Creating a Routine that Works for You

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Within every pillar of Intentional Living – Mind / Body, Career / Education, Selfcare / Relaxation, Lifestyle Development, and Experience – it is essential to create a routine that centers around setting intentions that better you and help you to achieve a goal. You’ve seen me preach in the Track Your Habits Blog and the Intentional Living Blog the importance of achieving small goals and seeing small success’ in your daily life in order to reach a much larger dream. This blog has the purpose of going more in-depth to explain how creating routines in your everyday life will show long-term change and success in living intentionally.

A Productive Morning Routine

I believe every routine that you create for yourself needs a healthy balance of give and take. What I mean by that is if you’re waking up an hour earlier than you normally do to start your morning routine, then make sure you reward yourself; you have that whole hour, maybe make yourself a delicious coffee at home or stop for one on your way to work. The most important thing to remember when you’re creating your morning routine is that this isn’t a punishment. This routine is going to set the tone for your entire day, so it needs to be something you’re excited to do when you wake up in the morning.

There is a long list of things you can include in your morning routine, many of them identical to what most people do every morning, drink coffee, brush teeth, get ready, eat breakfast, etc. So, instead of discussing the things you’re already doing, let’s talk about some things that could challenge you and mix up the morning routine you already have for yourself so thatyou may promote a positive tone for the dayand live intentionally. You already know how much I believe journaling benefits the mind based on my blog, The Importance of Journaling; even if you’re not ready to purchase the 6-Minute Diary, start right now by journaling in the morning. Write down the things you’re grateful for, how you can make the day great, and one positive affirmation for the day. This is a fantastic mindset exercise that prepares you for a great day; you are setting the tone for how you want the day to go and actively thinking about what you’re going to achieve and how you’re going to do so. Even if you forget what you wrote down, you’re subconsciously aware of achieving those goals throughout the day.

Challenge yourself to meditate for 10-15 minutes. Meditating, if journaling isn’t for you, is another excellent way of manifesting achievement in your day. On my blog, The Importance of Yoga & Meditation, I discuss many different benefits of completing these mindset exercises daily. Adding these to your morning routine will help stimulate your mind and body to reach a positive outlook on your day. If you feel like these are too heavy for you and want to start with something simpler, the options are truly endless, but the point is to try something that challenges you, so you walk away feeling accomplished.

Many celebrities, billionaires, and other incredibly successful people have been interviewed about their own morning routines, and a few specific things always pop-up. Something I have practiced doing and added to my morning routine is avoiding my phone for the first 30 minutes once I wake up. I know a lot of us use our phones as our alarm clock too, so if you’re looking for alternatives, I myself have gone back to a fantastic and sleek Digital alarm clock, and also love using my Amazon Alexa. I think many of us could agree that we’re too attached to our phones; it’s an unnecessary, and often an unhealthy attachment. There are a lot of benefits to leaving behind your phone in the morning; by ignoring the news and social media, it allows you to get familiar with your own thoughts, go over what you’d like to do for the day, and get into a healthy mindset for the day before you have all of this outside information cloud your head.

How to Design YOUR Day

In my blog, How I Design my Day, I go in-depth on my day-to-day and how I created a routine that works for me. The point of these two blogs is to take in the information and design a few different routines that you can test. Over the next few weeks, switch up your routine and habits and see where you feel most positive and where you’re most productive.

Here are my top tips you should test in every routine and see which proves most efficient and effective for you.

1. .Block out a certain amount of time every day to tackle your to-do list. Whether you work in a corporate job, you’re in school, or in between these two things, you should have a set time each day where you do nothing but tackle that list. Remember in the How I Design my Day blog, I mentioned how every day from 1-4, I dedicate that time to a particular subject within La.Rue. This is similar, take a few hours to commit that time to tackling the things you need to get done without distractions.

2. I’ve found that doing batch work is incredibly beneficial to getting more done in less time. Batch work is when you pool all of the same kind of work together and get it done then move onto the next. For example, let’s say for two hours, I only worked on writing, then for two hours, I only worked on editing, and then for an hour I upload my content. As opposed to working on one blog with writing, editing, uploading, then the next blog. Keeping your brain on one topic and working on it all together can help keep you focused and make your work stronger.

Once you find a routine that you like, stick to it. Routines help improve your overall productivity, so when you reach the end of the day and end of your week, a lot more work has been accomplished and you’ve done it in a way that you know you can do it again because you’ve created that routine. Does that make sense? Knowing what routines and habits work for you is a strength, so find yours and embrace them!

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The Story of Tilly

All Things Lauren

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I always tell people that Tilly was the first love of my life. She was the first companion I had who was truly my own; in all our years together, Tilly and I had been through and gone on many adventures. When I knew what I wanted the La.Rue brand to be, I knew that one of the first blogs I would have to publish would be about Tilly because she was such a big part of my life and a reason I am the person I am today. I knew it would be important to share with the people who don’t know me, the most important parts of my life that made me who I am; Tilly is one of those parts.

