START LIVING

Hey guys! <3

I just ate vegan lemon-coconut cake (I'll post the recipe soon!) with my family. We talked. In real life. We weren't on our iPhones. We interacted. As human beings. The sun was shining.

Yesterday, my mom and brother had a seriously good talk about how addicted we are. We are on our phones from morning to night. And almost everybody in this society is.
They concluded that it couldn't go on this way.
We had to change. So we did.

I deleted my Pinterest account, I wasted A LOT of time on that app.
I also deleted my Twitter.
On Youtube, I continue posting my own video's every week (see the first one here!) but I unfollowed all the people I followed.
On Facebook, I only follow my real friends (did you know you can stay friends with somebody on Facebook but stop following them?).
On Snapchat, same. Just the real people, that I know and love.
I already deleted my Tumblr account a few months ago.
And on the network that I was the most addicted to, Instagram, I decided to just follow the people I feel a connection with and with who I want to stay connected. You don't need tons of internet friends. Make friends in real life. Of course, internet friends are amazing (I am the right person to say that, I made AMAZING friends through social media) but you have to have a few good ones, you don't need 500 internet friends, because it's just impossible to communicate with all of them in a good way. Your brain just can't handle that much. I went from almost 300 people that I followed on Instagram to 19. It feels good. I don't care anymore if I have 45 followers or 45k.
If I lose followers, before, it would have made me sad. Not anymore. People, do you realize it's just a number? You could also be grateful for the friends that you have and have made. Because that's what counts.

So, I cleared up my phone. I don't geek on it every hour anymore. We decided to stop being addicted persons. And I have tons of time left over!
In just ONE day, I did an amazing workout with my brother (lifting, abs and biceps training), I went to the biomarket with my family, I went for a run of a bit less than 4 km, I did the same distance in hiking, I took care of myself and my body by showering and things like that, I blog, I ate cake, I did some trampoline and the day isn't even over yet. You don't realize how much you waste time on your phone or computer until you stop doing it.
Now I got way more time for running and workouts, for blogging and making youtube video's (the things that I do on the internet that are not useless) and writing my book. I can make time to do things I like. Singing, dancing and doing trampoline with my sisters, taking photo's, play with the dog of the neighbors, baking and cooking, eating with attention and not with the television on, doing yoga, drawing, watch sunsets and sunrises instead of my phone, collect trash, make my food look beautiful, training on my gymnastic-skills, smiling and laughing, make clothes, enjoy the little things (like the beauty of a spotty banana), organize picnics, meet a lot of vegans, make silly pics with my rabbit and pet him a lot, spend time with friends, spread love. And so much more!

It feels so good. So alive!
It feels like I can really start living now. It's also a sign of respect, to myself and others. To others because it shows that I find them more important than my phone, and to myself because I think that my time and my life is worth more than some apps, I find myself important enough to DO things.

So guys, let's start a movement with less internet-addiction and more real-life-communication. Communicate with the right people. The ones you love. And you know inside of you who those people are.
You don't need internet as much as you think. You need to do things that make you happy. Nobody feels great and proud when you just watched video's of some guy with 3 million followers all night long. You feel great and proud when you do things that make you happy, like running, singing or doing workouts, it depends on you.

So people out there, I challenge you to do the following :-)
1) Think of something that makes you truly happy.
2) Shut down your phone, computer or tablet NOW. Come on, you can do it. Then, do what you thought of under point 1.

I wish you a day filled with love and happiness. And you know, you create that by yourself. You don't need 300 Facebook-likes for that.

xx Charlotte :) <3

P.S. 2 quotes for you: "Do more of what you love with people you love"
"How to stop time: kiss. How to escape time: music. How to travel time: books. How to waste time: social media."

P.P.S. Here you can see a few of the many many things that make me happy. I hope it can inspire you <3

Watching magical sunsets like this & taking photo's <3

Making my own clothes & having photoshoots :)

Meeting sweet vegans <3

Spreading the vegan message with the coolest family EVER<3

Collecting trash & being silly :D

Making my food look good :)

Another one of "making my food look good" :)

Taking artsy pictures :)

Singing <3

Making new vegan friends! <3

Taking cute pics with Hoppel :)

Trampoline & taking cool pics <3

Having lovely moments with lovely people <3

Eating food like THIS omg :)