5 Simple Steps To Live A Happier Life

Hello everyone!

Today I am going to share with you some things that I have been investing my time in recently which have really helped me become a much better version of myself and someone is much more confident and happier. Recently I have been spending a tonne of time researching self-love and self-care and finding out a few simple things I could do on a daily basis to improve my health, happiness and overall lifestyle.

1. Appreciate the little things – I feel like this is such an important part of living a happy life. I know it is so important to be thankful and grateful for everything that I have, for all the memories and experiences that I hold and for the life I have been given – That is so special itself.  I know it is easy to get caught up with wanting all the fancy and bigger things in life but as you grow up, you will learn it’s the simple and little things that make you the happiest and that you are the most appreciative of. It’s those little moments which will make the darker times a little brighter and make you laugh a little louder or smile a little brighter.  Sometimes I think it is easier for us all to forget how lucky we are, it’s human nature, but practising gratitude and learning to love what you have instead of what you want, really will bring happiness and a much more positive outlook to your life.

 

2. Invest in yourself – This is the most important thing you could ever do and is something I have spent the last month to six weeks doing more of. The best person you can ever invest your time and love in is yourself. If you don’t love yourself who will? Spending time everyday taking care of your body, skin and health is so essential to living a happier life. The more you look after your body, the better you feel. The more you look after your skin, the better it will look and the more confident you will feel. Again, it is just simple things which really help when it comes to loving yourself and taking care of yourself. Ensuring you get enough sleep, and that you look after your body, exercise and eat a balanced diet make the biggest difference to not only your health but your overall lifestyle. I cannot emphasise how much of a difference this makes both emotionally and physically.  Self-love costs nothing but you gain everything!

 

3. Invest in your inner circle – Again, this is so important! Investing your time and effort into those who truly love and care for you are the only people you should be spending time with and on. It is impossible to live a happy and positive life if you surround yourself around negative people with negative thoughts and feelings and people who do not support you. It is so incredibly hard to lose people out of your life when you thought they were meant to be your friends forever but someone people are just meant to come into your life for a reason and only temporarily. Not everyone in permanent. Remember, sadly not everyone has the same heart that you do and not everyone is worth your time and effort. So, invest in your family and your friends who support you and love you no matter what. Invest in those people who have seen you at your worst but love you anyway. Invest in those who encourage you and inspire you to be a better version of yourself. It’s okay to lose friends and grow apart and separate. It’s natural and although in the beginning it is hard, in the end you will be happier and be so loved and you will also know that you have the most amazing support network behind you.

 

4. Practice forgiveness – This is so essential if you want to live a happy life. If you hold grudges and keep re-reading the same chapters in your life and cannot let go of the past you will never move forward and will never move onto better things.  It is not only important to forgive other but it is so essential to forgive yourself as well. We all make mistakes, that’s human nature but you must forgive yourself and carry the lesson and life experience with you for the rest of your journey. We are growing and changing and we will all make mistakes and the best way to move forward is to accept that and accept that people will mess up and they will hurt you and they will upset you or things will go wrong. That’s a part of life. None of us are perfect. We are beautifully imperfect and we all think and feel differently to each other and it is so important to remember that and remember to forgive people for their mistakes.  That doesn’t mean you must forget or you must be friends with them or continue your life with them and give people multiple chances, no of course not. It simple means you can’t hold grudges and live in the past in you want to be happy. Learning to let go and accept what has happened or what you cannot change really will lift a weight off your shoulders and will allow you to move on and be happy.

 

5. Stop expecting the worst – Life is inevitably going to be difficult and there are going to numerous challenges thrown your way but your attitude and outlook throughout those difficult times really define you. Setbacks, failures and tragedy are all a natural part of life, but when you expect the best from people and the certain situations we are place in you start to build a much more positive outlook. You build a promising and inspiring future for yourself instead of a bleak and miserable one. You build one which will make you happy and encourage you to be the best version of yourself. You will create a far more compassionate and understanding environment for yourself and you will be able to focus and bring more to the situations than if you were pessimistic.

