Anything can be done in 15 minutes!

Ever since I choose to work from home, I did my research and watched Webinars, read a lot of blogs  etc.. But one of the most important things I have learned from them is that in what ever type of job you do, it's very important to time it.

Working from home is not a cake walk, although some people insinuate that we can do what ever we want -- We can't.

You see, working freelance, under an agency or a company that gives the option to telecommute has its challenges. It's still work, we get paid for it may it be hourly or by project. Believe me, there are a lot of temptation especially when you are at home as opposed to working in an office since you are physically incapable of let's say, doing a load of laundry in the washing machine after finishing a page in a spread sheet of 5 pages.

I have been subscribed to www.FlyLady.net for a few years now and I suggest it to everybody working from home or not. It taught me that I can do anything in 15 minutes, it does not need to be perfect but it needs to be done period.

Of course as a VA doing data entry work, you are expected to do your task with accuracy, and for accuracy you need to be alert! How can you even make sure everything is accurate when you are all over the place doing 2 things at the same time? That is where timing comes in, I don't have a small timer ( I think I should get one though) but I use my cellphone's stopwatch and my new favorite site www.online-stopwatch.com, I can set it as a stop watch or a countdown timer that beeps when its done.

  

Multi tasking has been studied to be unproductive, the set 15 minutes will be focused on one job and one job alone. May it be a quick 15 minute break or a 15 minute zone to concentrate on a spreadsheet or on social media marketing, after the 15 minutes I have to take a break or do something else to decrease the risk of burnout because if there is one thing that is an enemy of working in front of computers is the headache you get from eye strain.

I also time my water intake to lessen the headaches and body pain related to the job which is mostly caused by sitting down for long periods. I think this is a good experiment for those who read this, try it only one day or at least an hour and see how productive you can be. :) I am sharing this tip because I have found this to be very helpful and has increased my overall productivity and mood.

xoxo

Pat <3

Marks and Spencer Glossies

Since I did a clean up of my little shelf, I wanted to share with you a review on these little glossies I received as a gift from Marks and Spencer. 

It was part of their holiday collection, as you can see the print on both the red and purple on has faded since. I used these 2 a lot, but the one I loved most is the purple gloss. It corrects the orange based red lipsticks that were also given to me as gifts since I don't look good wearing them. The purple counter acts the yellow-orange tinge and gives it a bit of blue which makes it flattering to my skin tone.

Crystal Fascination

Its such a beautiful world we live in and made better with these lovely things. 

Yes, they are crystals from the good earth. Different colors, cut to different shapes. I was amazed on how beautiful they are to wear or just to display at home, but not about what "energies" they have or their vibrations. I am not a serious collector but one day in Facebook, I saw my high school batch mate post a picture of a crystal wand. I was fascinated because its the first time I saw such a thing. I immediately asked him about it and explained that he practices Reiki -I got a decsription from here- Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy. With that, our conversation led to me telling him about what was bothering me these past few days.

 He advised the following crystals : 

1. Black Tourmaline - For the negativity and backstabbing that was done to me.

2. Rose Quartz - For self-love, love and relationships, harmony and beauty ( I use it in water to wash my face and to apply product like moisturizers).

3. Tiger Eye - For work ethic, business decisions and all over abundance. 

4. Citrine - For joy, abundance and increase in wealth.

Now I will not write about what these things do or their effects because there is a lot of info all over the internet which is pretty uniform about the info so what I can tell you is my personal experience with these.

Since he is far away as we are both working and don't really have time to meet up, I have decided to have him just send this to me. Now he does not sell his crystals but I insisted to have them since I trust that he has the real stuff ( there are a lot, and I mean A LOT of fakes so pls beware!) but of course there is no free lunch so I guess he sold them to me with the amount he has bought them.

Via LBC, shipping cost 150 php so around 3 usd

Here they are!!

Ok, these have already been cleansed but with the method I wanted them delivered it is advisable to have them cleansed at first use. There are a lot of methods to clean them, but personally I would just clean them in salt water ( 1 tsp rock salt to one glass of water ) then place them under the sun for an hour to "charge", them "program" them. Programming is just meditating while holding the crystal with the intention you want to achieve with the crystal. I am not an expert on this so I suggest going here for that. 

The journey ( if you can call it that) to crystal fascination was a long one, I have been lurking at the posts in Girltalk about using crystals for healing here for several months, at first I found it weird how they can actually affect how you live, but better judgement is that if we focus our energy into believing the good values these stones benefit, then I guess you will embody those good values such as keeping calm, being patient, filling our selves with joy, resisting being dependent on bad things and habits etc. What I do not believe and what most of them also don't is to spend on $$$$ for them unless they are jewelry quality, in that case, good quality and craftsmanship does deserve a price. 

Now on my choosing the crystal or the crystal choosing me, my friend showed me pictures of his collection and even by that you are drawn to the ones that are calling you out and would dispel those that does not "mesh" with your energy. I have gone back and forth to have narrowed down to the ones above. I believe I am very sensitive with energies so I felt even the ones that he uses for healing. Its true, some make you feel dizzy but some are comforting like the Tiger eye, I just felt that it was right, no questions asked. What I was most excited about was the Black Tourmaline since I have been suffering from that depression from a backstabbing since November 2013, I have healed but still have rages about it, so I really wanted to get help from these or better focus my energy on these so they can dispel negativity. My Rose Quartz is for my vanity really and I believe it will work very well, but most I want out of it is to help me heal emotional wounds and to increase self-love and harmony with my better half. 

The Citrine is a whole different story, I was drawn  to it as advised by my friends since I want to have abundance. When he showed me his collection, I was drawn to 4 tumbled stones. The 4 stones were not ehrm,, cooperating with me as I was having seconds thoughts if I really needed them or not. I told him that I really don't think of getting any since it confused me,,now he didn't know this but I was drawn to 1 clear stone. He said, enough with being confused, I will give you one. He gave me that one I was drawn to! I guess the other 3 was not for me. 

When the stones came home to me, I felt a bit dizzy at first because I immediately wore the Tiger eye. I have read that this had the same effect on other people but it is normal and takes time getting used to. I didn't feel any magic but just the overwhelming urge to sleep! I asked my friend about it and he said, it must be healing me. 

I believe these crystals will help me focus and I wish to embody the values that are written about them. I will write more about them soon but again, pls. do not hesitate to ask questions. :)

xoxo 

Love and light!