to run another, this February.
I’ve tweaked a few things, this time around. For those who like a bit of structure, the following are some specific prompts. There are 28 so you could very well choose one for each day of the month: Continue reading “#justformechallenge: how to enjoy 28 days of me-time this February”
We are often last on our own lists but, this is the year it’s going to change, right?
I’m writing this after the third Afri-love Connection Club vision-boarding and goal-setting workshop I’ve run this year. Pretty much every single one of the 32 women who participated had space dedicated to how they were going to take better care of themselves and make more me-time this year. And I believed them!
But we know how it goes…
Continue reading “Me-time: 9 tips to enjoy more of it this year”
I am always awed by how things come together and at the appropriate time.
My decision to talk about the road less travelled in August was rather arbitrary. It’s my birthday month and choosing the more uncharted and less understood path, is something that has coloured many of my years thus far. So I thought I’d celebrate that somehow.
Thursday marked the end of the #justformechallenge: a month of consciously creating me-time, every single day.
I succeeded in doing something, just for myself, for 30 out of the 31 days. On many occasions I felt like giving up – wanting to just skip the day. Often this happened when it got late, I was tired and doing something felt like a big effort. However, I was always glad to have insisted on getting off my behind (or staying on it, if the activity required it 🙂 and giving myself that time, if even for just 10 minutes. Continue reading “#justformechallenge: how a month of daily self-care went down”
A few months ago, I asked a question about me-time in the Afri-love Women group: “what do you do just for fun?” It seemed like it should be such an easy question but, I myself struggled to answer it.
See, there are things I love to do that I do out of necessity, such as yoga and cooking. Then there are things that I love but, don’t actively do. For various reasons (aka excuses!). For example, I love being by the ocean and swimming in it but, that’s not something I can currently incorporate into my weekly or even monthly schedule (or can I? …). I love to dance but… ok, I don’t really have a good excuse for this one. After all, as a teenager I would do this in my room all the time, with special coloured lightbulbs to set the scene and everything!
I appreciate that there are some mental blocks at play. Continue reading “#justformechallenge: let’s make August all about me-time”
Continue reading “My natural pregnancy journey + birth affirmation cards”
Last week I launched the Afri-love Women Facebook group, for creative African women balancing self-care and professional excellence.
When I started this blog, almost 7 years ago, I always had a vision that it would be more than just a one-way conversation. That it would lead to activities and initiatives in the real world. In late 2015, I held the Afri-love Sundown Sessions – 3 intimate evenings of live music, co-hosted with musician Sirena Riley. Late last year, I co-hosted a Nairobi brunch for women creatives, together with the Nzinga Effect. Both events were successful in many ways and, I received such great feedback from attendees. I knew that I wanted to create more opportunities for interaction with like-minded people – in real life and virtually as well – and the Afri-love Women Facebook group is step one.
Continue reading “Real talk for creative African women – join in!”
So far, this year has found me either: on the road; preparing for being on the road; educating myself about and getting to grips with pregnancy; and preparing for the arrival of my baby. Needless to say, “routine” is a word whose meaning I’d totally forgotten. I have a feeling that, once baby comes, I won’t even know how to spell the word!
I’m a person who both hates routine and thrives on it. Or rather, I hate the idea of monotony – of doing the exact same thing, over and over again. Yet, I crave some sort of structure. I’m almost OCD about it: creating lists is one of my favourite pastimes!
Not too long ago, I discovered a way that has been working for me; a balance between having order but still retaining some dynamism in my days. Continue reading “My daily routine – pregnancy edition”