Thank you so much for reading and I really hope this has helped someone in some way and you found it an enjoyable and interesting read. Let me know if you would like to see a part 2 to this because I would love to make one! Much love,

Lizzie X

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The Power of Self-care

Hello everyone!

Today I really want to speak about the importance and power self-care. The past couple of months for me, have been rather difficult and stressful, which have consisted of many changes. I have found myself changing a lot in these past couple months but I will save that for a separate blog post, however, I have really realised over these past couple of months the importance of taking care of yourself and your own health and how sometimes you have to be a little selfish and do what is best for you.  For me, I found this really challenging because I am one of those people who likes to put everyone else first and I like to make everyone happy so this has been a challenge for me. At first I did feel guilty and bad but now I feel so much better within myself and happier as a person. It was hard to take the steps but now I feel like I am in control and really taking care of myself.

When I talk about self-care, I am referring to those everyday actions that we make on a daily basis to look after our bodies and minds.  I know when you are going through a challenging time and feeling like the whole world is against you that is so hard to keep going and keep doing the things which may only seem like small things so you think skipping them won’t make a difference, but in reality they do. When I was at my lowest over these past couple of months I really didn’t feel like doing a lot at all and really didn’t feel like I wanted to make an effort but I soon realised that wasn’t helping and was in fact making me feel so much worse about myself.

Even though you may not feel like it, always make an effort with yourself and what you wear etc because it actually makes a huge difference. I really noticed on the days where I didn’t do my makeup or wear the clothes I liked that I felt so less confident and motivated. It made me feel worse about myself. One important thing I have learnt is that no matter how bad you are feeling, always get up, dress up and show up. It honestly does make the world of difference. When I had done my makeup and got dresses into clothes I loved and felt comfortable in felt 10 times more confident and therefore a lot happier within myself.  How you chose to dress and present yourself really does say more about you than you realise and trust me dressing up and putting that bit of makeup on will make you feel better. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely one for lazy and chilled days and no makeup days and just relaxing in some comfy shorts and a top but for me I really want to start making an effort more often because it does help.

Over the past couple of months I have been doing a tonne of research into self-care and into simple changes which can help keep your brain and mind healthier and make you happier and so I am going to share with you a few other tips other than just making an effort everyday which I have really found have really started to change my life.

• The first thing I have started to do is writing in a journal/diary.  If you know me, you know that I find sleeping for the most part incredibly difficult and I am a very light sleeper so I do struggle with sleeping. I will quite often end up waking myself up and thus I don’t ever really get a good quality night’s sleep even if I do sleep for the correct amount of time. I have really found that writing in a journal has really helped me this. It has allowed me to write down all my worries, concerns, feelings, thoughts,memories, tasks, reminders, goals etc. I have found this so helpful and this has really helped me to destress and relax at night because I have everything in my journal I know I am not going to forget anything. Also, I just find the process of writing therapeutic anyway and so this has really helped me.
• The second thing I have been doing is reading. I am an avid reader anyway so finding time to read more was just so exciting for me. I love reading and escaping reality for a while and joining another world. It makes everything so simple and peaceful and I have really enjoyed this.  Reading has really helped to relax my mind and my body and I really have felt more at home myself with a lot more peaceful.
• The next few things I have been doing have been to look after my skin. First I have gotten into a proper skincare routine and have been properly cleaning my skin and using face masks which really helps to purify your skin and keep your pores clear etc. I have also been making an effort to moisturise. If you know me you know I am the worst at this even though I have really dry skin. I am just too lazy and hate it but I have recently been making an effort and it has made the biggest difference to my skin. My skin feels so much better and is a lot clearer and it looking a lot healthier. Similarly, I have been drinking plenty of water and have started trying to eat better. I don’t diet because I don’t believe them. I do make sure I eat a balanced diet and still enjoy to eat pizza and chocolate etc. However, limiting the fatty food really does help to clear your skin and really does help keep your skin clear and healthy.  Eating right does make a huge difference not only to your skin but how your body feels and towards your energy levels.
• The last thing I will mention post is that I have really just been trying so hard to let go and worry less and be selfish. I have recently removed so many toxic people from my life and removed so many friendships and relationships with people which has been so incredibly hard. It has however, in the end made me a much happier person and I really do feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I did feel really guilty to start off with and terrible for admitting that but I have got use to it and I have noticed a difference in my mood. I have started to worry less and care less about things. If isn’t going to matter, don’t stress over it. Worrying and stressing doesn’t help and only makes you feel worse. It is hard but as soon as you are able to let go of your problems and not carry them around with you every second of the day you can go out, live in the moment and enjoy yourself.

