Monthly Archives: September 2023

Cars, Guitars, and Repertoires | Life Update

Hello friends, and welcome to Natalie Belle Blog! I hope your week has been amazing and that you’re staying healthy— seemingly everyone at my school, including myself, has been sick this week. Nevertheless, today’s post is an exciting one that I’ve had the idea of for months! It’s been a while since I’ve posted a “life update,” and as you’ll see, there’s not much of a better time for an update than this week. Without further ado, here’s what’s been happening outside of blogging for the past few months!

I Am Now A Licensed Driver!

After waiting at a DMV forty minutes away for three hours, I passed my road test on Monday, making me a licensed driver! It feels great to finally have that crossed off my to-do list. I’ve only driven with my license twice this week, but what I love most is that I can drive my sister now and pick her up on my own after school! I don’t doubt that she was more excited about me getting my license than I was.

I Bought A Guitar!

For a while, I’ve admired how my friends can play guitar and wanted to try it myself, so this summer I bit the bullet and chose to buy my own to teach myself. The process was surprisingly simple; I hopped on Facebook Marketplace and found a hardly worn guitar that I purchased for $60 and picked up the same week. It’s been so much fun (even though I’m far from proficient) and a great way to decompress while simultaneously building a skill!

I’m Going To NYC For My Birthday!

I forget if I’ve mentioned on here that I got into my school’s advanced choir, but each year that group takes an out-of-state trip to perform in a choral event among other activities. Not only will our trip this year be to New York City, but I will be there on my birthday! If the itinerary stays the same, I will also be performing in Carnegie Hall that night. Since the trip is still six months off, I’m not exactly sure what pieces we will be performing yet, but we are already building our repertoires in preparation for some other events we have along the way.

Oh, Yeah, I Started Junior Year!

Ah yes, on top of everything else I’m doing right now is junior year. So far it hasn’t been awful, and I’m already an eighth of the way through (small victories!). Individually, my classes aren’t too challenging, but when everything piles together like homework, studying, club meetings, and work, it can be a lot. But as an upperclassman, I can now go off-campus for lunch which is nice, especially considering that I live so close to school that I can walk home for lunch if I want to.

I’m Going To Disney Next Week!

We’re going on a family vacation to Disney next week for my grandmother’s 80th birthday, which I’m looking forward to because this time around I’m a roller coaster fan. When I went in 2020, it was just the small rides for me!

As you can see, a lot happening currently! I’d love to catch up in the comments, tell me what’s been up with you below!

❤️,

Natalie B

Struggling With Being Present? Try These 6 Tips | Repost

Hello friends, and welcome to Natalie Belle Blog! I hope you’re having a great weekend and drier weather than we have in NC. Tonight, I’m going to “faux-coming” (essentially homecoming with my friends, except we are going to dinner and hanging out instead of going to the dance), so I don’t exactly have ample time to write a new post today. Reposting isn’t my first choice, but the previous post I will be sharing today is a great reminder for this time of the year! With everything school and sports-related starting back up, our calendars get full, and we begin to check things off our to-do list rather than taking time to be present. I need to focus on intentionality and being present this year as well, especially today.

If all goes according to plan, I’ll have a new and exciting post coming out next Saturday, so stay tuned! But for now, enjoy the reminder to stay in the moment and see which of these methods you can carry with you through your week ahead 🙂

Hey friends! I hope you’ve had a great week and start to the holiday weekend! My plans for this weekend are just to relax, but if you’re doing anything fun make sure to comment about it- I love reading them 🙂

Summer can be one of the busiest times of the year between graduations, vacations, cookouts, sleepovers, movie nights, pool days, and so much more. Lots of memories are made, but sometimes it can be stressful and overstimulating. With constant stress and thinking ahead, it can be hard to be fully present in a moment. This is actually really important because it helps your brain focus and take in everything that’s happening, which has multiple benefits. Being present helps you connect, relax, and make better lasting memories. In this post, I’ll give you a few tips to help that!

1. Journaling

Personally, I love journaling. Anything you can do to write down what you’re experiencing (travel journaling, diary, bullet journaling, etc.) is a great way to be present. It can be as simple as writing down what happens each day (normally what I end up doing), but its helped me realize how blessed I am to live each day, and how there’s still beauty in ordinary days. It also helps replay the day in your head and reflect in some matter rather than just going to sleep and forgetting about it. I’ve journaled every day for the past two months or so, and I look forward to it every evening.

2. Mindfulness

Mindfulness is essentially pausing and creating self-observation and awareness of your surroundings. I’m no expert on it, but when I remember to use mindfulness to take a break and re-assess any situation, it always helps. Here are a few examples or techniques I use:

  • The classic: deep breathes
  • Name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste. If you’re not in a setting that you can use a sense (ex: taste), instead imagine something you would like to sense.
  • My math teacher taught us this technique where you hold your hand in front of you and slowly trace each of your fingers. As your finger is going up, inhale, and as its going down, exhale. Sounds weird, but it works! Apparently touch with breathing is linked to better stress management.

