The Now

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Sitting here, early morning with the bright eyed sun filtering through heavy drapes, I write while the world sleeps. A peaceful calm descends over me, wrapping me in an embrace and a word for this moment comes to mind. The Now.

We've heard it too many times, "live in the now" for it to have any effect on us anymore but what exactly is this mysterious now?

I've learned that no matter what happens, you have to make the most of the situation, strengthen your grip on the bull ride that is life and never let it buck you off. And when you do that, you've zoned into this mysterious now.

Because the now is the moment that you really truly live, with all your free spirited being.

It's the moment spent actually living and not just being alive.

If we stop for a moment, grab our coffee cups and sit down, we might find our minds going in directions we never thought possible. We might find ourselves wondering why exactly we go through the minutes and hours of each day doing exactly what we did the day before.

And then, we might notice that being alive isn't even remotely close to living.

Pursuing happiness and actually being happy are two very different things.  

So then, we might promise ourselves that tomorrow will be a different day. But, tomorrow never comes.

You just live another yesterday. Again. And again. And again.

Until routine is a habit and you just cannot stop to actually enjoy the wonders around you and be happy with this life.

Because you're too busy wishing for more, wishing for that now that you don't realize you're living it.

Live in the moment.

No matter how hard life gets you down, twist it and turn it into something worthwhile.

Because we only have this one life. And, it's too precious to throw away doing paperwork and watching TV all day long.

It would be hypocritical of me to say all of this without promising to do it myself. For, as much as I absolutely despise routine and consistency, I find that I have fallen prey to it as well.

You might not notice the day go by doing what you always do.

And then the weeks.

And months.

And years.

Your whole life.

Of yesterdays, never the tomorrow that you promised yourself.

So, I propose a plan, a week long plan, to do one thing for a week to actually sit back and soak in life.

MONDAY:  Lay on grass and watch the world go by.

TUESDAY: Take your notebook out and just write while you walk.

WEDNESDAY: Interview someone you have never met before, a total stranger.

THURSDAY: Leave a nice note on a stranger's car.

FRIDAY: Watch the sun set.

SATURDAY: Jog around your neighborhood and actually pay attention to what's passing you by.

SUNDAY: Plan a "family movie night"-they were always a tradition at my house but we haven't been doing them lately because of how busy everyone is. Now is a good time to revive the tradition.

I will complete this list next week and take pictures, which I will include in a separate blog post. Take pictures of whatever you do and tag us on Instagram @zoeandtima.

What do you do to feel more connected to life? 

 

Fatima x

Fatima: Who I Really Am As Opposed To Who I Was Pretending To Be

It has been a year since I last blogged and I realize that our blog transition, our change of heart that had never really been in the right place, everything our readers know from Zoha's perspective. I've stayed in the background the entire time, let her meet this challenge head on, she has always been more of a fighter. 

But now, now I feel like I need to express myself the way I should have 3 years ago on our very first blog. The person who sat behind the laptop screen, writing page after page of beauty reviews, that person wasn't me. 

Rather, it was the person I felt I needed to be in order to get more comments, more followers, more likes on our Facebook page, all the things that don't carry the same significance for me anymore. I didn't have fun while blogging, which I now realize is the most important part. It became a normal part of my very normal life. I didn't get excited thinking up new post ideas, I never felt the rush of euphoria when I uploaded something that I had been working on. It was routine. 

That person wasn't me.

This is me.

This is what I wanted to do ever since that day when Zoha came over and we sat in my room creating our very first blog. I suppressed that want, that need and desire to be who I wanted to be, behind the screen and on the screen. And now, hope is once again rekindled into a flame that burns bright inside of me, a blog is taking shape right before our (and your) very eyes that will tell the story of two ordinary teenagers in an extraordinary world.

I'm not a makeup artist. To be very honest, the most makeup I put on is a swipe of lipgloss here and there. Being a person who would like to call themselves an aspiring writer, I never had problems writing posts before. I made things up. The makeup that I blogged about, I never used. The fashions that I blogged about weren't always my style. 

Honesty is really important, not just in what rolls off your tongue, but in your life, your work, your ideas, everything requires you to be honest if you want to be successful. Maybe people felt, during our Fashionaholic days, that we weren't being completely truthful not only to them, but to ourselves as well.

But now, being completely honest, I'll tell you who I am and what I stand for.

This is the truth.

I want to be a writer, a neuroscientist, a psychiatrist and so much more. I want to travel the world and explore places, climb mountains and swim in oceans. I'm an adventurer, a dusty tattered thing sitting on a train with an even dustier type writer watching the world go by. And that is what I want to blog about. Whatever I want to blog about. And that's also what I think people will enjoy reading. 

A whole personality cannot fit onto the virtual pages of a blog and I'm thankful that even though it has been 3 years, our blogging journey has just now begun. Zoha and I will change as we go along, our styles of writing, what we want to write about, all of that will slowly morph into something new and different but equally beautiful, of that I am sure. Because we have finally found our meaning, our purpose in the blogging world. 

Welcome to who we really are.

Welcome home. 

FATIMA x

Review: BeLissPro Curling Genius

My hair has a mind of its own. It's so stubborn, it will never curl. And, when I manage to wrestle a strand of it into a limp curl, it will never stay for more than twenty minutes. I had completely given up the hope of having curly hair when I discovered this product.

It's the BeLissPro Curling Genius curling wand by Sally Beauty Supply and I am absolutely in love with it. It has given me hope that my hair can in fact curl.

This is the only curling wand that I have discovered that works wonders on my hair. And the best part is that you don't have to do all the work! You just clamp the top part of an inch wide strand of your hair into to chamber and it draws the rest of the hair in itself! It keeps the hair inside the curling chamber for an option of 8, 10, or 12 seconds, depending on whether you want wavy, loose or tight curls. When your hair is curled, it will beep quickly and you just have to release to find a gorgeous curl.

It also has two heat settings that you choose depending on what type of hair you have. I curled all of my hair in 20 minutes, it works that fast. Here is a collage I made of the before and after pictures of my hair. I choose to keep my hair in the curling chamber for 10 seconds, creating loose curls. Take a look.

                                  

I think that one of the things that captured my eye with this product is the unique design. It's very different from your classic curling wand. This is definitely not a product that I will tire of quickly and I feel so lucky to have discovered it. Do you want a BeLissPro Curl Genius Curling Wand? Order it at http://sallybeauty.com

                                    

                                           Do you have a favorite curler/straightener?