I hope this has started to help some of you who are perhaps feeling like I am at the moment. It does get better and time does help whether you believe it or not eventually everything will work out the way it is meant to. Everything happens for a reason so don’t stress it too much. Believe in yourself and have faith in your ability and your love and that will be enough, I promise you that. These difficult times are made to build us up and strengthen us and your attitude throughout the worst times in your life says more about you than you will ever realise. People do love you and do care for you and it is okay to struggle and having a difficult time. It is okay to be sad and angry or frustrated. It is okay to have a bad day and feel low. It is okay to be worried about your insecurities. It is OKAY!! You have a choice. You can live trying to met everyone else’s expectation and therefore failing or you can choose to ignore everyone and love yourself and do what makes you happy and live the life you deserve because even in your darkest of days life is still what you make it and you still have to make the most of the situation. Try and see the positives and be optimistic. Don’t hold grudges and don’t hold onto past hurt. Forgive and let go. Don’t keep that anger inside of you. Take time to care for yourself and do whatever you need to love and care for your body the way you do. You are so lucky to have the body you do and we all have insecurities and we always want to change something but it is important to appreciate your body and mind and take care of them. It really make the biggest difference and changed your life and lifestyle.

Stay strong everyone and stay true to who you are! Let me know if you want any other posts similar to this with me explaining on how I cope and deal with certain situations or if you have comments then feel free to leave them below. Much love,

Lizzie X

P.s. Follow me daily on Twitter and Instagram

Twitter: @Life_WithLizzie

Instagram: @libwalton_9

Surrounding yourself with positivity

Hello everyone!

How are you all doing today? I know I have got some hauls ready to post and I am so excited for them and so I hope you enjoy them, but today I just wanted to talk about surrounding yourself with positive people because recently, whilst I have been going through a difficult time I have truly found out who is there for me. Although, I have been going through a tough time the thing that was the hardest to go through was learning that some of my friends and the people that I surrounded myself with weren’t my friends and didn’t want what was best for me. In fact, they were just using me. It was perhaps the hardest thing to experience because I had been used by people all my life and this time I thought they were my real friends and I had been so careful in letting people in but I was wrong. None of that matters now though because I am appreciative and thankful for all the supportive and loving people around me. It’s those people that really matter. So, I just wanted to talk about the importance of surrounding yourself with positive people and how to get out of toxic relationships.

Finding out someone isn’t there for you or has been using you or anything to that extent is so incredibly hard. It will hurt you and you will upset or angry or confused and you won’t understand why someone could ever hurt you that much or what you did wrong. Chances are you did nothing wrong and it was all about the other person. Some people are selfish and just don’t care about others and their feelings.  It’s so hard when you trust someone and believe they have the same heart as you and will help you but not everyone is like you and trust me, thinking that everyone is ill leave you feeling disappointed. If you find you have people in your life who are always so negative and bringing you down and not supporting to you or lying to you then as hard as it is you’re better off without them. It is so hard not speaking to them again because you will care, just like you always have, but in the long run you will be so much better off because you don’t need that negativity and people not supporting you. You don’t need people in your life who don’t support you and believe in you. The way to succeed and be happy is surround yourself by that!

