Little Ways To Change Your Life

Yesterday, Zoella posted a video titled Little Ways To Change Your Life. I thought that this was such a great idea, as sometimes it only takes the tiniest of changes to make you a happier and more lively person. Here is my list of little ways that you can change your life!

1. Don't hit snooze! Just don't do it! Those extra five to ten minutes of sleep isn't going to make your day any more bearable, so you might as well get out of bed and not risk being late. I find that a good way to avoid hitting snooze is to have an alarm that I love waking up to. My whole freshmen year of college I had my ringtone as "Blurred Lines". Now I know, I know, that song is horrible, completely sexist, etc., but I not once during the weekdays hit snooze because I truly enjoyed the ringtone. I've since switched to the acoustic version of "Don't Stop" by 5 Seconds of Summer. The key is to pick an upbeat song, like one that you'd find on a running playlist. But make sure that the beginning is the energetic part because, at least on iPhones, the alarm starts from the beginning of the song.
Other alarm options: "Hold On We're Going Home" by Arctic Monkeys (cover of the Drake song), "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend, "Low Day" by Capra, and "American Girl" by Tom Petty.

2. Wash your face. If you don't shower in the morning like I do, then washing your face is the next best thing. I find that it just wakes me up when I splash a little water on my face. My favorite face washes are Aveeno's Ultra-Calming Gentle Foaming Cleanser and Benefit's Foamingly Clean Facial Wash.

3. Eat a hearty breakfast. It's a scientifically proven fact that breakfast food is the best kind of food. Or at least, it's my kind of science. Breakfast is the start to your day, might as well eat enough to keep you energized and happy for the entire day. Some ideas are smoothies, English muffins, bagels, eggs, waffles, anything your heart could ever desire. Be sure to drink some water or juice as well to keep you hydrated!

1. Stay hydrated. I agree with Zoe on this one. Keep a water bottle with you at all times. Hydrating your body is so important and a lot of us neglect to do this throughout the day. If you don't like the taste of water by itself, infuse fruit into it (I like lemons the best, but kiwi strawberry is also delicious) or go to your grocery store and look for a flavor of drink packet that sounds delicious to you. I also find that I drink a lot more water when it's through a straw. Weird but true!

2. Do a little dance. I love dancing, and it's a damn shame that I'm not very good at it. I would have breaks between schoolwork and studying to dance it out, even if it was just for one song. I love the feeling of letting loose and just not having a care in the world. Good dance tunes: "Best Song Ever" and "Kiss You" by One Direction, "Jump On It" by Sir Mix A Lot (warning: doing this makes me so dizzy!), "Hey Ya!" by OutKast, "It's Tricky" by RUN-DMC, "Tootsee Roll" by 69 Boyz, "Talk Dirty" by Jason Derulo featuring 2 Chainz, and my dance playlist.

3. Call your parents. A long time ago I saw something online in a list of things to do in your 20s, and one of the things listed was to call your parents every single day. While I'm not in my 20s, I made a conscious effort to call my parents as much as I could while I was away at school. I wanted them to know what was going on in my life and I wanted to keep in touch with what was going on back at home. I found that talking to my family every day, or almost every day, made it a lot easier to be away. The days when I talked to my parents were infinitely better than days when I didn't. That's no lie.

1. Dinner with friends or family. This obviously isn't always possible, but I find that the best days are ones where I can sit down and just chat with my friends or family (when I'm home from school) over a meal. I don't mind eating breakfast or lunch alone at school, but I will not go to the dining halls alone because I feel like dinner should be spent sitting with someone to talk about how your day went. Maybe it's just a weird thing that I like to do, but I find dinner much more fulfilling with a nice conversation to go along with it.

2. Watching some television. This could be live television or Netflix, but sometimes just watching an episode or two of your favorite TV show can just be your little sliver of sunshine on any given day, even if said TV show is Parenthood and makes you emotional week after week. I treat TV like dinner sometimes and by the end of the school year, my suitemate/future roommate was watching my weekly schedule with me and actually enjoying it. It's nice to share something with somebody!

3. Reading. There's just something about reading, whether it's a book, a blog, or a magazine, that is so relaxing to me. I transport to another world for the time that I spend reading. It's really lovely and definitely calms me down before I go to bed. 

What do you like to do throughout the day that you think change your daily life?