You do You, Boo.
- Helen Ramage
- Apr 10, 2017
- 4 min read
Hiyaa,
Sorry it's been so long, I had deadlines and was lazy, but I'm back, you missed me, I'm sure.
It's the Easter holidays and for some that means seeing family, catching up, pigging out and, like Jesus, going out on the Friday and returning on the Sunday but for me I have been working almost non stop since coming home and sometimes it's hard to catch a break and breathe. But today is my day off, and rather than slothing out in front of TV, I've decided to carpe that diem and get outside. Sometimes all you need is a sunny day, a cup of coffee and a laptop to help you escape, even if just for the day.
Even though it isn't much of an escape, sometimes all it can take is a moment in the garden with the sunshine and maybe a chardonnay to help myself feel more like me, so I thought I would write just a little bit about how to make yourself feel you again, even if, like me, you've spent forty hours a week pulling pints, emptying bins and mopping up sick.
Tip Number One: Have a giggle - life is nothing without a laugh, my mum actually wants written on her gravestone 'we did have a laugh' and I have my mum to thank for my 'fuck it, lets have a giggle' mentality. It doesn't matter how you laugh, what makes you crease, or where you start to fall about in hysterics, just do it! At least five times a day, like fruit and veg. Smiling makes everyone around you smile, and you will feel so much better if you just have a giggle. Also, side note, if something shitty happens, not like someone dying, but you know you spill down your frock, or your shift at work can't get covered, smile. It seems lame, and fucking stupid but honestly if you have a giggle, whether that be slut-dropping during your shift or making your spill a fashion statement then you will feel so much better, and maybe a little bit more you. Funny story actually, I am the queen of fashion faux pas and once at my mates 21st birthday celebration in a cool club in Shoreditch, my skirt ripped, completely down the middle. I spent the night dancing in my spanx, safety pinned to the remaining bit of my pleather midi skirt while everyone else looked like they had jumped off a photoshoot. Mortifying, but guess what, my mates had a chuckle at my expense, and so did I and I felt so much better being the laughing twat twerking in my spanx, than I would have felt being the girl crying in the kebab clutching my skirt and a doner.
PS: The skirt in the photo to the right, is the skirt. RIP. Fucking Primark.
Tip Number Two: Get dolled up - I don't care if your plans include going to Tesco and putting out the bins, put some lippie on and something that makes you feel good, to do it in. If you look good, you feel good and if you feel good, you are good. Take for instance today, I've got no plans, nada, but I spent an hour and twenty minutes making myself look presentable for Tesco and an evening with Say Yes to the Dress. Now, you may think 'what a knob, waste of make up, time and energy' but guess what I feel good! I feel like me with highlighted cheekbones, blow-dried hair and an outfit that slays and as I walked round Tesco in high heeled sandals, I felt like Queen B, only with a loaf of warburtons and a packet of McCoys in my hands rather than Jay Z and a $4000 bag. If you look in the mirror and you think 'damn girl, where you been hiding?' you're doing it right. Looking good, means feeling confident and your best 'you' is in that confident woman striding down the freezer aisle.
Tip Number Three: Do something that's good for you - It doesn't matter what it is. It could be going to zumba, meeting up with mates for a white wine spritzer and a gossip, baking a cake you saw Mary Berry do or just looking in the mirror and saying 'gal you look good'; it doesn't matter what you do, but just make sure it is good for you. You spend your whole working week putting other people's needs before yours, and this is your time to be selfish! Fuck going with the crowd, you do what you wanna do gal! It's okay to be selfish, I mean not all the time, people will probably start to hate you, but sometimes, of course it is! If these little things are going to make you feel like you than spend an hour in the bath, or watching The Client List, anything! It really doesn't matter but just as long as you feel more like the you you want to be and definitley are. I am such a 'Yes Man' that sometimes I struggle to be selfish and I understand you want to help people out, and be that good friend, girlfriend, daughter, employee, but sometimes you have to become your best by investing in yourself. I guarantee that if you dedicate an afternoon to a bit of me time, you will feel so good that you will be the best version of yourself.
There are so many more tips but I thought I'd limit myself to three key things that I think apply to all people. For me these things certainly make me feel myself again, throw in having a boogie to Sean Paul and an evening with Chocolate City, then I feel better than myself has ever felt, but generally these three tips have seen me through. Life can sometimes get busy, it can get hectic and you can forget how you even felt before your ten hour shift but you gotta remember if you do you boo, then no one else can take that away from you. So get your glam on, pop the prosecco, arrange a gals night and have a giggle because life's too short to not.
Till next time.
Helen
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