Bodylotion love/Bodylotion Liebe (Tag)

Chrissi from forever in love with shopping has started a tag with questions around body lotion which I find quite interesting. I have a ton of body lotions and actually wanted to do an inventory anyway. Hence, this tag comes just at the right time and this is what today's post will be about: my body care products and Chrissi's tag on that topic.

Because of the huge amount of body lotions, I started to take care to not buy too many further items in general. But unfortunately, I get weak from time to time just like recently when I stumbled upon two new limited editions by Alverde. I try to use up my stuff but I guess that it will take me forever to use everything up and I won't be able to stay strong until the whole amount of bodylotions that I own is gone. After all, I love body lotions. Nevertheless, I think an inventory and a plan for using up all those products can help me to get rid of them. One day, I want to have only such a small amount of products that I can use up within one or at most two months. 

Have a look at my current collection of body lotions/body butters/body oils/body care products (the two pictures show the same collection from two perspectives):

Here are my answers to Chrissi's questions:  

1. How many body lotions & similar items do you own?  
(Wie viele Bodylotion & Co habt ihr?)

I just counted them and I am really embarrassed to admit that I own 45 items of body lotion, body butter, body oil and other kinds of body care products. Of these are: 3 body oils (2 full-size, 1 sample), 28 body lotions (18 full-size and 10 samples), 11 body butters (6 full-size, 5 samples), 3 multi-purpose creams (1 full-size, 2 samples). So, in this huge mess of body care products, I might even be a bit lucky that only 27 of these products are full-size and the remaining 18 are samples. ;-)

In summary, I have to keep up using that stuff in the pace that I currently already have when using up my beauty products. In the last 6 months (in May I started this blog and my first beauty empties post dates back to May/June this year), I was able to empty 32 items of  body care products (17 full-size, 15 samples) - have a look at my empties posts. So, for the amount of products shown above, I'll probably need around 9 to 10 months to use it up (note however, that I might be able to use more body care products during the winter - I really hope to be able to use more body care products in the next 6 months than I was able to use in the last 6 months).

Life consists of ups and downs (and that's great!)

It's time for some further motivational input! :-)

Found @imgur

Meditation: my progress and my thoughts

Hi guys! How are you getting along with the 21-day meditation challenge? I hope you have seen my link to the interview of Oprah Winfrey with Deepak Chopra. I linked it in my comment to my first post announcing the 21-day meditation challenge. It's a lovely interview and Deepak is explaining and motivating meditation. Try to watch it as soon as possible because I think it won't be available for a long time. 

I started the meditation challenge on the 6th of November in the morning. I am using this challenge to also get ahead with my Qi Gong routine with which I really have struggled a lot. My mornings were completely stuffed with biking and showering and meditation didn't fit in anymore. Hence, I tried hard to do it in the evening but it just didn't work. I have to admit that I wanted to do it every evening but did it only for 3 times in the last 2 months. 

So, when I discovered the 21-day meditation challenge, I had to take the chance and change my routine. I moved biking to the early evening and have put meditation into the morning. This is a major change and I was worried to loose my biking habit. But as biking is already a pretty ingrained habit (I'm doing it now for months on a daily basis), I am doing it in the evening, too. I admit that I lost a day in transition but the following day I was able to catch up. And the new habit of meditation which I try to create, is tough but as I usually biked at that time in the morning anyway, I am keeping up with it. Furthermore, the meditation podcasts of Deepak Chopra are pure fun and it's such a joy to follow them. But I am doing it the tough way like I've learned it in my Qi Gong class. And I also try to do a couple of Qi Gong moving exercises before meditating in a Qi Gong pose while listening to Deepak Chopra's meditation podcasts. However, as they are so much fun and as I am no native speaker, I like to listen to each of the podcasts for several times. E.g. I listened to the first podcast for 3 mornings now and will listen to the second podcast starting from tomorrow morning. 

This is my meditation setup for each morning: 

21-Day Meditation Challenge

Tomorrow, a 21-day meditation challenge with Deepak Chopra will start and I will participate and would like to invite you to participate as well. (I'd like to also take the opportunity to recommend reading the blog HappyIch of Sue because it is there where I read about this meditation challenge for the first time. Sue also already participated in such a 21-day meditation by Deepak Chopra in July and reviewed it on her blog.)

Meditation is not new to me. I started to meditate in September to alleviate the stress my thesis is putting me through by starting a zen buddhistic meditation course. Actually, it is a Qi Gong course, but we are mostly meditating. I don't know how common it is to meditate within Qi Gong courses but in my course we are doing it all the time. Currently, I am meditating once a week within that course and afterwards I feel incredibly relaxed and happy and powerful and this sometimes even holds for a couple of days afterwards. I'm quite impressed by the results. Unfortunately, I am still finding it quite difficult to practice meditation also on my own at home. This is why I am looking very much forward to join the 21-day challenge of Deepak Chopra. It will be my first meditation with Deepak Chopra and also my first guided meditation as my meditation practice in my course hasn't been guided yet.

The meditation challenge that will start tomorrow will be all about "Creating Abundance". The participants will be taken to a journey to an authentic abundance consciousness. According to Deepak, we'll discover what true abundance is, the source from which it springs, how consciousness and the mind affect its flow, and that each and every one of us is worthy and deserving of an abundant life. We will learn how to leverage the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success to manifest our heartfelt intentions and live a more abundant life, attracting more comfort and ease, joy, peace, love, or anything we desire. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Joining the 21-days meditation challenge is free. You can subscribe here either with your facebook account or with your email. Starting from tomorrow, each day a 15-minute guided meditation will be made available. Here you can find more information about Deepak Chopra who is well-known for his books on yoga and meditation.

Are you interested in meditation as well? Will you join the challenge? 

New Alverde Limited Edition Sets

Today I have been in the city center and discovered two new limited edition sets by Alverde. Each set consist of a shower gel and a body lotion. As I have made only good experiences with such kinds of Alverde limited edition sets, I wasn't able to hold myself back and bought them both. The sets don't cost that much. Each was available for only 4 Euro.

Here is a picture of my DM haul. I also bought winter chocolate by Alnatura which currently is my favourite choclate. Actually, this is exactly why I went to DM in the first place. :-)

(The magazine was available for free ;-))