This year has been massive for us – we re-launched our shop, starting gaining a following, and set up this very same blog you’re reading now. So, where do we expect to be this time next year? You’ll have to wait and see, but for now, let’s talk about you.
If self-care hasn’t been one of the most discussed topics of this year – then what has? From the treating yourself side of things to actively working towards self-improvement, we thought we’d hop on the New Year’s Resolutions trend and discuss it further.
1 – Delete Facetune
We’d be lying if we said we didn’t retouch, even the pictures on our shop have been….’adapted’ slightly. But you’ll notice there’s a huge difference in messing around with contrast, brightness and colour balances and straight up sculpting the body of your dreams with a smudge tool and shadows.
It’s a dangerous game. Once you start changing your face and body it’s hard to stop. It’s hard to even be happy with the body that’s in the mirror in front of you. Would you tell your sisters, your friends, your family that they should be spending a few more minutes on the re-touching apps before posting? Why do you value their confidence more than your own?
2 – Spending Wisely
Spending, or rather choosing wisely where we spend our time, money and efforts is something we have got to start being more conscious of in the New Year. This doesn’t necessarily mean only consuming products from small businesses and farmers markets and becoming vegan (but thank you to everyone who does those things, you’re amazing!) but just being more aware of where we invest. Let’s put it this way – yikes at anybody still streaming R Kelly in 2019.
Ethical consumerism we predict will be a hot topic of 2019. Ultimately, businesses can’t survive without revenue. So, if you’re really unhappy with a company’s practices, ethics or branding, try and find alternatives where possible.
3 – Taking Action When We’re Unsatisfied
Leading on from our last point – let’s stop just lying down and taking it when we’re unhappy with something! Not just in terms of corporations and malpractices, but let’s take political action. Let’s vote when we have the privilege of doing so. Let’s confront matters that need confronting in our day-to-day lives. True redundancy is complaining yet doing nothing about it. If you’re going to be angry, may as well use it.
4 – Not Rising To Anti-Feminist Clickbait
Unfortunately it’s really been the year of shock factor headlines to push the idea of the snowflake collective – aka a whole generation of people who supposedly get too offended by everything and want the world to be a soft safe space void of all humour or mixed opinions. It’s not just feminists who’ve been targeted either – the transgender community in particular have had a hard year in terms of inflated or just plain false headlines and articles. One extremist opinion has been used to paint all activists with the same brush – and we shouldn’t have to stand for it.
What can we actually do about it? Stop clicking on the articles, stop sharing them spreading them, and if it’s an option – report them. Social media sites are becoming more aware of ‘fake news’, and this counts too. If you are going to share these bogus articles but with critiques, post screencaps of the headline so your Facebook friends and Twitter followers don’t end up giving the site clicks either.
5 – Knowing Your Limits
With all the self-improvement focus being on ways to better yourself, it’s easy to become too absorbed into things and start becoming too hard on yourself. For every thing you want to change or improve about yourself, there should be something you whole-heartedly love and appreciate. We could write 100 times how important it is to be confident, but until you take further action past just agreeing with the message, you won’t feel the glorious benefits of loving yourself. It’s ok to back off a little sometimes and focus on the things you do like. Even ask a friend to help you focus on the positives if you can’t think of any!
Happy New Year and best wishes, from MAUDS Designs. XOXO