Dolce Far Niente: Update 2 (An apology and university)

Hello,
My dear readers, today’s post will be a little bit personal. The reason why my engagement is constantly lacking or non-existent. Just know that I apologise beforehand and I really wanted to share this with you.

First of all,
Are you all getting into the Christmas spirit? Yes? Me too!

If there is one tip every blog/person gives you when it comes to spreading the content and existence of your blog, it’s being engaged with others. This means that you have to read other blogs, comment on other blogs and etcetera. This way you get more people whom will visit your blog. More blog traffic as they call it.  Blog traffic has amazing advantages for your blog and its future because it creates opportunities and growth.

Engagement, however, means other people and that means interaction with those people. Interaction has never been one of my greatest strengths when you look at the past couple of years. I would like to take you all back about 5 years ago but since this post would get so long, I will keep it short. For the past couple of years, I have suffered from a lot of anxiety. Not the romanticised kind of anxiety (which I despise) but the real kind of phobia when it comes to the outside world. I’m not afraid to say any of the following things, for example, that I went to a psychologist for this phobia of mine because those things have helped me a great deal in life and also made me realise the value of living, so I think it’s worth sharing with and for other people out there with the same issues.

Even though my anxiety level has massively decreased, I still suffer from it in certain situations that most people wouldn’t even think twice about. One of those things is interacting with my followers and the people I follow. I read every single post of every single person I follow and I really do want to comment, it’s just that commenting gives me such a high-stress level. Commenting makes me sweat and gives me slight heart palpitations. Which obviously isn’t good for my health, haha. I just worry so much about what I should say, how I come across, if my comment makes sense, etc. I don’t want to come across as ‘I liked it and commented something uninteresting to get people to my blog’. I really want the person that I comment too, to know that I am genuinely interested and I appreciated their work.  I do work on my interaction with others and have been trying very hard for the last couple of weeks to really interact with the people that I follow or are following me.

I guess, I just really wanted to post this to let you know of my difficulty with interacting and that it isn’t your fault or that of your blog content. It’s just something that I personally struggle with and I wanted to let you know I am working on that.

I also wanted to let you know, that my exams are due within a few weeks so I will be posting a little less and studying a little more. University has been great, however, my procrastination has increased again. I blame it on me entirely, it is absolutely my fault. Since September I have become a commuter (is that how you say it?) between my home and Ghent with the train. Delays have been my everyday cup of tea and I am approximately on the road for about 2-3 hours every day, for sometimes just one hour of class. But I also think that I kind off suffer from the ‘winter blues’. It being really dark very early in the day, which has also made it really difficult to get good pictures but also just has an effect on my mood. However, there is a positive side to this weather because has finally snowed in Belgium and I couldn’t be happier. I love snow haha.

 

I also decided to finally put up the Christmas tree and my socks. Love my socks.
Thank you all so much for reading and lots of love!

Dolce Far Niente: beginning

Dolce Far Niente: Update 1

See you next time!