Before getting Amigo, my life consisted mostly of having small animals like guinea pigs, birds, rabbits, etc. When I grew up and I started working with Animals, I began interacting more with dogs. I didn't understand dogs very well and since I was much more introverted, I never thought about getting one either. It took about 10 years later for me to finally muster up the courage to get a dog and having one in my life made me happier than I thought it would. 

    I mostly put off getting a dog because the timing was never right. I  was either living with someone else or our apartment didn't allow dogs in general. I was also worried that I wasn't responsible enough for a dog so I mostly gravitated towards small pets that I knew I could manage. After all, I knew having a dog was like having a child and my life wasn't prepared for that!

    When 2024 rolled around, Dimitar and I found ourselves talking more and more about how having a dog would lift our spirits. The previous years had been rough on us and we wanted a companion that could grow with us. We were also at the point where we were heavily considering having kids so getting a dog seemed perfect. Sure enough, about a week later we ended up getting a Corgi puppy and named him Amigo.

Amigo's favorite sleeping spot

    Now, I'm not going to lie; Dimitar and I had no idea if we could make having a dog work out after we brought him home. Our lives were already hectic and with us even considering moving to a different state next year...we were nervous. But, we knew we had to get out of our comfort zone because if not, we'd constantly make excuses on why we couldn't get a dog even though we wanted one. So to be proactive (and responsible dog owners), we developed a training plan for Amigo and with each day, our puppy started to feel like our new family member.

    Training Amigo was just like having a child though! We had to get up early to walk him and feed him. He needed a strict schedule of training and was rewarded with playtime. We also had to make sure he had naps so we'd put him in his crate to make sure he slept enough. Our day consisted of walking him at least 4x a day and while it may not seem like a lot - when you live on the fourth flour of your apartment with only stairs, your legs definitely start to feel it!

Amigo after playing

    As we began to learn more about Amigo and he was learning to trust us, we realized that he was teaching us just as much as we were teaching him. He nudged us to live more in the moment, be more selfless, and offered us new ways to have fun. Our regular routine of working and coming home became much more exciting because now we had a dog that loved to to be with us no matter where we went. 

    Amigo's innocent and playful nature quickly rubbed off on us and we welcomed it. Coming home from work and seeing him waiting for us made our day sparkle a bit more. When I wasn't feeling my best, getting out of bed and playing with him made the day seem worth while. If the weather was nice, his excitement to go outside gave me something to look forward to. I never understood the love a dog owner had for their own dogs until the day Amigo came into my life. 

    So having a dog (as an introvert) has really improved my life in many ways that I underestimated it would. While Amigo is still growing and learning and life still seems unpredictable, we know having Amigo part of our family now will only make us stronger. He's the friend we all needed and seeing him bring joy to others around him as well reassures us that we have many happy years ahead of us. 

Amigo & Pearl bird watching

Until next time! - Sarah xoxo

    There comes a time in your life where you want better than what you have; where quality is much more important than quantity. Our very own human nature is to create and thrive and while we can't fill in every crack that we find along the way, our drive to improve the quality of our life is perfectly normal. In fact, it's necessary.

    For example, when our home is messy, we get an urge to organize and tidy up. When our job is no longer fulfilling, we suddenly want one with better benefits or pay. If you discover you spend way too much time on social media than your own hobbies, then maybe you'd adjust your priorities. The quality of our life matters and when we get that push to do or be better, it's our inner selves trying to bring more happiness into our lives.

    As complex as we humans tend to be, this internal system of ours attempts to guide us in a better direction so that we are more in tune with ourselves. Nature always finds a way to restore the balance and we are no different. If our lives do not reflect what we truly want from ourselves, we will naturally get situations that will challenge this. When this happens, something either needs an upgrade or needs to be replaced. We either have to let go and move on or welcome new adventures into our lives. 

    For the longest time, I didn't understand the importance of having a life of quality. I simply lived every day filled with obligations and I always ignored the signs from the Universe. I was on autopilot and internally suffering just like many others around me. It was only when I turned to my hobbies again that I found myself able to see beyond the walls I had built for myself. It was astonishing how a small tweak in my routine changed my life forever.

    So, here are some ways you can improve the quality of your life right now and you may be pleasantly surprised by how easy it really is!

