Hi everyone. I hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day. Being single definitely doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate just as much. It’s a perfect opportunity to pamper yourself or to do the things you love.

My aunt is visiting from Belgium so she brought me back some of my favorite European treats like Speculoos  from Pain Quotidien and a Valentine’s Day assortment of designer chocolates from Pierre Marcolini. Yum! I was definitely feeling the love. I was snacking on chocolate throughout the weekend while simultaneously trying to tie up the loose ends to various projects. They say that cocoa flavanols increase blood flow to the brain. I’m not saying that divine European chocolates can credit for the 52-page essay I wrote but they certainly kept me going.

Looking back on this week, I’ve realized how much space and time is occupied by talk of others. Although it was challenging and quite strange to distance myself from situations concerning rumors or gossip, I definitely think it was a positive experience. Not talking about others for a week isn’t a huge accomplishment. Far from it! But in a private, girls-only high school, it’s undeniably harder than it seems. Throughout the week, I started to let go of the things that bothered me and vowed to stop talking negatively about the people who bothered me. Instead to focusing on their actions, I focused on my reactions. I wasn’t constantly reviving small feelings of anger or annoyance. By not ranting and not venting, I was able to forget the pointless judgments and disputes I had with those people in order to focus on finding long-term solutions.  I didn’t feel like I was keeping things bottled up inside because 99% of my frustrations weren’t entirely caused by the person but rather the situation. It’s easier to direct our anger towards our surroundings the people closest to us instead of digging down and finding the true cause of our frustrations.

All in all, I benefited from this little experiment and I’m going to challenge myself to keep it up. Although they’ll be hard to avoid for the rest of my life, conversations based on rumors, judgment and speculation are things you knowingly decide to participate in. I will make a conscious effort to remind myself not to engage in gossip and focus on judging myself before judging others.

Have a lovely week! And if you can, try to bribe someone to bring you back some chocolates from Belgium! If that's highly unlikely to happen, Truffle Treasures in Ottawa is much more accessible and just as delicious! xox