Tilly came to us when I was about 12 with her brother Banjo. My brother and I had been asking my parents for our own dogs for a while, and when a colleague of my mom’s reached out to the office to say these two dogs needed a home, we jumped at the chance to rescue the pups. I should mention to you that Tilly’s name is actually Sophie. For years I have had this thing for making up weird nicknames, and as I get to know someone or something, eventually, a nickname slips out and completely sticks. Sophie’s was Tilly. I honestly don’t even know how to begin writing about her. She impacted my life in the most amazing way, and I know that throughout my life I’ll have many amazing dogs that I will love so much, but I know there will never be another like her.

When I left for college and lived in the dorms, I obviously had to leave Sophie behind. When my brother passed away in March of my freshman year, I moved into an apartment shortly after where I immediately brought her up from Florida to live with me in New York. I’m sure you can imagine that living on your own, at 18, away from family, after losing a sibling and still going to college was nearly impossible to do. I genuinely believe that I could not have finished that semester had Tilly not been in New York with me.

I changed as a person after my brother died; Tilly brought me back to life. Coming home to her every day is what gave me hope, a sense of closeness and love that I thought I had lost. Over the next several years, from boyfriends to friendships, to new apartments, and graduating, Tilly was by my side every step of the way. Of course, you can imagine that Tilly thrived in New York, living her best life with picnics in Central Park, walks along the East River, and a room with a view. She had a spirit that was so infectious, her smile made you smile, her sleeping made you want to snuggle, and her love made you love. Sophie made my life in New York, so far away from family, better. She kept me close to my brother, that even though we had lost him, I could feel his spirit and his life from her.

After I graduated, Tilly and I moved back home to Florida where I would have my knee surgery. At this point, Sophie was already 12, and I knew her time was beginning to come to an end. We had already lost her brother that year and my concerns and complete fear of losing her were beginning to sink in. In February of 2020, she started to have a cough, the same symptoms her brother first showed from lung cancer. We took her to the doctor immediately and found out Sophie was suffering from the same lung cancer Banjo had. I knew it was happening, and emotions of losing her overwhelmed me.

It seemed to happen fast, the end of it all. We lost Sophie on May 19^th. Putting her down was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I knew it was time and I didn’t want to see her suffering anymore, but I wanted so much to be selfish and keep her because I needed her. Sophie wasn’t just a dog to me; Tilly was my best friend, my snuggle bug, and all my love encompassed in one beautiful creature. Sophie was my guardian angel, and I love and miss her so much. She brought me endless joy and laughter, she brought me comfort and love in my times of need, and most importantly, she brought me solace and light, when all I felt was darkness.

To my Tilly, I will love you forever and always.

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The Importance of Daily Yoga & Meditation

Lifestyle Development

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If you know, you know; and if you don’t know, I’ll share. For pretty much as long as I can remember, I have had issues with my knees. When I was younger, it started as just pain and soreness, and as the years went on and my training intensified for dance, my knees got worse. To put it all in a nutshell for you, over several years, I had repeatedly dislocated my kneecaps, I had torn my ACL in my right knee and completely destroyed the cartilage in that knee. In my Sophomore and Junior years of high school, I had minor corrective surgeries done on both knees to correct the placement of the kneecaps. This surgery, for the most part, helped with my left knee, but after years of walking the streets of NYC and climbing my fifth-floor walk-up several times a day, my right knee was severely damaged from the “wear-and-tear” of life and Manhattan.

As I mentioned in my Welcome Blog and About Page, one of the main reasons I moved home after graduating was to have major corrective surgery on my knee. The reason for me sharing all of this with you is for me to stress the importance of taking care of your mind and body for the sake of the long term. Yoga is a centuries-old practiced way of meditation, stretching, exercise, and manifestation techniques. Practiced all over the world, yoga is a central form of communication between two minds and two bodies; whether it be between you and another person or you and the higher power you believe in. Yoga is a beautiful form of expression that creates a connection between you and everything that surrounds you. In this blog, I want to offer you knowledge on why Yoga & Meditation are practiced around the world and how they can help you live intentionally.

Yoga in all its Forms

There are several different types of yoga, and the odds are that if you choose to take a few classes at some of the local studios around you, they’ll offer a few different kinds and each class will give you a different end result. Now, I obviously have not been all over the world practicing yoga, although that’s certainly on my bucket list. I did, however, take several yoga classes in New York from a lot of different teachers with different techniques. One of my absolute favorite classes that I took right up until my last days in New York was at the NYC Sports Club – Vinyasa Yoga. The teacher was this elegant, tall, polish woman who was incredibly kind and passionate about yoga. Her class centered around balance, core control, and practicing classic yoga poses.