There are plenty of other ways to practice mindfulness, but those are just the most convenient for me! Here are some links that have other methods and more information about mindfulness: Healthline, Mindful, and The Sowell.

3. Music

If you find the right kind of music, it can be really calming and centering. What works best varies from person to person- it could be jazz, lofi, classical, or something else- experiment and see what works best for you!

I also recently came across something I found through Instagram called “brown noise”, and I love it! I’m not really a white noise kind of person, but brown noise helps shut my thoughts off pretty well. I think it has to do with the lower frequencies of the noise. Apparently there is a noise for basically every color, so chances are you’ll probably be able to find one you like!

4. Be Grateful For Little Things

This is more of a long-term method, but it helps a lot! If you’re constantly focused on getting to the big moments in life, you’ll miss the beauty in simplicity. Plus, being grateful for little things makes the big things more meaningful! Try to go about your day trying to find things that are just good- someone complimenting you, nice weather, getting to talk to a friend, or even just getting to live another day.

5. Do A Hobby You Enjoy

Setting aside time to pursue your passions or hobbies is important, and they can be used as a great stress reliever when you need them. I’ve heard before that if you do work with your hands (ex: construction), then you need a hobby that uses your head (like reading) and vice versa. But whatever is calming to you works best!

6. Realize You’ll Only Live It Once

Today is the only July 2, 2022 you’ll ever get, make it count! Each day and moment is unique, and no matter how many times you experience something similar (if at all), it’ll never be exactly the same as what you’re living in this moment.

I hope you were able to find this post helpful and gave you some ideas on how to be present and fully enjoy the moments in your life! Let me know which method is your favorite in the comments!

❤️,

Natalie B

Answering Your Most Pressing Questions | Q&A

Hello friends, and welcome to Natalie Belle Blog! I hope your week was amazing and you’re starting to feel hints of autumn’s arrival in the air. I don’t have much of a “post” myself today, because it’s primarily reader-driven: A Q&A! Leave any and all questions in the comments below and I will answer them. As Q&A’s have gone in the past, feel free to ask questions from any range, from silly to would-you-rather to serious, as long as it’s respectful. I hope you have fun with this post and I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

❤️,

Natalie B

Celebrating Three Years Of Natalie Belle Blog!

Hello friends, and welcome to this week’s edition of Natalie Belle Blog! I hope you had an amazing week and are having an even better weekend. Today’s post commemorates my blogging journey since I created my blog exactly three years ago on Tuesday.

I felt like I had it all together on September 12, 2020. I desperately needed a pastime during Covid while I was stuck at home, and I was beginning to gain a passion for writing, so what better idea than to start a blog! It’ll give me something to look forward to and a way to connect with the family I was missing. And hey, I’ll probably be able to make some good money with it too.

Aside from the money aspect (still haven’t figured that part out yet, but it’s not like I’ve taken action toward that realm yet), looking back I think I did have it all together. Blogging quickly became my favorite part of the week, and over time, proved to advance my writing skills.

Fast forward to today, and I can’t imagine my life without it. What else would I do on Saturdays besides feeding my football addiction? (Okay, I’ll admit that sometimes I still watch football anyway before writing my posts, but still.) What would my creative outlet be? Would the relationships I have with my family be different? I’m glad those are questions I’ll never have to know the answer to.

I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunities blogging has given me and for every single person who supports me.

Thanks to you, my blog currently has:

  • 147 subscribers
  • 150 posts
  • 342 total comments

It’s hard to wrap my head around! All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you, friends. If you’d like to take a trip down memory lane, I encourage you to check out any of these posts below; they’re some of my all-time favorites!

Again, I truly appreciate the support of each of my readers and wouldn’t be to this point without you. So whether you’re a recent subscriber or have been here since day one, cheers to three years!

What’s your favorite post on the blog? How long have you been a subscriber? Leave your answers in the comments below!

❤️,

Natalie B

What’s Your Word?

Hello friends, and welcome to Natalie Belle Blog! I hope you’ve had a great first day of the extended holiday weekend.

If you’ve started school recently, chances are that at least one teacher has asked you to complete an assignment about what your goals are for the school year or how you hope to grow in their class. I don’t know about you, but I usually don’t remember (much less follow through on) the goals I create at 7:42 A.M. on a school day.

If you’re not a goal-setting person but want to have some sort of intentionality and structure to your school year, sports season, or work, a less overwhelming option can be to simply pick a word. One word, just one, that captures the person you want to be in a few months time. It’s much more manageable to keep track of if you tend to “forget” your goals or don’t keep up with them.

So how do you choose your word? It’s simple. Search “one-word goals” or “word of the year” on Google and find words that stand out and align with who you want to be. Then, narrow it down to the one that speaks to you most. That’s it!

Here are just a few of the great lists I have found so far:

    The words forward, balance, passion, persistence, and intention were among the ones on my original list. The word I chose for my year is celebrate! I want to celebrate each new day, my small and big wins, and others. Choosing to celebrate every day is choosing joy!

    So, what’s your word this year? Take some time to choose one and leave it in the comments below!

    ❤️,

    Natalie B