(peppy music)
- Hey there guys.
And welcome to a few days of my life at the Nerva insult.
This video is from just before final season hit.
And I was going along in my life during uni classes
writing assignments and exploring Seoul with my friends.
A word I felt recently is 'flow'.
These snippets of life are all taken
when I really found my flow here
life has been so busy, and tensely so.
Last week I had an embarrassing average
of 8.5 hours spent on my laptop every day.
And I find myself writing around a thousand words a day
but it's all been within the framework of its own routine
which is just kind of comforting.
I have my uni classes from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM
a few days a week.
The other days I prepare my readings
do my prep work, work on assignments.
I've really been enjoying my internship
in the city over the semester.
I bloody love my friends.
Every day my exploration of Seoul is pretty spontaneous.
If I can fit in traveling a bit further
to a new neighborhood
I'll scout out cute cafes to do my work in.
The work is so, so, so busy, but it is also flowing.
And that is fun.
When it's not flowing I will literally
sit and cry to my roommates
moan about the workload and everything is just kind of fine,
because we all get as tough and we all get through it.
This video is also very kindly sponsored by my all time
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It's a beautiful day and I'm in Itaewon.
These are my ends. I live really near here.
(background traffic)The weather here's just gorgeous
spring is coming.
I visited Seoul Forest for the first time
which is a really beautiful park with a lake
and I saw the first blossoms that I witnessed in Seoul.
And it just really made me feel like, wow Spring.
Winter here has been bloody freezing, like -15
the coldest I've ever experienced in my life.
That's very hopeful.
I'm here for spring energy.
I was walking through Seoul Forest
as I say, the nature was beautiful.
I listened to my music, my podcast, just in my thoughts
in my good energy, and then I treated myself.
I was walking down these trendy streets of Seongdong.
I think it's Seongdong.
And I stumbled upon this, this ring.
It is a handmade butterfly by two Korean women
and I think it's beautiful.
So I bought that and I also treated myself to a dragonfruit
which is a fruit I've not had in so long,
and I absolutely love it.
(lively dance music) Oh, free music on the street.
Okay. Okay, groove pub bar, I see you. (laughs)
But yes, as if yesterday could not get any better.
I was then in the Metro station, and what did I see?
One of my favorite Korean snacks on offer.
(background traffic) I got rice cakes for just 1000 won,
which is the equivalent of like a pound.
(peppy music)
Hey team. So it is midweek,
which I'm "oh, hello".
Apparently I not only just summoned Siri
but I also ask Siri what the weather is like.
So I don't know how I managed that.
Yeah, our room's a bit of a mess.
No comment.
I just briefly want to speak to mindfulness
and how much it has helped me recently alongside university
with all it assignments, work and just stress.
And then trying to support and look after friends
and check in with friends and maintain social life.
I often end each day feeling drained.
Like full on exhausted drained
but I have to keep reminding myself
to consciously put more energy into me
to like fill myself back up again.
Like I can't keep putting energy
into pr- into projects and people and life and everything.
And what? expect it to be endless boundless energy?
No, I am actively putting energy back in me.
Meditation, we love it.
We balance our head, let's do it.
Writing, journaling, super-helpful for me
we love it. We do it.
And I was speaking with Lara yesterday.
No one is going to do these mindfulness habits for you.
No one's going to make that time.
No one's going to drag you there and be like, sit down
and check in with yourself and meditate.
No one does that,
which means it's easy to pass on,
because you're the only one
you hold yourself accountable for.
Also I'm supposed to-do list person.
I'm such a like here's what we can do today
and we're going to do it.
And when that doesn't happen, it's really easy to be
like feeling guilty or stressed about how that's going to
impact the next few days, et cetera.
Yesterday, I sat in journaled for so long.
I wrote literal reams and reams of
stream of consciousness thoughts.
And by the end of it, there was no distinction
between what I was thinking and why I was writing.
Like it was the same. Amazing.
There were things I didn't even know
I needed to think about
think through in a frameworked way.
(peppy music)
I love hanging out with myself. (laughs)
I just create such great experiences with myself.
I feel so proud.
I got my priorities together.
Just sat down, just wrote for five hours.
Goodbye, essay gone.
We don't want to think about you anymore.
And now I can just sit here, vibe to my music.
Soak up the fact that this is the hottest day so far.
It's 20 degrees, I got freshly baked bread
which is just, is that not a luxury?
Is that not casual magic in itself?