With every class you take or new class you try, it’s important to find what techniques and practices will serve you most. Yoga offers endless benefits; it helps build balance, strength, control, and, most importantly, promotes a healthy and positive mind. When you practice yoga daily, you become physically and mentally stronger. As I mentioned before, yoga also has incredible lasting benefits. By building flexibility and balance –which is challenging to do in a gym – you build lasting benefits like healthy and strong muscles. Not only does practicing yoga help create a healthier body, but many people practice for the benefits of stress and tension relief. Yoga is not an endurance building activity. Yoga is meant to activate the mind, challenge your body, and declutter your headspace into a neutral and relaxed Zen. The exercises and poses are intended to alleviate stress built throughout the day, and you can often focus on the specific spots where you hold your tension. Practicing yoga daily is a form of Intentional Living; by moving into this headspace and creating a time and space for your body and mind to grow, you’re improving the way you live your life.

Meditation leads to Manifestation

Meditation often goes hand-in-hand with yoga—the two lean towards one another, yoga offering betterment of the body and meditation of the mind. Numerous studies have shown the incredible effects meditation can have on the mind (resources below). Over the last few years, and specifically the last few months, I have seen the benefits in my own life from meditating daily for 15 minutes as a way of manifesting the things you wish to see in your life.

In a self-guided meditation, I spend 15-minutes, in silence or with meditation music playing, focusing on clearing my head; this is the first major step I take in meditating. Clearing your head is incredibly important. It is impossible to meditate if you’re thinking of other things; over time, you’ll get used to it, but in the beginning, it takes a lot of work to train your brain to ignore outside thoughts and focus solely on emptiness. Once you’ve cleared your head, you begin to focus on your breathing and the sounds and feelings around you. You become aware of the breath going into and leaving your lungs, you are aware of your legs and back against the floor, and you feel yourself sinking into the ground. It usually takes me about five minutes to get this relaxed before I begin to meditate.

Before I go into each meditation session, I have a topic in mind of what I’d like to begin manifesting. So once I reach the point of relaxation, and I can begin my meditation cycle, I don’t have to go wandering off in thought of what I want to think about. Now, I spend the next ten minutes leading myself through action and change I can make in my life to reach a specific goal. I tell the universe that I am capable of making “it” happen, I tell myself I will succeed, and over time, I begin to see progress.

Yoga & Meditation are incredibly beneficial in your daily life in so many ways; promoting a healthy body and mind, alleviating stress, and creating a positive outlook. Take time out of your day today or tomorrow to complete a yoga and meditation session. See the benefits in your day or the following day; add it to your routine for the week and see the change.

Resources:

This is an amazing study done at Harvard on the benefits of meditation – “When Science Meets Mindfulness,” by Alvin Powell.

Dylan Werner has AMAZING classes online that you can follow right from home https://dylanwerneryoga.com

Calm and Headspace are two great apps to download for guided meditation.

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Welcome to La.Rue

All Things Lauren . Intentional Living . Lifestyle Development

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Welcome to La.Rue, a space to share my journey and offer guidance on ways you can make incremental lifestyle changes that instruct an Intentional Life, ultimately creating a motivational setting for achieving any goal. La.Rue is a stage for anyone to come to with the hope of finding leadership when their motivation is lacking. La.Rue motivates and inspires small, necessary changes in life so you may dream and achieve a higher goal. Our Mission is to present women with a space guiding them towards living intentionally, developing their lifestyle, and achieving their dreams. La.Rue empowers readers to redefine success and aims to provide content that drives a passion for answering the question, “Can I do it?” with the mantra, “I can do it.” At La.Rue, I will guide you to create a life in which you define success as the achievable and all your dreams are within your reach.

What you’ll find on the Blog:

The Blog is separated into three categories, Intentional Living, Lifestyle Development, and All Things Lauren. Each category offers you elevated content aimed towards changing your life and gaining knowledge on how to do so.

Intentional Living centers around implementing lifestyle changes aimed towards reaching larger goals. Here, you will find content on goal setting, implementing new Habits and Routines, Organization, Optimizing for your Future, and Education and Career. All of these topics will be explored and elaborated on with each blog.

Lifestyle Development will focus on honing in on beneficial care and routines and the tools needed to live intentionally. This category will always provide content on ways you can ultimately better yourself, centering around self-care, exercise, skincare, planning, how to’s, and more.

All Things Lauren will cater towards content for the purpose of getting to know me better. No Lifestyle blog is complete without the writer sharing her life with her readers. Here, you will get to know the ins and outs of who I am and the experiences that have brought me to where I am. You will also get to know about things I love like fashion, New York City, travel, my family, and obsessions with trying new wines and coffee.

Content to expect…

Every blog serves a purpose on La.Rue. Each piece will offer elevated content aimed at helping you develop and change your life. Periodically I’ll be offering FREE downloadable guides that will help you navigate, on paper, ways you can begin to make changes.