When you lose people it’s natural to feel lonely and sad but you have got to think about your future and your life. You don’t need people holding you back and telling you cannot do something. Trust me I have been there, and having the freedom to be who you and think what you want, feel what you want to is the most amazing feeling. To not feel trapped or caged or like you can’t be yourself is one of the worst things a person can feel. It’s like you’re suffocating yourself and surrounding yourself with negative people will only do the same. They will suffocate you with deluded perception of yourself and constantly bring yourself down. Believing in yourself is more than half the battle won. Surrounding yourself with positive people will make believing in yourself so much easier because they see your worth and your talents, your strength and beauty, all the wonderful things we, as humans, sometimes are incapable of seeing. It’s those people that make your life special and important and it’s those people you need in your life not the ones who wish to bring you down.

Another reason it is important to keep those close to you who love and support you is because they help you in times of need. As much as we all like to think we are independent and we can manage our problems on our own, sometimes we can’t and having a great support network will provide fantastic coping mechanisms for your problems. Real relationships containing people who really care about you will not let you go through problems by yourself.  They will support you and help you best you can and make sure you don’t feel alone, in sometimes the hardest and darkest of times.

I suppose to finish this section on surrounding yourself with positivity and great people is to talk about how you know if someone is there for you. Well if you surround yourself with the right people then you will never feel like a burden or problem and issue to those people. Those people will always want the best for you and encourage you to reach your full potential. They love and support everything about and wants what best for you.  The people you want in your life are those sorts of people and no the ones who use you and lie to you and make you feel so worthless. Thankfully now I have realised how wrong about some of the people in my life and now they are gone I can finally move on and not be held back anymore and be who I am and know that those around me support me and my decisions.

Not everyone in your life is meant to stay and some just enter to teach you some very important lessons. Don’t allow for people to make you feel worthless or like you or aren’t anything important and won’t achieve anything because t’s not true and you can be only be good as the people you allow to surround yourself with and you can only achieve what you have the confidence to pursue. Don’t let them take that away from you and surround yourself with positivity and optimism.

Thank you so much for allowing me to express myself and to just can talk about what is on my mind. I hope this helps some of you in some way. I know as a child I struggled to find someone who was willing to stay in my life and accept me and didn’t just use me for one thing or another and somehow, I thought that became easier as you got older but it doesn’t. There’s all sorts of people in all walks of life and there are some who dying to see you fail so just don’t give them the satisfaction. Remain strong and those people who love will love everything about you and you will never have to change for them and they are the ones who are going to support you and they are the ones to keep close and dear to your heart. I love you all and I will see you very soon.

Lizzie X

Instagram: @thiz_is_lizzie_xx

Twitter: @Life_WithLizzie

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Simple Chilli Con Carne Recipe

Hello everyone!

Since you all enjoyed the last cooking/baking video I did, I thought I would do another one. Today I thought I would share with you this simple but delicious chilli. It is perfect is you are just cooking for yourself but is also great if you are having friends over. It is super easy and simple and inexpensive to make as well. I hope you all enjoy!

Ingredients (to serve 2): 

• 1/2 of a large onion
• 1/2 a red pepper
• 1 garlic clove peeled
• 1/2 a tablespoon of heaped chilli powder
• 1/2 a tablespoon of paprika
• 1/2 a can of chopped tomatoes.
• 250g of lean minced beef
• a pinch of salt
• 1 beef stock cube
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
• 1/2 tin of red kidney beans
• 1/2 a tablespoon of oil
• 200g of rice (use whatever rice is your preference)
• Tortilla chips (also any dips if you would like them, such as: salsa or sour cream – they work really well too!)

