• Life
April, For Me
TL:WR: April was full of big cheesy smiles like this one…
MAIN HIGHLIGHTS
SELF-DEVELOPMENT
- 🎤 Early in the month, I delivered a talk at the inspireWIT conference in Nottingham about persisting in my journey so far. I’m so grateful for the opportunity! You can read all about the conference and watch my talk here.
RECOGNITION
- 🏆 Code First: Girls released their Top 25 Under 30 Women in technology – Ones to Watch (2018) list and I was listed amongst some incredible women who are making moves in tech and beyond!
- 🏅 …AND The Tab released their Future 100 2018 in partnership with JP Morgan list this month which is a list of the Top 100 most influential female students in the UK!
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
- 💪🏼 I completed the Grace Fit Guide 3 this month! I’ve successfully done all her guides since July last year (I did GFG 1 + 2 twice), I’ve enjoyed adapting her guide into my workout routine! But now I want to switch up things again – since I’ll be mostly revising for my final exams over the next month I’ve decided to go back to FitnessBlender workout programmes (my final week of GFG was mostly adapted to a home work out because of revision life)
I’ll be starting their FB Strong programme and work my way through their new ones until I feel like switching again. I also think I need a “detox” from the “build your bootay!!!!!” mindset to more about my health (I talked about this in my previous roundup.) - 🍏 Most of the month, I did the 16/8 hours intermittent fasting!
- 🤸🏻♀️ I continued going to Hot Yoga weekly
- 💰 Bought some new gym gear (*cough* Gymshark *cough*) and upgraded my FitBit Blaze to the new Versa (which is basically my hex code! 😉)
LIFE, WORK AND UNIVERSITY
- ☀ THE SUN CAME OUT! Even if it was for 2 days, it was something. 😆
- 📚 I’ve had my head down revising for my final exams this summer. I’ve been pretty productive – quite pleased with myself!
- 💀 As part of my Anatomy module, I did a facial reconstruction!
- ☕ Awesome catch ups
- 💻 I attended TechEdge organised by Sky Betting & Gaming as part of the Leeds Digital Festival this month. It was a fantastic event – I learnt a lot about the cloud! ☁
- 👀 Some exciting news coming up!
BLOG
- 📝 Most of my posts this month have been about tech and community: everything I gained from Code First: Girls, my experience at inspireWIT and my favourite health and wellness apps. Sadly, there was no Inspiring Figures post this month but keep an eye out for next month!
FEATURES
- 🔑 Added to the Women Who KeyNote website – a huge network that has incredible women across the world who – that’s right – keynote/give talks!
- 📣 Hannah wrote a blog post about effective social media uses on Facebook and featured me.
- 👩🏻🏫 I recently joined MentorCruise and was invited to be part of their “Meet the Mentors” series – you can find out more about MentorCruise and my interview here.
VIDEOS
I created a trailer initally for my YouTube channel but I thought it fit in with my blog (so I’ve put it on my “About” page too) Fun to make and edit! 🙌🏼
3 THINGS I AM HAPPY ABOUT
1️⃣ Focus
Last month, my main goal was to keep my head down and study for my upcoming summer exams. I’m happy that I organised my time well over Easter to make sure I covered all of my Spring semester content to date and complete my assignments on time. 🤗
This academic year has been one of the busiest! I’ve been mastering the art of balancing health, community work, online work, my part-time jobs all the while trying graduate. This term, I’ve focused more on the last stretch of my academic work – to the point that I’ve had said “no” to some opportunities (even though it was SO difficult, believe me) But I’m going to make these last few weeks count!
2️⃣ Flexibility Progress
Back in my “year goals” I said that I wanted to improve my flexibility and mobility – mainly because I know (from extensive nights of studying Human Anatomy 😜) my body is a lot more capable than the stiff sitting down position but it’s been conditioned this way because of years of spending hours working/studying at a desk.
I was inspired by the BodyWeight warrior and have been implementing some of his routines into my own. I particularly wanted to try and do a handstand! After months of practice, I DID MY FIRST HANDSTAND this month! My yoga teacher pointed out that my main problem is fear because I am “stronger than I think” – I’ve been practising every day since and although I can’t hold it for more than a few seconds, I did it! It’s getting less and less scary. 🤸🏻♀️
Flexibility update: it still sucks. But I’m pushing through the suck!