Over time I’ll be producing Workbooks and Workshops exclusively for my subscribers, diving deep into techniques and tactics you can use to make changes but, most importantly, mindset. Every blog will focus on mindset and how to improve yours, address concerns, and overall better your attitude about life and the challenges you may face.

My first downloadable workbook will be a 30-Day Challenge on Intentional Living that is the step-by-step process you need to begin living Intentionally. This guide includes worksheets, exercises, menus, and more, all so that you can begin to CHANGE YOUR LIFE in just 30 days. If you’re interested in learning more about the 30-Day Challenge Guide, head over to my Shop page to view the product. You can also head over to the “Lauren’s Favorites” tab to shop all of my favorite products that help me live intentionally.

Finally at La.Rue…

Finally, at La.Rue, you and I will always be traveling on this journey together. Following your dreams, taking risks, and taking charge are all of the actions I’m taking to make La.Rue successful and what I have always dreamed it could be. All of the questions you’re asking yourself, “Can I do this?” “Is it good enough?” “Am I good enough?” are all questions and mindset fears I faced. I sat down, addressed them, and I asked myself, “What would my dream life look like.” If I am to reach that life, I needed to move beyond these questions and fears. And I did!

The only way for us to achieve our dreams is to take control of our lives and begin taking action towards them. In this process, we will always be honest with each other, we will hold each other accountable, and we will always look to move forward and learn from failure.

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Track Your Habits

Intentional Living

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The La.Rue Habit Tracker

I created this Habit Tracker for myself long before La.Rue became what it is. It was something that I could use to help me change my life in little ways that would ultimately lead me to achieve a much larger goal. Simply tracking my new habits on a sheet of paper became both my inspiration and accountability for 1. Completing the task, and 2. Actually seeing the results of success. I was able to see that at the end of the month, I had achieved a goal; not only were these tasks becoming a part of my routine, but I was proud of myself for taking action and seeing those changes in my life. So I decided to design my very own Habit Tracker that caters to a more specific goal setting.

The Purpose of the Habit Tracker

The Habit Tracker is meant to motivate you and track your success along the way. Each month you’ll choose up to 4 new habits connected to a much larger goal that, over time, will be accomplished due to the small changes you’re choosing to make in your life right now. The Habit Tracker’s larger purpose is to help you create, track, and see change in your life, so you have the power of motivation when it comes to making major changes in your life.

Let me explain what I mean by implement ‘small’ habits for the purpose of achieving a ‘larger’ goal.

Let’s say something that you’ve always wanted to do is read more. But you always say you never have the time, or there are too many options, aka, always making excuses for why you can’t make this change in your life. Now, let’s say you download the Habit Tracker, and one of your new habits is to read every day – and your plan of action is to start small, reading ten pages or one chapter every other day. So you’re at the end of the month, you’ve tracked your success, and now you’re ready to print out a new Habit Tracker; how about you up that goal to every day? Then at the end of that month, you’ve now been reading almost every day for sixty days! Now, let’s say it’s been a year since you started that first Habit Tracker, and now, you’re reading every day and have gone through several books that you always said you would read.

Habit Tracking and making change isn’t something that happens overnight. You have to be okay with the knowledge that it will take time to achieve those larger goals, but you must understand by starting small, you will achieve the big. Success grows from failure. If you’ve failed in the past, now it’s time to succeed.

How to use the Habit Tracker

At the beginning of the month, choose four habits connected to the mind or body (circling one) that you would like to implement in your life. Once you’ve selected the Habit, write down what it is on the first line and follow it up with how you plan to achieve action for this goal. For example, Journaling every day (mind), I will set aside 10 minutes every night before bed to write in my journal.

Once you’ve chosen your four new habits, you’ll write those in the first four lines of the ‘Weekly Tracker,’ if it’s a goal you don’t want to meet every day, be sure to blackout or cross out the days you won’t complete the habit. You want to go into the week prepared with exactly what days you will and won’t do something so you’re not saving a task for the end of the week and then fall behind. For example, if you want to read every other morning, choose the days you will read, and ‘x’ out the days you won’t on the weekly tracker so you’re never behind on the actual number of days you’re completing.

The rest of the space in the Weekly Tracker is meant for other habits you may have already implemented into your life to track their progress. Seeing progress and success on paper is the key.

Head over to my shop page by clicking the ‘Shop La.Rue’ tab above or following this link to download your FREE Habit Tracker today. Now, I think you’re ready to begin using the Habit Tracker and see change in your life. It’s time to take action and see success!

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Intentional Living

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On La.Rue, you will find me preaching that Intentional Living is a way of life; it comes from transforming your life so that every decision you make directs you towards achieving goals and moving forward. Changing your everyday life to live intentionally requires much thought, planning, and above all, commitment to create change and take control of your life. There are five core elements I have created tied towards creating an Intentional Life.