1. Develop A Hobby

    If you have an itch to try out something new, find ways to start now. Take that art class you found on Groupon, join that Facebook group, or buy the supplies you need from Amazon. Starting your hobby sooner than later can really enrich your daily life. 

2. Spend Time In Nature

    Do you spend too much time indoors and can hardly remember the last time you felt the sun on your skin? Go to your nearest park and explore the trails or bring some friends along to enjoy outdoor activities. Being in nature is a great way to move stagnant energy while getting some fresh air at the same time. 

3. Have Fun

    If you're all work and no play, you'll eventually get burnt out! Whether you like playing video games, going out to social events, or even engaging in your own hobbies - everyone should learn to embrace their own inner child.

4. Quality Time With Loved Ones

    If you know you have been absent from those you love, reach out to them and plan something that everyone can get involved with. Check up on those you haven't heard from in awhile or invite friends over to lighten up your home. The best memories are the ones we can share with others!

5. Mend Your Finances

    It can be absolutely hard to enjoy life when you have a dark cloud of debt hanging over you. Rather then letting it suck the life out of you, find small ways to tackle your finances. Or, if you want to start increasing your earnings, look for ways to bring in passive income or learn to invest. Money dictates a lot in todays modern world so finding creative ways to improve your finances will give you more freedom.

6. Follow Your Passions

    At the end of the day, if you aren't doing what you really want to do, you aren't going to be happy. You will either find external objects to make you happy, or live with a void in you that you'll try to cope with. If you aren't satisfied with your career, change it in a practical way. If you want to start a business, give it a shot. If you start living a life driven by your passions, the quality of your life will increase dramatically!

7. Meet New People

    If your circle of friends is small or a bit...outdated, why not meet new people? The power of having friends that compliment us is so rewarding. If you're an introvert like I am where making friends can be a bit challenging, make connections through social Apps and see what interesting souls you meet.

8. Work/Life Balance

    Similar to having more fun, establishing work/life balance is paramount for everyone. Work can often find it's way into our homes, disrupting the time we spend either with our loved ones or the time we spend on ourselves. Whether you work from home or not, find creative ways to keep your work separate from your personal life. If this means being more upfront with your employer or even switching to a new job, it's worth considering if you lack work/life balance. 

9. Declutter

    Personally, I find that having junk around me is a representation of my mind. A clean home is a home with better energy and it's much more inviting to those around us and our own psyche. Spend time cleaning your home (or wherever needs cleaning) and getting rid of what no longer serves it's purpose. By freeing your environment of junk, you'll feel so much lighter. When you think of quality, it involves higher standards; bring those standards back into your life by keeping your environment clean and organized.  

10. Travel More 

    I'm guilty of this but I do not travel as much as I want to. If you're like me and you need a vacation, start planning or saving up for one. It's been statistically proven that even a short vacation is enough to improve our level of dopamine and that says a lot about traveling. Whether you travel to a new city or out of the country, traveling is a great way to change up your daily routine. 

11. Treat Yourself 

    Restricting your ability to treat yourself can easily become overbearing. You can treat yourself without overdoing it by simply giving yourself small rewards that are of high value; monthly get-a-ways, eating out every now and then, or even having a savings account that is specifically dedicated to splurging. Try not to be so caught up in the destination and learn to enjoy the journey as well. 

12. Take Charge Of Your Health

    One of my goals this year is to lose weight in a healthy manner; meaning no strict diets. For many, tackling their health goals can be exhausting and intimidating but in the long run, it's so worth it. If you're ready to turn your health around, consult with your doctor or start changing your shopping habits. Maybe even consider joining a gym with a friend too if you want to exercise more. You can't enjoy your life to the fullest if you don't look and feel your best!

13. Limit Social Media 

    We all know it; social media is fake! Nothing is what it seems on most social media platforms and sadly, many of us fall victim to admiring false idols. The best thing many of us can do is limit how much time we spend on social media so that we can start prioritizing our life instead of idolizing others. 

14. Relocate

    As a city lover, you wouldn't find me moving to the country side anytime soon. I thrive from activity and interacting with my surroundings which is why I have plans to move to Florida. I've always lived in Virginia but Florida resonates with my energy. Sometimes the hard truth is that where we live may not be right for us and it may be worth relocating.

