It's Kodi Here

Hello world it's Kodi here with yet another strategy I have found helpful for keeping the anxiety of being an adult in the real world at bay. Do Nothing. Spend a few moments of each day genuinely just doing nothing. Now I happen to be a big fan of meditation and I'm sure will be sharing bits about that later on, but in case that's not your thing--then maybe this is. In a way they are one and the same, there is just something about "do nothing" that seems less like one more thing to add to your to-do list. So if you hit a point where your mind begins spiraling through all of the things that you should be stressing about. Breathe, write the worries down if you need to so you don't stress about forgetting them--and then just do nothing. Let your body just do its thing, even for a few moments. Our bodies do so much and work so hard, even when we are at rest. Sometimes it's nice just to acknowledge that and give your body a little room to breathe. Following...

Hello world it's Kodi here and I wanted to share with the wide world of the internet my newest revelation/life lesson. I'm someone who can very very easily get stuck in a negative spiral of panicked thoughts about the future. The second I see something on my calendar that I'm nervous about, or think about what may happen once I graduate, a little voice comes alive in the back of my head and starts seeping out all of the horrible ways that things may go wrong. I read something recently on the inspirations page of dailyom.com  about strategies of overcoming fears. The mind is such a powerful thing and fear is truly something that we can control if we work at it. Now it was either something that I read or inspiration that my brain took from the article but I have found a new way to completely quell horrible fears and panics about the future when I start to feel them bubble up. The human brain is a powerful thing. And just by living on this earth we all become very good p...

Hello world, Kodi here. So I've made the decision to go back through all of the blog posts that have just been sitting as drafts for far too long. I figure, they were things I wanted to say at some point but never felt that they were ready. But I realized today that I would rather share a raw, unedited version of myself than never feel I'm good enough to share even a part of me. So here it goes...the mission to finally complete and post all of the writing that has been sitting, hidden on here for however long. This one is kind of inspired by the last published post on here ( Let the Bad Moments Go ). Although this time I'm far more aware of how important presence is in emotional health. There's a Buddhist belief of Impermanence that goes "Everything changes, nothing lasts forever." So let's say for a moment that we go along with this belief--then there is zero point in doing anything that is not experiencing the moment that you are in to the fullest ...

Hello internet, it's Kodi here and I'm back after yet another incredibly long break from blogging. Basically, I learned a great lesson at the end of last week and just felt that it was something that should be recorded/shared with anyone who is listening. It was something that after the fact seemed SO obvious, but sometimes as humans those lessons are the hardest to actually put into practice. Lesson Learnt: You cannot let a bad moment or a collection of bad moments ruin what comes next. Last week, I was just having one of those weeks where one bad thing after another just kept coming at me. After the first few times, I just started sulking and expecting everything else to be horrible as well. We've all been there and we've all been in those moods where you just want to wallow in self-pity. But, who is that helping? It makes you dreadful to be around and it certainly isn't making you feel any better. So, walking home after my last class on Friday with my brain j...

Hello World! So the Digital Detox was a little project that I gave myself several weeks ago (after seeing Estee Lalonde do a video about it) to try and move away from my dependence on technology. I had hit the point where I was reaching for my phone or going online without any particular purpose, it was just to pass the time. So I took it upon myself to spend 48 hours without my laptop or my phone. I shut both down and put them into my desk drawer and launched on quite the adventure. Below I have listed the observations/lessons that I learned about myself from it. 1. Because I don't own a watch or a clock, my sense of time was completely skewed and something that I found myself worrying about quite a lot even though there was no reason for me to know the time. 2. It allowed my body to fully recuperate in the way that it needed to. When I began the detox I had a massive headache and was just generally feeling exhausted from the week's work. I went to bed incredibly early on...

Hello World! Yes, I am alive. I apologize for the length of time that has spanned since the last time that I wrote a real blog post. As you may or may not know between the last time that I wrote a post on here and now, I moved from the West Coast of the USA to the beautiful county of Surrey in the UK to study at an absolutely wonderful drama school. What I didn't fully comprehend when I made the move was just how hard I was going to have to work and just how hard moving an ocean away from your hometown is. Not to say that I am not enjoying myself or regretting the transition, on the contrary I am having the absolute best time of my life and I have never before felt more on the right path. But that doesn't change that moving to a new country can be a bit trying at times. I still feel like I'm just in the moving in stage but in reality I've been here for a whole of about 11 weeks now, which is quite a length of time. So, I thought I would push myself to get back into the ...