On my Intentional Living Worksheet (available to download in my shop for FREE), you will find it separated into these five core pillars: (1) Mind / Body (2) Career / Education (3) Selfcare / Relaxation (4) Lifestyle Development (5) Experience – each of these core pillars serves to set intentions that promote growth, action, and change in your life.

The Five Pillars to Intentional Living

Mind/ Body – Intentions set for Strengthening.

Career / Education – Intentions set for Growing.

Selfcare / Relaxation – Intentions set for Healing.

Lifestyle Development – Intentions set for Personal Improvement.

Experience – Intentions set for Action.

I define Intentional Living as creating a life in which you feel you have lived every day “fully.” You know the expression, “Live every day to its fullest?” Yes. Well, I think it is entirely unrealistic to live each day “fully” for many reasons. First, you have to remember that life happens, there will always be days where you’re not “on” or feeling happy or yourself, and that is completely normal as a human being, just living life. You may have off days, or days where you’re feeling lazy, and those days I think, are necessary to survive. To be “on” all day is impossible and extremely exhausting.

So, I define Intentional Living as a lifestyle in which you create a space and mindset that you have defined as “full.” What do I mean by that? Full, to me, is defined as a life I have created for myself in which I am living out my dreams. I have created a comfortable daily routine for myself that sets roads for success and achievement. Each of these Pillars requires critical thought, and over time, they are built by your belief of what is “full.” By setting Intentions for strengthening, growth, healing, personal improvement, and action, you’re curating a connection between your past self, in which you seek improvement, and your future self, in which you pursue success.

By creating an Intentional Life for yourself – setting goals, making changes, and creating routine – you optimize your future for success by taking actionable responsibility in the decisions you make in your life. These are the steps you need to take to create an Intentional Life.

The Beginning Steps of Intentional Living

1. Set short-term and long-term goals for yourself. When you do this, you cannot just write down a goal and not address the how. The challenge in this task is defining HOW you will achieve these goals and what steps you’re going to take to get there; once you’ve clarified the how you immediately become active in making changes in your life.

2. Now you can begin to create a routine centered around achieving these goals. For example, if one of my short-term goals is to read ten classics novels a year to reach my long-term goal of reading the top 100 classics, then I would create a routine using my Habit Tracker to make time in my life to read these books.

3. I know this example might seem arbitrary, but let’s analyze the long-term effects of what it means to achieve this goal. Say I finish and read the top 100 literary classics, not only would I have read some fantastic novels, but my knowledge of literature would have grown. I would have a strong background in contemporary English, how it functions in today’s society, and continue my education without even stepping in a classroom. By analyzing the benefits of
achieving a long-term goal, you are able to see the
changes it can affect in your life.

4. After taking these three steps, you’re ready to implement these changes into your life. Many of us may find this the most challenging step, to actually change the way you live your life. But, to reach your goals, you must create change. By implementing these changes in your life, you’re able to take control of the expectations and goals you have for yourself and begin to achieve them.

5. Which takes us to our final step, achievement. To reach this step takes a lot of effort on your part. Achieving goals is hard; we all know this. However, with all of the correct tools, determination, and accountability, you can create extraordinary change in your life.

Head over to my shop page by clicking the ‘Shop La.Rue’ tab to download your FREE Intentional Living Guide today. The most important thing to remember when creating an Intentional Life is that you yourself are the only person who has the power to do so. From this process comes growth in your commitment to change, your drive for success, and your passion for achieving your dreams.

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The Importance of Journaling in 2020

Lifestyle Development

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This year is already coming to an end, and to say 2020 has been a whirlwind would be an understatement. But, I found that one of my most critical outlets this year was journaling; it served to show me the “good” within the “bad.” What do I mean by that? One of the main pillars of Intentional Living is setting intentions based on strengthening your Mind or Body. Journaling is a fantastic tool to get in-touch with intimate thoughts or even thoughts you’ve forgotten about yourself.

Now, when I talk about Journaling, I don’t mean taking a pen to a blank sheet of paper and just writing about your day. Honestly, I think that sounds unproductive and lacks provoking intimate thought. Over the years, I’ve tried and given up journaling so many times. Each time I got through about a month of journaling and got bored. I kept thinking about what if I died and someone read this; first, it sounds completely uninteresting, and second, it doesn’t even show who I am; it just shows what I did that day or how I felt.

I feel journaling should be an intimate and thought-provoking exercise you complete daily to show you who your true self is. Taking a pen to a blank page doesn’t do that, but I have found a journal that does.

The 6-Minute Diary

The 6-Minute Diary is more than just your average diary; it’s a place to discover who you are. Over time, you will come to realize what your true aspirations are in life; you will see change, develop routine, and create success in your daily life, all from writing in this Diary.

