21 Things In 21 Years

Howya.

Hope life is good.

Hope you had an absolutely class Christmas full of food and family and festive vibes.

I said I'd post this blog post today instead of tomorrow, cuz tomorrow is my actual birthday and I don't want to be stressin over posting it etc etc so I said I'd post it the day before.

This blog post is gonna be 21 different things that I've learned in my 21 years of living on this planet. Some of the stuff is just practical and then other stuff is a bit more spiritual and hopefully a bit inspiring.

I really don't want to sound full of myself or like someone who knows it all in this blog post at all, but if any of my rambling can help/inspire/encourage just one person then I'm happy with that.

Oooh and there's going to be a good amount of photos scattered throughout this blog post, some of them are related to the points I make and some of them are just there cuz I love them so much.

I really really hope you like this blog post, so yeah, here we go...21 things in 21 years.

July 2018 - Felt a bit lost but looking back I'm grateful for the choices that I've made

July 2015 [San Diego, California] - One of the dreamiest places I've ever been

September 2018 - The Red Brunette X Plant Powered Human

#1 You can tell a lot about a person from their socks.

Okay this is kinda a funny one but hear me out. I can't even explain how much it satisfies me whenever I see someone with an absolutely class outfit and their socks are absolutely class too. I'm not even talking about crazy patterned/designed socks, plain socks are cool too. But like, there's nothing worse than someone in cool clothes and then their socks just ruin the whole look but they don't even realise it.

Maybe socks are like a symbol of the-little-things-in-life but yeah, treat yourself to a good pair of socks.

#2 It's okay not to drink alcohol.

I don't have anything against alcohol, I just don't understand the need for it to be involved in every social situation, especially in Ireland. I don't drink and I always felt like the odd one out, but now I genuinely couldn't care less what people think. Don't ever let anyone guilt you into having a drink, and don't let the pressure of other people drinking make you feel as though you should drink too. Do whatever you enjoy and whatever suits you.

May 2017 [Berlin, Germany]

#3 Music is powerful.

I literally wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for music. Playing musical instruments, going to concerts, listening to music, and so so much more has all influenced my outlook and approach to life so much. The power music has really is indescribable.

Whatever type of music you have in your life, cherish it, never take it for granted, and let it take you to the places that it takes you.

June 2017 - The Coronas, Live At The Marquee

November 2018 [Dublin] - Jess Glynne, 3Arena 

December 2018 [London, UK] - Ellie Goulding, SSE Wembley Arena

#4 Family is everything.

Whether it's your biological family or your friends/pets/plants/whoever-you-call-your-family, squeeze them so hard and tell them you love them. Life is so short and nobody knows what's around the corner. Your family are always there for you and you should always do the same for them. It's so easy to take everything they do for granted. Make sure they know how much you love them. And if you can't verbally tell them, show them in pancake-form, that's a win-win situation.

December 2018 - The Woods fam just after our Christmas brunch in Good Day Deli

August 2018 [Kerry] - I adore kale nearly as much as I adore this brilliant human (which is a lottttt)

#5 3 essential skincare products...

A good moisturiser, a good beard oil, and a good hand cream.

There's literally nothing better than a moisturiser that suits your skin perfectly, an absolutely class beard oil that just has you smelling delicious, and a thickkk hand cream that you can plaster on at night just before you go to bed.

Obvs I use other stuff too like deodorant but I just think they're the 3 most important things.

(In case you're wondering, I use the Enzymion moisturiser from Lush, the Peppermint and Tea Tree beard oil from West Cork Beard Company, and the Handy Gurugu hand cream from Lush.)

August 2017

July 2016 [Pisa, Italy]

July 2015 [San Diego, California]

#6 Clothes have no gender.

I'm kinda only after realising this now but there's no rulebook when it comes to clothes. I really respect people who dress as authentically as themselves as possible, whether that's a fella wearing an absolutely class suit or a t-shirt/jeans/runners combo or a skirt/top, literally whatever, I respect everyone's choices and I admire people who have the courage to be truly themselves.

Just because something is pink or has frills doesn't men that a man can't wear it, and the same goes for women wearing 'men's' clothes. Literally wear whatever you want to. Wear whatever you feel sexy in. Wear whatever makes you feel unstoppable.

#7 Love is love.

Love whoever ya want. And love yourself.

Allow all types of love to cross your path in whatever way they present themselves to you.

Whether that's going on a date with a girl from that bookshop, and then going on a few dates with that fella you always see in that café, and then marrying the lady who bakes croissants in her free time.

Whatever you're looking for, be open to it, and go with the flow.

Learn from love and be willing to grow from love. And have fun with love, let it enrich your life.

Love is out there for everyone, in all different forms of the word, you just gotta be open to it.

Love love love.

#8 Listen to your gut

At the end of the day, only you can tell what's right and what's wrong when it comes to your own life. Nobody else can make the decisions for you.