3️⃣ Recognition
This month I’ve been especially happy about recognition of my community and online work in tech and entrepreneurship within my university and communities I’m a part of! I’m very thankful for everyone who has stepped forward, supported me and nominated me for awards, it only encourages me to continue doing what I’m doing – creating bigger, more positive impacts (the ultimate life goal!)
It’s such an honour to stand alongside such wonderful women as well – grateful 💖
April IN PHOTOS
#Pawsitivity🌠
I have a lot of pawsitive favourites this month, but this one has brightened my duller days. It has helped remind me to stay focused on my dreams even if people around me doubt it or ridicule my passions! Afterall, my dreams are my dreams, nobody elses.
@inspireWIT has turned out to be a conference where every single person attending had the chance to open themselves to their true interests and dreams. One thing every single speaker had in common (@paulienuh among them) is their passion for what they do. Thanks @rosanna20736. https://t.co/GLbrXjI9Ev
— Patricia (@PatriciaRGcia) April 7, 2018
Thanks for the tweet, Patricia! You can read my experience giving a talk at inspireWIT here.
MONTHLY FAVOURITES
💪🏼 HEALTH & WELLNESS
- Fitbit Versa in Lavender and Rose Gold – it’s my purple, it’s so much lighter than my previous Blaze (sometimes I forget it’s even there 😆), it has Clue integration and awesome apps I have access to on my wrist!
- New fitness gear:
- Gymshark Ombre Seamless leggings (sold out ☹️) and pink Ease sports bra
- Gymshark Sleek Sculpture Sports bra in black (the ab cut out is what got me!)
- MyProteinHeartbeat training shorts (I have a 30% off code – use “PAULINE-R28K” – enjoy friends, it’s the most flattering shorts ever! 🤗)
- New water bottle (THE BEST ONE IN THE WORLD 😱) i.e. the Camelbak Chute Magnet Bottle – it’s insulated so your hot drinks stay warm and cold drinks stay cold (which has been amazing for Hot Yoga) I got mine in Purple because me.
My Fitbit versa is here! 🤤😍💜
Once I saw the purple (that is similar to my hex code #A47DA4 😏), I HAD TO get it. I can’t wait to start using it 💪🏻✨ pic.twitter.com/MIXxtE4vlw
— Pauline P. Narvas (@paulienuh) April 21, 2018
🎧 MUSIC
It’s probably no secret how much I love HONNE… Here’s a track they released recently, I haven’t stopped listening!
📚 BOOKS
- “The 7 habits of highly effective people: powerful lessons in personal change” by Stephen Covey – I’ll be writing about this book more in a future post. I recommend it to anyone who wants to cultivate better habits into their lives! You can grab it here – it is available on paperback and on Kindle.
🎙 PODCASTS
- Adulting by The Tiny Tank – such a refreshing, relatable, motivating podcast! It’s a fun podcast I’ve been listening to alongside tasks / walking to uni that covers the struggles of adulting from finances, friendships to periods! Highly recommend it to millennials ✨
📱APPS
- Brandon recommended Astro for emails! It’s helped me filter out noise from all the emails I get, only bringing the important ones to my attention. Less noise = more productivity. It also has your calendar integrated and sends you weekly emails from the Astro Bot to help ensure you’re always on top of your important emails (because let’s be honest with ourselves, we’ve all read emails and accidentally haven’t actioned them!)
👓 ARTICLES & TALKS
- People Who Have “Too Many Interests” Are More Likely to be Successful
- Design your optimal human condition algorithmically by Matt.
- There’s more to life than being happy – TED Talk by Emily Esfahani Smith
NEXT MONTH
⚡ I WILL…
- Continue my self-care routine – especially meditation when I start feeling overwhelmed (which has been pretty dominant this month)
- Get more sleep!
- Continue revision grind – it’s the final leap! 🏃🏻♀️
🎫 EVENTS
- Did someone say J.P Morgan?
- Exams begin – let’s do this 💪🏼
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“We are responsible for our own effectiveness, for our own happiness, and ultimately, I would say, for most of our circumstances. Samuel Johnson observed: ‘The foundation of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove'”
– Stephen Covey, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Habit 1: Be Proactive
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