Let me explain what The 6-Minute Diary is…

The diary is divided into several sections; the first section is 66 pages of enticing content describing the diaries’ purpose and overview. These 66 pages are filled with exciting literature on why and how the dairy works, filled with memorable quotes, guidance, and direction. The following section is where you write, and this section is divided up for you to create some clarity in your life.

Once a month, you fill out a wellness check describing your overall feeling or tone for different areas of your life. Each month you fill this out to see which areas have improved or have not, and then you take the time to address why. Weekly, you answer five questions – always different – that are simply fun, interesting, and provoking questions to get to know yourself better. You also get a “Notes & Ideas” section to expand on your thoughts as well as a mini Habit Tracker. I encourage you to take the same Habits you’ve implemented in your La.Rue Habit Tracker and write them in this section of the journal.

Now, for your daily tasks: obviously the point of this diary is that it should only take you 6-minutes to write in it every morning and night. Each page is split for the day and you have three prompts for each section. This is my absolute favorite part of the journal and here’s why…

Prompts that Promote Intentional Living

Remember in my Intentional Living Blog when I told you that it takes between 45-60 days for a new habit to become routine? Well, put this into perspective, and let’s think about how this journal and these prompts could promote an Intentional Life.

If you’re journaling for 60 days, you become active and more present in your surroundings and actions so that you may “complete” your prompts for the day. What do I mean by this? One of the prompts in The 6-Minute Journal is “My Good Deed Today.” After so much time passes, this action becomes an active subconscious thought that you’re aware of daily. You’ll be more mindful to complete a “good deed” for the day so that you may write it down, see it on paper, and be aware of your actions for the day. Living an Intentional Life means being active in your thoughts and having created a mindset in which you’re presently aware of improving yourself to create future success. All of the prompts for the morning and evening sections encourage you to be increasingly aware of your life, what you’re grateful for, where you’d like to see change, and what you’ve accomplished.

Journaling during this time is an incredible outlet to create change in your life. It is a way for you to put things into perspective that maybe you didn’t even know needed perspective. Writing in a journal is one of the many steps to take to living an Intentional Life. Journaling promotes self-reflection, which encourages you to see in which parts of your life you need to make change. Buy The 6-Minute Diary today and come back to the blog and leave a comment on how it works for you.

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Best Products for Elevating your Intentional Life

Lifestyle Development

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Here I am again with more of the Intentional Living content you love. Intentional Living is all about how you live your life and the actions you take to make it the best it can possibly be. That can also include the things or products you use in your life to elevate your intentional living. Do you remember those 5 Pillars of Intentional Living I mentioned on the blog where I expand on the content and purpose of the Intentional Living Guide? I set these pillars as the guide to living an Intentional Life. Each of them serves to improve the way you live your life and guide you to setting intentions with a purpose. For each of these pillars, I have chosen a specific product that I believe helps you elevate your life and improves the way you live, so let’s dive right in.

Mind & Body

Intentions set for Strengthening – Vitamins have become a part of many people’s daily routine. They help promote a healthy lifestyle, and so many of them can supplement for taking medication for things like hair growth, weight, skincare, and even help improve organ function and your overall health. Care/Of is a company created to help you curate a completely personalized set of daily vitamins backed by science and research made especially for you after taking an in-depth quiz about what you’d like to work on. It’s an incredible new service that formulates a set of vitamins for you to take every day that comes in an environmentally friendly box and packaging with an inspiring quote, thought-provoking question, or fun fact printed on the packing for you. Take the Care/Of Quiz today and use my code LLCT1P to receive 50% off your first order of monthly vitamins! It’s an incredible service that I have been utilizing for three months now, and I love it. I see a difference in myself, and I know the vitamins are doing their job!

Career & Education

Intentions set for Growing – As this blog grows and as you grow with me, you’ll see that something I preach OFTEN is organization. I think a tool you should have as a student and a career person is always a planner. Staying organized and always knowing what needs to be done is essential to being productive throughout the day. In a few short weeks I’ll do an in-depth blog just on planners, how to use them and why they are so incredibly important, but for now, I’m just going to share with you which one I love! I’ve been using Day Designer since I was a freshman in college. This planner has been my bible for the last several years and has always kept me organized. Day Designer sells its planners in the large and mini from Jan to December and for a school year from August to August. Now I know these planners are a little more on the expensive side, but I have never been able to find another that keeps me more organized and on track throughout the day.

Selfcare & Relaxation

Intentions set for healing – Selfcare is going to be a hot topic on La.Rue. The topic of self-care is so essential in today’s day, but it’s also incredibly important to know how to take care of yourself in a healthy way. We’ll dive into deep and heavy topics on the blog, but for today, I’m going to simply recommend to you a MIRICLE product I cannot go without. I’ve been using this Charlotte Tilbury Magic Eye Rescue Cream since Christmas of last year, and I don’t go a day without it. When I tell you that it gets rid of my dark circles in about 5 minutes after application, I
mean it. This magic eye cream makes my face look and feel
refreshed and sits so nicely under makeup all day.