Listen to your gut, and the more you listen to it the more you begin to understand your own mind and the decisions you should be making for yourself.

Give things time and allow yourself to think over certain things if you need to, but at the end of the day, deep down, you really already know what's wrong and what's right.

Trust yourself.

November 2018

December 2018 - CS & CN & GT

July 2014 [Jard-sur-Mer, France]

May 2018 - Bernice (my bike) enjoying the sunshine on our spin

September 2018

#9 Stay hydrated. Stay chocolated.

We all know the importance of staying hydrated (obvs), get yourself a reusable water bottle and that makes this like 10 times easier, trust me. But so many people forget to stay chocolated!!! Fair enough, dark chocolate is actually good for you but like please make little reminders for yourself to eat chocolate. It's good for your soul.

Maybe I'm only sayin this cuz I have such a love for chocolate it's not even funny. Oh and any type of dark chocolate with mint in it is my actual weakness, no joke.

But yeah, if you're feelin a bit down, have some chocolate. If you're feelin happy, have some chocolate. And like I'm talking about proper nice chocolate now like, don't be eating all that shitty over-processed stuff haha stay away from that like.

Eat good chocolate and you feel good, simple.

December 2017 [London, UK] - You are beautiful

July 2017 - Myself and Maeve wearing basically the exact same outfits, totally unplanned. We're class

July 2017 - Green smoothie vibes

#10 Travel as much as you can.

I can't even describe how much I love travelling to new places and meeting new people and eating the most amazing new foods. Travel is education. You learn so much, not only about the places that you go to, but also about yourself as a person. And I can't encourage solo travel enough. Whether it's just going to Dublin for a day by yourself or going to Spain for 2 months by yourself, do it!!! Yeah it's fecking scary and hard and it's probably easier to stay at home, but oh my god the experience is priceless.

Have an open mind when you visit new countries. Travel with your family, travel with your friends, travel by yourself. Basically, travel as much as you can, it's so worth it.

May 2017 [Berlin, Germany] - Classic Maeve

July 2015 [San Diego, California]

May 2017 [Prague, Czech Republic]

#11 Human connection

Go to as many live concerts / gigs / poetry readings / book signings / trad sessions / etc as you can cuz human connection is what life is really about. It's cool seeing loads of photos on Instagram, but you don't truly experience something until you do it in real life.

And for feck sake, when you go to an event like a concert or a book signing or whatever, t-a-l-k to people!!! Let's make random conversations cool again!

Last summer I was talking to an old woman on the train to Kerry and we got talking about her grandchildren and she had printed photos of them and it was actually such a life-affirming conversation. My sister joked, saying it was 'typical Darragh' to make friends with an old lady but like that was just me being nice. The world needs more nice people. And more chatty people, instead of everyone looking at their phones and avoiding making actual human connections.

Life's too short, you might as well chat to everyone and just be sound like.

August 2018 [Kerry] - Typical Irish summer, but we came prepared #yurt

#12 Be true to yourself

This is obviously a lot easier said than done, but so so important to remember.

There's absolutely no point living your life pretending to be someone you're not.

Be yourself.

I feckin love the Dr. Seuss quote that goes like: "Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive that is youer than you."

Word.

August 2017

October 2018

March 2017 - One of the best smoothie bowls I ever made, it was savage

October 2018 - Myself and Anna were late to our lecture but hey we got coffee and had a lovely morning so it was worth it

#13 Exercise.

Whether it's running or cycling or yoga or lifting weights, whatever it is you love, do it!

And if you 'don't like' exercise, keep trying all different stuff until you find something that you just love so feckin much that you don't even see it as exercise. For me it's running and cycling, I just love having the time to zone out and just focus on movement.

And exercise is ridiculously good for your mental health too, so yeah, 'just do it' as they say lolll.

#14 Get out of your comfort zone.

Find your comfort zone first, but then have fun playin around with it and figuring out who you are / what you agree and disagree with / what you like and don't like / etc.

Allow yourself to not define yourself. Don't box yourself in. Explore. Search. Find.

But then it's always good to remind yourself that you have a comfort zone for the times that you need it.

August 2018 - Bernice the bike

July 2015 [San Diego, California] - One of the best smoothie bowls I ever had, definitely in the top 3, and I got it in a raw/vegan/yoga/rooftop café so like that's fairly class like

#15 Care about the environment.

We're the last generation that can potentially change the future in regards to climate change. I think it's either 11 or 12 years that we have to change before irreversible changes begin to occur.

There are so many different ways to help. Do as much as you can. Be positive. Keep on using your reusable water bottle, keep bringing your KeepCup to cafés, keep using your tote bag. You got thisss.

#16 Lead by example

If people think you're cool then they're probably going to do what you're doing.

Trying to make eating-more-veg-and-giving-a-f*ck-about-the-environment seem cool is a lot easier said than done, but I'm workin on it!