Also it's so hard to get good nature.
So, very grateful to be on grass, even if it's really dry.
Also, this is very random
but I have been growing out my armpit hair this semester
which I have never done before in my life.
But like, it's never been this long.
And this has been such a challenge to my confidence
and wearing things like this, where you can see it.
And short-sleeved things in front of people I know.
And especially in this culture where people just
grow less pubic hair and especially in a city
where people care so much about appearances
and look, yeah. It's just been very interesting.
Common misconceptions
people think it smells more.
I really haven't found that.
As long as I wash every day, I shower every day.
Maybe I don't sweat that much. I don't know.
I haven't found it to be different.
Get good deodorant. I use a natural one.
And yeah, I just love that I feel so empowered
and confident in myself to be able to do that.
Literally at 13, 14 year old me, it will be quaking
at the thought of me having armpit hair.
Like, what? Me in PE classes, desperate to cover my legs
when they had a bit of stubble on them.
Like what's happened?
But yeah, milestone.
We love it.
This is just a reminder to you.
That being a hairless woman
is something socially conditioned.
Hair is not unhygienic. It's not gross.
It doesn't make you dirty. It can also be beautiful.
And it should be your choice.
Whether you decide to shave or not.
I very much support either way.
You do you.
But yes, I am proud.
And I still feel gorgeous.
If I'm honest, this has also been such a heavy week.
Just with the world.
Like, I just can't shut off my brain.
I don't know if you heard about Sarah Everard
in the UK, in London.
But it has been affecting me so deeply this week.
Just as a woman just trying to exist
and this echoing the fears that so many
of us women have on a day-to-day basis.
My social media timeline, it's just women talking about it.
Like we need more men, more men to feel empowered
to talk about these issues, to go to their male friends
and discuss toxic masculinity and the way they talk
about women and the way they treat women.
Thinking deeply about the fact that as women
we don't feel safe walking on the street alone
or going out at night or having to think about what we wear
or how all these subconscious things that you just learn?
Like when you're carrying keys, when you walk on your own
you'll just put it between your lock knuckles
like a little pretend weapon.
Or if you see a man walking along on the street
you'll cross the road.
Because even though, yes, it's not all men who are dangerous
and horrible and who can do bad things to you.
How do I know that this man isn't one of those bad men?
You know?
So you just have to generalize
in order to keep yourself safe.
How you look, how your body looks.
The idea of like picking up birds, like, OO!
All these like, 'lad' comments
So many things.
So many things to unpack.
I'm sending love to you, please look after yourself.
And what is both sad and interesting is that
as I edit this video, quite a few weeks after this incident
the world and the news have once again
moved on to more heaviness.
Whether it's COVID, racial injustices, updates
in the climate crisis
it just feels like there's always a new thing to process
another new thing which has not been solved.
I'm reading the news feels like such a double-edged sword
because you want to be aware because awareness is good.
But also unless awareness is translated to action
I'm like, is awareness helpful?
And the fact that you get to educate yourself
on social issues rather than living it
as an experience is also a huge privilege.
But as a kid, I was so ignorant to the world
and saw it with such optimism.
I didn't really recognize the complexity of issues
nor the extent of how cruel the world could be.
That I really thought changing the world would be easy.
I felt like I was just happier day to day
because nowadays I fill my social media timeline
with activism, with social issues.
I try to regularly check the news to see world events.
I try to educate myself to be less ignorant.
And I think all of these things are good
and I think all of them are super necessary
And I think awareness is the first step to action.
But yeah, I'm also very sensitive
and the world is pretty damn cruel
and everyday it feels like there's something new.
I feel like I just can't help
but react emotionally to things.
And I don't know if emotional reactions are useful.
Days like this, instead of feeling spurred to help
I just, sometimes I just feel a bit helpless
and see the world with less optimism
and find issues in everything.
And overthink myself and my role in larger issues
until it all just feels unproductive.
Okay, I'm just rambling into this voiceover, but yeah.
Um, hi fellow empaths who care about the world
how do you deal with reading news
without affecting you viscerally?
How do you translate emotion into something useful?
(light bouncy dance music in background)
Okay. That's all.
Thank you guys so much
for watching these snippets of my life.
If you've got some time, if you're interested
in learning for fun, I highly recommend picking
up a Skillshare course.
Have a gorgeous rest of your week.
And I challenge you to question
what you grateful for today?
(Bouncy dance music) Okay. Bye.