Lifestyle Development

Intentions set for personal improvement – If you’re like me, making sure you’re drinking enough water throughout the day is hard. I have a tendency to drink two glasses of water and convince myself I had six for the day. I wanted to find a water bottle to show me how much I was drinking in a day. The Arc Water Bottle is not only attractive and sleek, but it tells me when I should be drinking water and where I should be throughout the day. This 32oz bottle is designed to get through twice a day, so 60oz. I drink one full bottle at the gym and then refill and start my time once I get home, so I get through roughly three bottles or 96oz of water a day. Once I started using this bottle, it became so much easier for me to know how much water I was putting into my body every day.

Experience

Intentions set for action – In a separate blog, The Importance of Journaling in 2020, I share with you how journaling has affected great change in my life and what specific qualities of journaling did this. Well, I’m back to tell you again how incredible this journal is; the 6-Minute Diary is a diary perfect for setting intentions for action. The diary allows you to look to your future but most importantly, it holds you accountable in your present so that you may achieve the goals you have set for yourself. This diary has a lot of great literature about habits, routines, and creating change in the first 66 pages; following that, you have pages upon pages to write down your day and see change over time in your attitude, habits, and life.

Intentional Living is all about creating change that’s best for you. If you see yourself struggling in one of these areas, ask yourself how you can make changes and see if maybe even one of these products can help. As always, you’re a goddess, keep thriving.

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How I Design my Day

All Things Lauren

Write | Inspire | Dream

In such a short period of time, my life has changed so significantly. In a few different blog posts, you’ve seen me talk about how I decided to take control of my life and change it. That change has included what my daily routine now looks like, what I do for self-care, how I accomplish tasks, and create action for my future. Since I decided I would turn La.Rue into a fulltime blog and job, it has undoubtedly taken up all of my time. I spend every day, Monday through Friday, tackling the infinite ideas and tasks I have to accomplish to make La.Rue extraordinary. At the beginning of this process, every day was incredibly overwhelming. I would always start the day with a long list of what needed to be done that I had pulled from my even longer list of tasks. Even though I would get a lot done during the day, it never looked like I had accomplished anything. So, I created a solution to that.

Let’s Start in the Morning…

I wake up stunning and beautiful like the rest of you, ready to seize the day with a positive attitude and productive appetite. I know that not every day we’re going to wake up with this mantra, but I’d like to say that if you’re happy with your life, or working towards a happier life, more often than not, you do. So, with that being said, I really do try and wake up every morning with a positive attitude. I start my day usually between 6:30 and 7 AM; if I’m feeling saucy, I may sleep in until 7:30 or 8, but I’m realizing that as I mature, I am indeed a morning person and CRAVE a productive morning, which sets the tone for a productive day.

Once I’m up, I immediately make my way over to my Nespresso, where I make myself a delicious latte to start my morning. I grab my journal and my coffee, and sit down on the couch where I do my 6-Minute Journal, read more about the journal on my blog, The Importance of Journaling in 2020. After my journaling, I usually take a few minutes to browse my phone and enjoy my coffee before getting ready for the gym. Once I’m at the gym, I put in 30 minutes of an intense workout followed by 15-20 minutes of cardio to get my blood flowing and energy up for the day. After a good workout, I head back home for breakfast, usually more coffee, and I sit down at my desk and plan my day.

On an upcoming blog, I’ll be discussing all things planners. But for now, I’ll just share with you that I use Day Designer and I have been using their planners for years, and I’m totally in love. I’ll also share with you that I have been putting in hours designing my own custom La.Rue Planning Pages (Daily & Weekly) for you all to download in the 30-Day Intentional Living Challenge.

When I plan my day, I separate things into two categories, regular things to do like errands, chores, etc., and anything and everything I need to do for La.Rue. Once I’ve got my day planned out, on my La.Rue Daily Planning Page & in my Planner, I’m set for the day. From 9 AM to Noon, I tackle miscellaneous tasks in the morning, finish any work from the previous day, and start new projects. After all of this, I deserve a delicious lunch; I usually take this time to have a brain break. I hang out with my mom, and we talk about our mornings and catch up while playing a game; we’re Yahtzee fanatics.

After a divine lunch and Yahtzee tournament, I head back to work. Now, you know earlier when I mentioned that overwhelmed feeling? Well, this is where I solved it. The mornings are where I take the time to get little things done, organize my mind, etc. The afternoon is a designated time every day to work on something. Like today, from 1-4, I’m writing to create content for you. I decided that I would establish every day to a particular category that needed specific attention, like blogging, so that I knew that no matter what, that time was meant for writing and that the content would get written. After what is usually an incredibly productive day, I take the last hour of the work day to unwind, recap, and prep for the next day.