Method:

 

• First step is to prepare your all of your vegetables (onion, pepper and garlic). For the onion you are going to need to dice it into tiny squares. I would suggest cutting the onion in half and placing the other half that you don’t need to the side and then with the half you are using peel it and then slice the onion into thick slices and then cutting across the slices to make the slices into cubes. Next for the pepper, you will just want to again cut in half and remove the stalk and seed and again chop into dice pieces. Lastly, peel and finely chop the clove of garlic.
• Next,place your pan on the hob on a medium heat. Add a tiny bit of oil and leave for a couple of minutes to warm up. Once ready, add the onion and cook for around 5 minutes, stirring frequently until soft. Then add the garlic and pepper along with the chilli powder and paprika. Stir all the ingredients together thoroughly and then leave to cook for another 5 minutes. Don’t forget to stir occasionally.
• Next you need to cook the meat. Start my turning up the heat slightly and then adding to the mea to the pan, breaking it up with a spoon. Keeping cooking the mince until the meat has thoroughly browned. (Remember to keep the heat hot enough so the meat is fried).
• To make the sauce, crumble one beef stock cube into 300ml of water and then pour this into the pan with mince. Next add half a can of chopped tomatoes, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of tomato puree.  Stir all of them into the mixture thoroughly.
• Allow the mixture to simmer gentle eventually bringing to the boil. Stir the mixture thoroughly and then turn down the heat, place the lid on the pan and leave to gently simmer for 20 minutes. Remember to keep stirring occasionally. When finished the saucy should appear thick, moist and juicy.
• Next drain one can of red kidney bean and then add half a can to the mixture. Bring the mixture to the boil again and let the mixture simmer for another 10 minutes without the lid on.
• After 10 minutes turn off the heat and allow your chilli to stand for 10 or so minutes before serving.
• Lastly serve with rice, tortilla chips and sauces/dips of your choice
• Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this simple recipe and will give it a try! Please let me know if you do or if you any other request for posts that you would like to see. I really enjoy blogging and want to keep creating content which you all really want to read and content which you enjoy. Also, don’t forget to follow me on social media, to keep up-to-date with everything I am doing on there! I would really appreciate it if you would follow me on those sites! I love you all so much and so thankful to all of you who consistently support me by reading, liking and commenting on my blog. It is such a lovely feeling and I am so appreciative. THANK YOU!! I will see you all very soon. Much love,

Lizzie X

P.S. I was thinking about vlogging my days but let me know if you would be interested in seeing my vlog and seeing how life as a student is and working part-time. Also let me know if you want to see any posts of me on my travels to Florida.

Bold Lip Makeup Tutorial

 

Hello lovelies!

Today I have another makeup tutorial to share with you and just something a little bit different, slightly edgy and I thought it would fun to play around with my makeup and go for something a bit more daring. As always I am not a professional makeup artist and this is just how I like to do my makeup, but if you do have any tips, tricks or recommendations then feel free to leave them in the comments. It’s always good to learn and develop new knowledge. Anyway lets get into it!

• First thing I did was moisturise my face with some Aveeno moisturise and then I applied my Elizabeth Arden Flawless Finish Bare perfection foundation in the shade 26 Buff and blended that in with a Zoeva buffer brush.
• Next I applied the Collection Lasting Perfection in the shade 2 cool medium to any blemishes and in the shade 1 Fair under my eyes. I blended this out with my Real Techniques Miracle Sponge.
• To set that makeup I used the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in 001 Transparent and took a Zoeva powder brush to brush that across my face focusing on my T-zone which gets oily first.
• To contour I used my new Sleek palette in the shade medium and I just used my fingers to apply shade 6 to hollows of my cheeks and also for my jawline. I then applied shade 5 to my forehead. To make sure that it was all blended out evenly I just took an Estee Lauder brush (I think it’s a blush one…oops) and blended out all my contour.
• Next to highlight I just used my Collection highlight out of the highlight and sculpt kit and used a Zoeva 129 Fan brush to apply to my cheekbones and cupid bow.
• With face make-up complete I used the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette and took the shade Semi-Sweet on a Zoeva Brow line brush and filled in my brows.
• The next thing I was apply some mascara. The mascara I used was the L’Oreal False Lash Superstar X Fibre. I love this mascara. It’s incredible. It does take a while because it is a two step mascara but it’s still great. You all know I am a fan of L’Oreal mascaras. Anyway, that was all I did for eyes. I just wanted to keep them simple because I was doing a bold lip instead.
• So onto the lips. I used a MAC lipliner in the shade whirl to line and fill in my lips. Then to complete the luck I actually used my Stila Coconut Crush Lip and Cheek stain. I haven’t really used this product and the application was not that easy because I was unsure what to do, however, the result looked nice and I was impressed with the pigment.  It definitely achieved the bold lip I was going for!