October 2018 - I remember feeling really anxious for no reason, walking around college by myself, so I took this picture to remind myself that life's too short not to laugh (I'm still laughing) 

May 2017 [Berlin, Germany] - "Fuck the system"

November 2018 - Pizza and pints with the Italian crew

May 2018 - Me n Bernice

#17 Eat and drink in a way that's sustainable and also in a way that makes you excited about food.

It's so important to find a balance between what's healthy for your body and what's healthy for your soul.

It's kinda handy for me cuz I genuinely love eating 'healthy' food like fruit/veg/etc so I never have to 'force' myself to eat enough 'healthy' foods ya know. But yeah, find a balance between food that provides health and food that gives you joy.

Keep your mind open when it comes to new foods, like don't hate on kale until you try it. And obvs eat a feck load of fruit, veg, and whole/unprocessed foods, and drink lots of water.

But also listen to your body and eat intuitively, like if you're in the mood for a dirty aul burger, eat one! Life's too short.

April 2018

#18 Embrace life / Breathe life / Live life / Love life.

Whatever you wanna call it, basically if you have an optimistic approach towards life, life's gonna have an optimistic approach towards you.

Karma.

Whatever vibe you send out into the world, you're gonna get the same vibe back.

Be kind.

Be hopeful.

Be humble.

#19 Find what gets you out of your funks.

We all have those moods when we're just not feelin' life or feeling a bit down and lacking motivation. It's so important to find what helps you get back on track so then you know what helps the next time you feel like that.

For me a few things that help are: getting a haircut, having a shower, going for a run, cooking/baking/being in a kitchen, listening to music, meditating.

Find whatever helps you.

September 2016 - Run run run

November 2018 - Chillin

March 2018 - I took this picture after my best friend Holly's morning gym class that she taught. My body was in absolute bits ahahaha but it was so cool, g'wan Holly

#20 Be happy in your own company

There's a big difference between being alone and being lonely.

Allow yourself to be comfortable being by yourself, it takes a while (it has certainly taken me quite a while, and I'm not even there yet!), but just give it time, allow yourself to be vulnerable, embrace every emotion you feel, and just go with it.

It's so nice to not talk to people and just let your brain chill out and do whatever it wants.

Go for coffee by yourself. Go shopping by yourself. Travel by yourself. Go for a walk by yourself. Bake a cake just for yourself.

Spending time alone just with yourself and your thoughts can be, and is, scary sometimes. But it's also classss and you really do get to learn a lot about yourself, so yeah you gotta learn how to be your own best friend.

October 2018 - "I'm bilingual, what's your superpower?"

September 2018 - It's cool when you have friends who are as passionate about food as you are

December 2018 - Friendmas dinner with a table that was 1/3 Irish, 1/3 French, and 1/3 Hungarian

#21 Never underestimate the power of a simple act of kindness

Like seriously. It could be as simple as smiling at someone or holding the door for someone or giving a friend a hug if they need one. Whenever something like that happens to me I'm always put in such a good mood and it inspires me to pass the good vibes onto someone else. So your act of kindness could impact 10 other people in a chain-reaction-type-a-thing and you wouldn't even know.

Basically, just be a sound human.

Give a bitta love, get a bitta love.

Love love love.

And be kind to yourself too.

July 2017 - Smoothie bowlin'

October 2018 - BAWLers on the town

December 2018 - A vegan Christmas market and a photo that's 1/3 French, 1/3 Italian, and 1/3 German, I mean what's not to love x

October 2018 - Les Français

October 2018 - The crew

October 2018 [Limerick] - The bro

August 2015 - Rua on stage at the Redhead Convention

October 2018 - A blogger and a tea bag. Halloween at GT's gaff #yurt

Yeowwww so there we have it.

21 things in 21 years.

I planned on having this blog post finished and ready to go before Christmas but it's currently 1:36am, the post goes up in like a few hours, and I'm so full of apple tart ahahah so I don't even know if what I'm about to say makes any sense.

This is my last blog post of 2018, so HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2019 will bring you even more love and happiness and joy and so many good vibes. I'm working on a few reallyyyyy cool blog posts at the moment but I know that I'm going to take a break from blogging and Instagram for January-ish. I'm not sure when the next blog post will be but it'll probably be around late January, early February-ish. I'm so sorry about the lack of schedule but I really do prefer posting blog posts that I'm 100% happy with and proud of. I'm done with this whole 'blogger' thing, I'm only using this blog to post stuff that I truly care about and to hopefully inspire people to live better lives and to be more human.

Thank you so much for the constant support, I genuinely can't put it into words how much it amazes me that people even read this silly 'ol blog, I can't believe it. Thank you thank you thank you.

And if you ever want to give me a shout, send me an email to plantpoweredhuman@gmail.com or chat to me over on my Instagram!

Again, thank you so so much. You're an absolute legend.

I hope your 2019 is as cool as you are.

See ya at some stage in the New Year, and until then, eat your veg and be kind to others.

Big big love,

Darragh