I’m Exhausted, let’s go to bed…

Once I get to the end of a workday, I love to just clear my mind of any stress and leave it at the desk until tomorrow. I love what I do, and I am so incredibly passionate about it, but it has its stressful moments. I’m overwhelmed with ideas and emotions about La.Rue and it can be exhausting. So, once the day is over, I leave the office with my head clear, and my mind focused on just relaxing for the night.

After my mom and I make dinner, I’ll spend some time with my family playing games or watching a movie and having some laughs. After I win all of the games, we take our pup, Chica, for a walk, and then the night is usually our own. I’ll spend time doing yoga for about 30 minutes, and after some meditating and stretching, I spend time reading or watching Friends. Then comes my journaling for the night and my nighttime routine. I’ll be going into my nighttime skincare routine in a blog coming in the near future, but for now, this is my typical day; it promotes a fantastic energy and positive attitude.

If you want to know more about my day, leave a comment or reach out on insta, until next time…

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My Life in New York City

All Things Lauren

Write | Inspire | Dream

On my 18^th Birthday, my brother Joshua, my dad, and I all drove from my hometown in Florida, 24-hours to New York City. Two days after moving up there, I began my freshman semester at Marymount Manhattan College. In a blog to come, I will dive deep into my education at MMC, my absolutely incredible professors, what it means to major in English, and what it is like to have New York City as a classroom. But, in today’s blog, I want to share with you what my life looked like in New York City and the realities of what it was like to live in, what I believe to be, the greatest city in the world.

Let’s Get a Job in Manhattan

New York is a city like no other; everything about it is unique. Of course, I haven’t been to every other city, but I know no place can match the diversity, weirdness, and uniqueness Manhattan has in all its 23 square miles. Every experience I had in New York could be considered “normal,” but because it was in New York, it somehow became elevated… let me give you an example. My first job was a retail employee at Anthropologie; that seems pretty generic, right? A lot of teenagers go into retail for their first job. Except my first job was in retail, at Anthropologie, at their largest location, in the heart of Manhattan at Rockefeller Center. That’s pretty amazing. I met a plethora of people from the richest of the rich, to tourists traveling from the farthest parts of the world, to the average Jo of New York there to buy their favorite Anthro candle. Each and every one of them brought a different adventure to the retail experience at Rockefeller Center.

Over my four years in New York, I had a few really exciting jobs. When getting my degree in English, I decided that my career path was going to be in publishing. I have always seen the world through exceptional literature, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life reading novels and sharing with the world the written word of incredible writers, including myself. In my Junior and Senior years at MMC, I interned for the largest publishing house in the world, Penguin Random House (PRH). My first internship with them was an Editorial program where I got to read over 25 manuscripts and deliver my opinion on why they should or should not be bought by PRH. In the final semester of my senior year, I interned in their largest imprint, Random House, as a Publicity & Marketing Intern. Random House publishes some of the most iconic authors of this century, and from working there, I gained invaluable knowledge; it really was one of the most amazing experiences. In a later blog, I will talk about the value of internships and how to land some of the most prestigious ones in your genre of work; for me, this was Penguin Random House.

So you want to Hear about Manhattan

The food, the nightlife, the memories, the experiences, I could go on for pages and hours about the amazing things to see and do in New York. In my four years, I bet you I didn’t even reach a quarter of them, but I will share with you what I did see and what I did do. Of course, there are parts about the city that are just not fun, things that you don’t really think about until you live there like the ridiculous traffic, the interesting subway rides, and the hastle of living in a 5 floor walkup. But the good most certainly outweighs the challenging. Some of my best memories have actually grown from those annoyances though! Like Fashion Week. I met a woman waiting for the subway once in Times Square. She walked up to me, asked me if I loved fashion; I told her yes, she asked me if I wanted to work with her for the upcoming February Fashion Week styling the reigning Miss Universe & Miss USA. I will never in my life forget this experience. I basically skipped my classes for the week running all over the city from fashion house to fashion house, picking up clothes, shoes, jewelry, and accessories all for the fittings of Pia Wurtzbach (Miss Universe 2015) and Olivia Jordan (Miss USA 2015). After all of the commotion, I actually got to attend shows. To this day, I cannot believe I attended Fashion Week.

Something really unique about living in New York is being able to do “regular things” in amazing places. I got to study at the iconic New York Public Library. I would go down to the World Trade Center to Work. I went to the Plaza for dinner and out to Tao for drinks. Your life becomes a walking cinematic masterpiece. But, remember that little thing called money? Yes, New York is incredibly expensive, so of course I did get to experience these things, but they were more so a rarity or treat. Now, this is just me dipping a pinky toe in the Atlantic Ocean when it comes to living in New York! So, if you’re interested in learning more about my life in New York, best places to eat, what it’s like dating in the city, the apartments, nightlife, or more, leave a comment of the content you’d like more of, and I’ll do a part 2,3,4, and 5 of life in Manhattan!

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