    And that's it! This small list should get you started towards a path of improving the quality of your life. Such changes will always require you to be honest with yourself, but it will only benefit you in the end. So if there is a part of you that is trying to reach out from within, have courage to see what it's trying to say because it may just change your life forever.

Until next time! - Sarah xoxo

       The other day, I was in the car and I couldn't breathe. Both of my nostrils were stuffed up and I didn't have any saline spray on me to help. Usually I keep saline spray on me at all times because I'm fairly sensitive to allergens and pollutants. Dimitar also keeps a bottle in his car because he too gets a stuffy nose every now and then. This time though, we didn't have any around and I didn't realize it would cause me so much distress. 

    We had hit traffic pretty bad and it felt like time was moving by slowly. What seemed like a few minutes felt like an hour because I was constantly focused on the traffic or the fact that I couldn't breathe. As hard as I was trying to keep myself calm, I could feel the tension within me build up with every minute and I become more and more uncomfortable. Everything around me was as normal as could be, but deep down I was beginning to panic. 

    Since I never had a panic attack before, I didn't really understand the symptoms or techniques to use to keep myself calm. I just sat in my seat trying to control my thoughts but it was extremely difficult. It took one thought though to set my panic off (a thought too personal to share here on my blog), and I quickly felt myself become extremely claustrophobic. 

    As we turned the car into a dark neighborhood, I struggled to breathe even more and the music playing on the stereo seemed louder than usual. The space in the car felt like it was closing in on me so I rolled the window down to see if fresh air would help. Along with my thoughts, I felt my breathing pick up and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't breathe, I felt alone, and whether we stopped the car or not, it wouldn't help. That's when it hit me that I was having a panic attack. 

    On top of those feelings, I also felt ashamed. Whether that was because of my panic attack of just my experience being the younger sibling who always felt like an inconvenience, it left me a bit traumatized. Why? Because it was the first but not the last time I'd have a panic attack and I didn't understand why. It seemed fairly random since I'm normally a pretty composed person. 

    The second time I had a panic attack, I decided to leave the house without my glasses; we were making a quick trip to Subway and for some strange reason I thought it was a good idea to leave my glasses at home and sure enough, I had a panic attack. The third time, I was at work and I remember looking at the lights and thinking how unnatural the lighting was; I had to step out of the store to get a drink just so I could calm my thoughts down. 

    Although presented with different situations, each time I felt myself on the verge of having a panic attack my thoughts always got the best of me. Since these incidents, I have learned to practice controlling my thoughts and my breathing since those are the two things that can make the symptoms worse. Most importantly though, it made me aware of how I wasn't taking care of myself mentally and that I needed to do better. I have always been an advocate for mental health so I needed to play the part. 

    It also helped to have Dimitar around to help calm me down. When my mind was racing and I wasn't thinking clearly, it's was great to have him around for comfort. Experiencing such things when you're alone is fairly scary! 

    Some things I've been doing so far to take care of myself are; taking more vitamins, eating cleaner, going outside when the weather is nice, listening to better music, having more fun, and doing more daily affirmations. Having panic attacks made me realize how vulnerable I was to stress because even though I didn't feel overly stressed out, my reactions to such events told me otherwise; it was truly a wake up call.

    If you find that your mental health has taken a turn on you, please consider getting professional help! There is a mental health crisis in America that many of us overlook and such things will never improve if our lifestyles don't change with it!

   Until next time - Sarah xoxo

    I have been on a mission to lose weight...again. For anyone who has struggled with losing weight (specifically, keeping it off!) you know how hard it can be to feel like you've tried it all but nothing seems to be working. Well, that's the point that I'm at and it sucks. I kept losing weight and gaining it all back and I just couldn't understand why or how. Was my body out to get me? Was I just destined to be a default weight of obese?

    Now, before I start this post,  I don't want my health goals to trigger others. I know the ideal weight I should be at and since I strive to be healthy, I know I can't be healthy and happy if the scale says otherwise (Again, I'm using myself as an example here). Also, this post is not for those who struggle with eating problems already - if you find yourself with an eating disorder or have underlying health conditions that need to be evaluated by a professional, I highly encourage you to get medical help as soon as possible. 

