Welcome to Revel!
Hey there, and welcome to Revel blog!
I’m Nienke (neen-ka), and this is a place where I want to remind myself that I can have some pleasure and delight in my life every day!
Things we do every day can add so much joy and pleasure to our lives. For me, catching a glimpse of some greenery in my favourite turquoise vases as I pass through the living room instantly perks up my mood. Call me crazy, but I’m a visual person and I truly get affected by my surroundings. Have you ever noticed how a meal just tastes better when you take the time to sit down and eat off your favourite plates? No super grand gestures, no big-baller budgets – and best off all, no rules. If we authentically bring things that we enjoy into our lives we will increase the amount of pleasure and delight we experience every day. Isn’t it great that creating beautiful moments and making life pretty comes in very attainable and unexpected ways?
We all have our own stories that provide clues as to what kind of things bring us this deep, heart-warming joy. Experiences that we have add happy-cues to our lives. My own story started in South-Africa, where I was born and raised. My life got transplanted to Canada with my family at the very inconvenient age of 17. Raised by a Dutch mother, my dad affectionately refer to us as Afro-Dutch Canadians! Today I am newly married to a very Canadian guy (and that is truly a compliment!) and we are creating a life and home together in our lovely 1920s house in Toronto, Canada. Blessed with many different experiences, and exposed to different cultural cuisines and styles, and I like to borrow bits and pieces from each culture – these are my happy cues! For example, from my childhood in South Africa I take cups of sweet rooibos tea. From the Dutch I take their obsession with gezelligheid (“cozyness”?), and from my life in Canada I revel in cottage life at the lake up north.
What are you nostalgic about? It may be Christmas as a kid, or that one summer you spent tree planting in British Columbia. These experiences provide you with a wealth of happy-cues, many of which are connected to your senses. Like the smell of clementines around Christmastime, or incorporating that log-cabin look in your livingroom. These are all things that we can choose to bring into our lives today to give us a daily dose of pleasure.
I heard this somewhere and love it: “how you spend your days, is how you spend your life”. Scary and true right? Now let’s fill our days with pleasure and delight! Cuz that’s how I want to spend my life!
Nice to ‘meet’ you here Nienke – and another Afro- Canadian in Toronto too! Love your introduction + completely agree, it’s the little details and stopping to smell the roses that create a beautiful life.
Hope you’re having a lovely day!
x
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Nienke Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 3:11 am
Nice to ‘meet’ you too! Thanks for the nice words – judging from your blog you are pretty good at creating a beautiful life!
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Dear Nienke
I visited your blog and it is full of inspiration. Keep up the good work and I will definitely visti your blog again.
Regards
Coleen
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Nienke Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 3:12 am
Hi Coleen – I’m glad you like it here
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Hi Nienke
You mentioned that you enjoy eating healthy food. Any suggestion for somebody who eats when get lots of stress? I really want to be healthy and full of energy. Please give me suggestions. I do go to the gym, but neglect it too.
I am going to start changing things around in my apartment tonight. I can not wait to chuck out unnecisarily things.
Enjoy you day.
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Hi Coleen!
Stress eating is so common, and I have my moments with it too! The biggest thing that has helped me to not stress eat is to visualize how I will feel afterward. Chances are you may feel good while eating, but immediately after you will just feel worse than before, and probably also guilty. So when I recognize that I want to drown my sorrows in a bag of chips, I ask myself: “how will you feel after you eat all that?”. I also try to replace the food with something else that will make me feel good – like a cup of tea, or a change of scenery (like going for a walk). And you know what the biggest surprise is: when you engage in healthy activities when you are stressed, you will also magically have more energy!
Another big thing for me is to always have healthy snacks and food around. I always have a granola bar or some fruit or crackers in my purse. And I choose not to buy unhealthy food, because I know once it is in my house I will eat it when I’m stressed.
Hope that helps! And have fun changing your apartment around
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Thank for the tips and advice Nienke. Maybe I should send you a before and after photo. It is almost time to get settle for winter and then I always indulge in all the wrong foods and after the winter I regret it. But I have to commit myself to healthy food and have to change my eating habitats. No eating on the run anymore and have to put stress on hold. Small portions every 3 – 4 hours and healthy stuff.
I went to the gym on Monday and Tuesday and did good workouts. I have to keep up the good work.
Keep well!
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Coleen Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 2:39 am
Hi Nienke
Good news! I am going on a diet – healthy way of eat which was published in a magazine. It is called a metabolism diet and suites me perfect. if my metabolism can be faster, I would have more energy. Keep your fingers cross that I would get results. Basically you cut on carbs and vegetables which are full of carbs – pumpkin, beetroot, bread and oats – that is a sad story for me. But I have to get started with it. I have a friend who is going to do the diet with me.
Enjoy you day
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