It's now the second last week of semester, where stress levels go higher than usual. No good for our hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axes! Oh - the HPA axis is responsible for releasing stress hormones into our bloodstream and preparing us for fight or flight responses. Gosh I'm becoming such a nerd......
I kinda decided to go for a good break to cheer myself up, after going through a highly stressful week last week. So the weekend was spent on self-care! Note - self-care = ethical! Because it means ensuring that we're in top condition to see clients! So here we go - my forms of self-care for these few weeks.
Oh yes yes! Chocolate is most definitely a form of self-care for me! The other day, I went to the chocolate lounge as usual and realised that I had earned myself a free mug of hot choc - as I had had 7 mugs of hot choc over the past few weeks! And so that was exactly what I did - I claimed my hot choc...and check out the amount of chocolate flakes AND sauce I got! My mum nearly freaked out when she saw the amount of chocolate, but I was so happy. I actually drank ALL of it, licked off ALL the chocolate sauce and of course, the chocolate flakes were ALL GONE :)
Another form of self care? Enjoying my favourite meals. Well - as you can tell, I'm highly addicted to paella nowadays, and eating paella has become such a common occurrence that my housemates can predict when the craving starts! I especially love the burnt bits. I asked the stall owner to give me as much burnt bits as he could, and he was more than happy. He was also surprised that I was one of the rare few who loved burnt bits. Well - the blacker the better......although it's advisable NOT to have burnt bits too often!!!
And of course, I had my favourite scrambled eggs, mushroom and toast the other day, when I spontaneously decided to escape from my assignments. I had been working on an assignment and was getting nowhere. So I looked up some bus times, and just bolted from my desk when time was up.
Another form of self-care I often engage in - being around nature. The other day, my supervisor hosted a housewarming party, for his new house. His new house was situated in the hills, in the outskirts of the city, and had a really massive backyard. He ended up growing lots of different plants, and the whole backyard was absolutely gorgeous!! He had really big and juicy lemons, gorgeous (and perfectly formed) roses, and a few other cool flowers around! And of course, the landscaping was done so nicely that I felt like I was in paradise. So here we go! Lots of lemon and flower pics - taken when he was giving us a tour of his awesome magnum opus (aka his backyard).
I think you guys must have been super duper bored by my sunset pics by now, since I have been posting so many of them lately! But...I should admit, sunsets are one of the most awesome ways of self-care, as it involves getting close to nature too! And...listening to the sound of waves facilitates me in staying in-the-moment, letting thoughts pass, feeling every sensation going through me........OK I think I'm going into the mindfulness path now! But anyway...
Had a stroll down the Cappuccino Strip before heading to the beach. I wanted to take some long-exposure pics here, but decided to save them all for the sunset. You'll see why later...
Took a different route this time, and ended up going down High Street. Had some fun playing with reflections. But of course, I found the lighting especially nice as it was soft, yet brought out the colours of the buildings. So I stayed on a bit more to take more pics. The days were getting longer too, so that gave me enough time to hang around before going to the beach.
I swear, this is probably one of the most epic sunsets I've seen so far. The clouds were most definitely in my favour! It had rained in the morning, and the clouds were slowly clearing up...
Oh yes - and here we go! Once I got myself positioned on some higher rocks (to prevent being splashed!), I noticed the sun beginning to set. And this was just before I whipped out my telephoto lens. You can see a bit of an orange tinge on some of the rocks...
And here we go! These pics were taken in succession. Had to react quite fast as it all happened so quickly.
AND...this is what I mean by epic clouds!!! It's been such a long time since I saw this! The bottoms of the clouds being illuminated by what's left of sunlight...and they turned into this wonderful deep orange. Something which I have been trying to capture for quite a while! I always love the afterglow of sunset.
Oh, and the drama doesn't stop there. Check out the colours! No filters, nothing. And the cloud formations! Gosh, I felt so lucky...and at peace. And so I let myself enjoy the sea breeze, enjoying moment-to-moment, and letting thoughts float by like leaves in a creek.......yikes! I think I've been reading up too much on mindfulness techniques!!! Then again, mindfulness is awesome! It's a great technique that keeps us grounded in the present moment and allows us to become more open to experiences :)
I especially like the second pic, where the whole sky is a lovely dark blue...and yet a tiny bit of bright orange lingers in the horizon...
Well it wasn't just the clouds. The WAVES were big! And that meant - LONG EXPOSURE!! Had lots and lots of fun taking these pictures! The colour of the sea was also in my favour, as it was initially illuminated in yellow and light greyish blue when I first started...then it slowly progressed to orange and lavender...
And the skies darkened pretty quickly, giving everything a dark blue tinge...while tiny bits of orange remained. I should say that it was the most wonderful opportunity for me to take long-exposure pics...and this was possibly my best attempt thus far. I particularly loved the pics from that day! And the best part - I was 100% dry, no splashes or anything.
All these while, I had been enjoying epic cloud formations, strong waves and long exposure photos...and I had been practicing some mindfulness too! Looks like watching the sunset is something that should stay in my behavioural repertoire, and that taking pics gives me a great sense of satisfaction...which then reinforces me to continue taking pics of sunsets!
Perhaps it's time for a change in venue? I might actually head down to South Mole one of the evenings!
Oh and I just realised I was supposed to post pics of the Dufyken. My bad! More to that in the next post...if I don't digress!