That was my makeup complete! It wasn’t anything too fancy and it only took my around 10-15 minutes to complete. I liked this look because it was something different for me and was a little edgy especially since I styled it with a choker, and a white cold shoulder top with ripped, black, high-waisted skinny jeans. I just thought this all added to vibe and I curled my hair to go with the outfit. Overall, I was impressed with the look and enjoyed wearing something a little.

I hope you have all enjoyed, even though I know this won’t be everyone’s preferred look. I just fancied experimenting and doing a tutorial which was a little different! Let me know in the comments what you thought and if you have any other makeup looks you would like to see me re-create! Thank you so much!! Much love as always,

Lizzie X

P.S. GUYS I NOW HAVE HIT 2,500 FOLLOWERS!!! WHAT??? THAT’S CRAZY!! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

Room Dorm Tour

Hello!

Today is Valentines day and I hope you are all having a great day whether you single or in a relationship. I am not really a fan of Valentines day but my boyfriend and I are going out for dinner this evening so I will be sure to upload a post about that and my ‘Get ready with me’ later on this week. For now though, I am hope you all enjoy yourselves and remember it is important to just love yourself and that you don’t need a partner to feel whole or anything like that! Also, it is important to celebrate your love for your friends and family whatever the day!

So for today’s post I am going to do a room dorm tour. This is definitely long overdue but today I have finally got around to sharing with you what my room at university look likes.Obviously, I can not make any changes to the interior and certain things come with the place, but I have done my best to make it feel homely. I do really like my room. It is spacious and it does feel homely. I am always buying new things to add and decorate my room even more but for now this is what my room looks like. I hope you enjoy!

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you have enjoyed and this has given you an insight in to university halls and what the rooms are like. I didn’t pick the most expensive accommodation, but if you have looked at accommodation then you will know that it is so expensive! I went for the next accommodation down although I like mine just as much if not more than the most expensive accommodation because it is a lot more spacious! Let me know if you are at university or if you are thinking of going and if you are thinking of staying away from home! Much love,

Lizzie X

FAQ

Hey!

How have you all been? Today I am just going to make a short post answering some of the frequently asked questions which I receive. I thought it would just be easier to answer them all in one place but I do of course try and reply to everyone individually. Also, if you have any questions then feel free to leave a comment down below with your question!

• How old are you? – 18
• How do you afford to travel? – I have a part-time job and I use money from that which I have saved up to travel. I am at that age now, where there isn’t anything that I particular need so I would much rather save my money up and spend it on things where I will have lots of fun, great experiences and some fantastic memories to look back on.
• What university do you attend? – I am currently studying at the University of Leicester.
• What degree are you studying? – I am studying History BA.
• How tall are you? – I am 5ft 5. So I am pretty average height haha!

They were just the few questions I wanted to answer! I really want to do some sort of Q&A so please leave me any questions below so I can answer them. I think that would be a really fun post to do! Also, let me know what sort of posts you would like to see to! I would love to hear all of your ideas.

Thank you all ever so much. Bye!

Lizzie X