a new place

One thing you don't really see on Instagram or Facebook are the difficulties in life one goes through. Ya, some people do their ranting online which isn't really the best way to deal with it, but others seem to go through life without hardships at all. The truth is we only really see a small part of one's life through our screens, but the heartbreaks, hardships, discontent, hangups, fear, and other negative emotions are all kept away from the social media world and are contained inside our heads and our hearts. I for one can say that my IG feed looks like i'm having the time of my life eating all the food I want, but in reality there's fear, stress, hangups and discontent lingering behind those posts. I get stressed and turn to vices to relieve me from it, but I've come to realize that these things only relieve me temporarily and are not the best ways to deal with it.

After much convincing from my wonderful sister, I gave in to ashtanga yoga and fell in love with it after my first session. It relieves me from any difficulties or heaviness I encounter in my day, and also gives me a really good workout so I end my day feeling lighter than ever. We attend classes at a neighbor's house so it's very convenient, private, and less intimidating for newbies like me who are still learning.

Sorry for the bad quality, it was dark in the place and I didn't want to insist on turning on the lights.
My face is also extra red because I ran before the class (which was a bad idea because it ended up being 50 minutes of cardio!)

I still do my regular workouts at the gym but yoga has become my go to for extra workout, relaxation and peace. I hope that if you're going through any difficulties in your life, big or small, you find a place to release, find peace, and feel content amidst the chaos of life.

moving and learnings

Where do I start? The days that followed my Baler trip were grueling, time consuming, but immensely informative. It was time to get ready for the move!

The following days consisted of cleaning, packing, managing a three-day garage sale, transfering things, driving, and cleaning some more. I consistently had to get up at 7 in the morning and work till the sun went down during my (extremely hot) summer days, skip my exercise routine, and spend less than an hour on the internet each day, which is not normal and does not happen on a regular summer day in Daniela's life. But because we were moving house, my summer started out very busy. It made me very productive, and I liked it. I was always exhausted at the end of the day, and it left me with sore heels, knees, and muscles. But it was absolutely fun because I got to work with my parents, siblings, friends, and household help. And there was definitely a lot to learn!

Cleaning the House

My mom needed people to clean the house we were moving to. And because hiring people to do the cleaning was pricey, she hired her children and some friends instead.

Learning: It is no joke to clean a whole house. I regularly clean my own room because I hate a dirty room. I never thought of doing it to spare the maids from having to clean an extra room, but now I realized that one room less for them to clean really does make a difference.

Cleaners having a break.

Anton and Sechu cleaning the walls of my room.

The Garage Sale

While packing our things, my sisters and I became aware of how many bags, shoes, and clothes we had that we barely or no longer use. A lot of the stuff in our rooms were things we didn't feel like throwing away kasi sayang, or because it served as some sort of memory of when we were younger. Then we realized, we had too many things, and we had to let go. We had to. So we organized a last minute three-day garage sale during our last three days at the house.

Learning: 

Sometimes we like to keep things because (1) we spent a lot on them, (2) they're still in good condition, (3) they just look nice, or (4) we just want to have them around in case, one day, we decide to use them even though we're almost sure that we won't. This taught me to (1) learn to let go, and (2) spend money wisely.

I can't stress it enough, we had so many unused and barely used things. And a lot of these things were actually still in good condition, almost new, which is why every time we "cleaned out our rooms," these things never came out. But in the process of packing and moving, we realized that storing these things longer will only bring us more dust and less storage space for new things, so we brought them out, and sold them to the happy helpers that would actually put them to use.

We haven't gotten rid of a lot of things still. The third day of the last garage sale looked as if we had not sold anything, even though we really did sell a lot, and the pile for our second garage sale items just keeps getting bigger as we unpack the boxes. Maybe it's also because we're moving from a bigger to a smaller house where there is less space to store things. The lack of space is frustrating, but it really was helpful in making my family and I realize that we had to let go.

Some garage sale items of day 1.

DVDs

Start of the garage sale, when we were still holding back and not letting go of what really had to go. 

Learning: My household helpers are natural sales ladies. When all their friends came in to look at our stuff, the sales ladies in my maids just came out, and a lot of our stuff were sold thanks to the marketing skills of my helpers. Actually really impressive!

Learning: Don't add trash to your garage sale items. If you're gonna sell something, sell it because you know it could be of use to someone else. Not because it's decaying.

A lot more learnings and realizations really came after the move. It was the first major move for me in this state of mind (we moved twice before but I was young, so I didn't feel the moving at all), and it really was an experience.

To be honest, I am sad about having to leave my Woodstock (street) house. I love that house. It was beautiful, so convenient and spacious. But the sadness is outweighed by everything my family and I learned in the process of moving out of it. It's something much deeper than the simple learnings I posted here. These are learnings which will really help our persons in the long run. We no longer have the house we all fell in love with, but we got a lot from losing it. The house is just something material, and whatever it is we all got from letting go of it is something that will stay with us forever.