 Hello internet, it's Kodi here, and was recently sifting back through some old blog posts from various things and found this one. It made me smile looking back at my positive self from a year ago and certainly made me proud of all I have accomplished since then. Re-reading it picked me up from a slight negative dip in my positivity so I thought why not share it with whoever is out there? Without further ado here is a small window into my past self:     The show that I am currently working in opened a few weekends ago, and this is the longest running show that I have ever been in, which is a really interesting experience for me. We give a total of 17 performances (the most I have ever done before is 8). On top of the number of physical performances we are giving, I have never had more extensive hair and makeup for a show before, which is really taking a toll on my skin and hair. Basically, I am getting to first hand learn the downsides to successfully being in ...

 Hello world, it's Kodi here and today I wanted to share with you my efforts in trying to achieve a personal goal that I set when I got my Passion Planner . A few months later, when I started this blog it also became #3 on my ten year goal list . As I mentioned in my last post, I am a very empathetic and emotional person, and because of that I am very easily affected by the emotions of those around me. So, to create a happy and healthy environment to live in I created the goal of living in a positive sphere of people. By the time I am 30 I hope to have fixed all negative relationships in my life, or at least have a solid way of staying grounded and happy when with these people. On top of this being a personal goal for me, I believe that living a life with positive and inspiring people around you can really improve your happiness on a day to day basis. Ever since I was a kid I've had issues with negative relationships from bullying in school, to friends who are pessimists, to ...

Hello world, it's Kodi here and I just wanted to share a quick realization I had a few days ago about love. And this may just be because I am an incredibly empathetic and sensitive person so I am affected by others' emotions easily, but I believe this applies to the whole world. Love is infectious. I try to live my life with as open a heart and mind as possible which allows for a much more positive life-view. A few months ago I began nannying for a young family with a 1 year old. At first, I was thinking rather negatively about the job seeing as it would be quite exhausting spending 5 hours a day with a 1 year old. For those of you who don't have kids or haven't babysat before, 1 year olds take up literally every moment of your time, it's difficult for you to eat or use the restroom let alone take a breather for a few minutes. So, I went into this job with the mindset of saving up money for moving to England. But the more and more I spent time with them the more j...

Hello World! It's Kodi here to tell you that you should reach out to anyone and everyone that inspires you because you never know what could come of it.  During my most recent trip to London a very good friend and I were fortunate enough to get the last two tickets to see Ralph Fiennes in Man + Superman at the National Theatre. Being two enormous theater dorks we were absolutely thrilled to spend three hours of our evening watching outstanding actors perform Shaw. Naturally, we were blown away by the talent of the stars featured in the show, but it was Tim McMullan who really took my breath away. Even after I got home from my trip, I couldn't get his performance out of my head, so I decided to tell him. Naturally I never imagined that he would ever receive my letter let alone reply. Within a month of sending my letter thanking him for being such an inspiration and asking what his advice would be to an aspiring actor, I received a two page, handwritten, heartfelt reply. ...

Hello World! It's Kodi here and I thought that I would use this post to explain why butterflies are so important to me. The universe has been sending me butterflies constantly over the past few months and I'm still trying to work out why. Regardless of that, here is where it all started: It all started when I was traveling in the U.K. with my mom.  We were at Blenheim Palace in the cafe and I could feel a panic attack coming on. I immediately tried to stop it by getting outside and doing deep breathing but soon the tears came streaming down my face and I was only able to take very shallow breaths. My mom and I found an empty butterfly garden and figured that would be a good place to sit and pull myself together. As we quietly wandered around, my mom saw a sign that said something to the effect of "Do not put butterflies in high stress situations. They will die." She then looked at me and very matter of factly said "you are a butterfly".  From that...

Hello Internet! It's Kodi here to give you a little anecdote from recent events in my life. I recently had quite a whirlwind of a day which taught me a valuable lesson. I learned that having a good day versus having a bad day is entirely up to me. I only need to see the good that happened and focused on the joy that was in my life on that day. I truly believe that happiness is a state of mind and our reactions to events that happen in our lives is really the only thing that we have control over. So, a couple of days ago I was pulled over for the first time in my life and was given my first ticket. It was one of the most heart-racing experiences of my life. Overall it was a pretty funny experience and I am so incredibly glad to have had one of my best friends with me in the car (we were on the way to Disneyland).  She kept me sane and kept telling me how everything was going to be just fine and I hadn't done anything wrong.  The story of getting the ticket is pretty funny on ...