    With that said, I have opened up about my experience trying many different diets; each came with their own success but it was always short lived and I would just end up gaining all of the weight back. The most successful diet I tried was doing Keto but my diet was very restricted and often left me frustrated since I had to maintain a low carb diet every day. While it came with added health benefits, I just couldn't see myself doing it long term. 

    This year, something clicked in me where I thought about counting calories. I have never considered it before and instead always thrusted difficult diets onto my body with no questions asked. My diet is already fairly healthy but I wasn't losing any weight, which led me to wondering if I was eating too many calories than I was actually burning. 

    This is how I started counting calories. I downloaded an App called "Lose It," and did my best to track my calories every day. It's a fairly easy App to understand but unless you upgrade, you have to enter what you eat manually. I didn't upgrade and have come to enjoy putting the foods I eat in myself but some of the App's features like tracking your carbs or scanning a barcode seem pretty useful for those willing to pay.

Lose It App

    Also, when you setup the App, you can personalize your goal according to what you want to achieve. Since I wanted to lose weight, my first plan was set up so that I was eating 1200 calories a day which meant I'd achieve my weight loss of 25lbs by November. It seems like a long wait to see results but I was so used to trying diets that gave me fast results that I was ready to try the complete opposite if it meant the weight staying off. 

    Unfortunately, after several weeks of counting calories with the scale not moving, I lowered my calorie intake down to 1000. For some, this many seem too little but I knew my body had more than enough fat on it to sustain itself; I just had to be extra mindful now of the food I ate. Just like that, the water weight was first to go and I started to feel like I was making progress. 

    My day consisted of a protein shake in the morning, a small snack afterwards, a light carb meal for lunch, another small snack, and then dinner is where I'd cook something more elaborate. Since I was consuming less calories, I had to be mindful of everything I ate since I could easily go over with a simple snack like chocolate.

    It was hard of course but not as restricting as doing Keto or water fasting. I felt like I could splurge if I wanted to just as long as I was not going over my calorie intake. Of all the diets I have tried, being mindful of my calorie intake was a great way for me to hold myself accountable for everything I was eating because I genuinely had no idea how easy it was to eat 1500 calories or more! Tracking the calories forced me to be honest about my eating habits without my diet being so restrictive. 

My 2nd diet plan

    I also should mention that I don't really work out; I personally don't like to but I do wear a Fitbit that Dimitar bought me a few weeks back. It's pretty fun but sometimes also annoying; I got sick shortly after wearing it and it was annoying for the watch to constantly remind me to move when I was bed ridden! Other than that though, it's a useful device I use to monitor my steps. At the end of the day, I put in how much I've walked on the Lose It App; freeing up more calories that I can treat myself to if desired.

    I'm now going on my second week of my new diet plan and I know my body is getting a healthy challenge. I don't feel like I'm deprived but I definitely find myself craving stuff; a good sign my body is working. I'll know after another two weeks if this new plan is working and if it is, I may have found the answer to losing weight (at least for me).

 Until next time! - Sarah xoxo

    Everyday for the past three months, I made it a habit to write daily affirmations in a notebook. It's wasn't a special notebook or anything like that; just a regular notepad where I could dedicate my time towards being positive and focusing on my goals. I realized that in my intense life journey towards fulfillment, there wasn't a place where I could let my imagination roam freely. I have my daily obligations that aren't always exciting or inspiring, yet I didn't give myself a chance to be intentfully happy and wishful. So, I dedicated a notebook just for such thoughts and I was pretty shocked with what happened!

    Some important reminders to keep in mind is that I had one notebook dedicated to my thoughts; the bigger the notebook, the better too, so I highly recommend a jumbo journal if you can get your hands on one. Ideally, it should be a notebook you can take with you anywhere you need to go to make it easier to write daily. Also, I always wrote in present tense to help me focus on what I wanted to manifest; I have a successful business, I have happy & healthy pets, etc. By focusing on what you have (even if at the moment you don't have it) you help improve your vibrations which can in return help you manifest what you really want. 

     For this experiment, I wanted to see if writing daily would help improve my ability to manifest. Lately I have been hit with many obstacles that made me wonder if my vibrations were off. By writing for several months, I would put my own thoughts and vibrations to the test and then share my results afterwards. 

FIRST MONTH

SECOND MONTH

 THIRD MONTH