Hello I'm Friday

It's a common secret that loving and accepting ourselves is the beginning to leading a happier, calmer life. All you have to do it is give it a try, and teach someone you love to do it too. My collaboration with nuud! Together with nuud care, we've created a super limited edition meditation letter, which you'll find in the 55 special packages. The letter is a meditation that you read, designed to turn your whole environment into a hug. Everyone who gets a package with a meditation letter inside will have access to an exclusive guided meditation through a QR code on the back of the letter. Nuud x Evi - https://bit.ly/3l9KSAQ More - https://www.afridaystudio.com/podcast/how-to-hug-yourself

Can you (not the artist) really give your wall art a special meaning? Does it have any hidden subliminal messages, and if so, what do they mean?

Becoming and being an artist are two very different things, but I had to spend a couple of years figuring it out. Becoming and being an artist are two very different things. Learning more and more about art, doing art studies, learning to draw better, keeping myself inspired, watching movies, documentaries, and courses that will stimulate me creatively. Feeling like an artist. Starting to believe I'm becoming one. I acted as if I never was an artist. As if I was never awarded for my poems, I had never sold an artwork, I had never run creative seminars, I had never painted a mural as if I had never been admired for my creations. Then I finally got it. It's not about becoming an artist. It's about being one.

Can there be true love? If falling in love (in Greek there's a word for that: eros) and loving your children are just chemical reactions in the brain, if friendship and caring for your community is an ancient instinct so we can be included to the “packs” and stay safe. If every feeling can be interpreted as a survival mechanism or a way to ensure the species perpetuates itself, then can there be true love?

In its core, this is what minimalism is all about. I don't care about the aesthetics of it, I'm not interested in an empty apartment. it's about collecting beauty on all levels, from a lipstick to an artwork. Nowadays, I much prefer to use shopping as a self-care act. I make a wish list and I stick to it, most of the time. I choose the things I want the most no matter how expensive they are and plan my shopping list accordingly.

This podcast is not my debut in the audio industry! hahaha, I loved to do that alone or with a dear friend of mine. We would record “radio” shows, introducing songs or actual stories in audio. Other things I used to love were dance with a mop, create tiny magazines for my barbie dolls, make songs up and forget them immediately, the smell of my dad's Vespa, watching my mom put her makeup on.

Very often people tell me I look younger than I am. I'm (almost!) 33 and I'm not really concerned about it, but I still take it as a compliment, because I assume one day I'll start caring. Sometimes though, they overdo it... Two times people thought I was 19... and then it started hitting me in a different way. Is that even a compliment, anymore?

Art journaling for a mental vacation can be used to document your life or 'manifest' it. You can use it to sketch what has happened or as a mental vacation, to sketch what you'd like to happen. On that note, my favorite symbolic act of sketch/ art journaling is to turn any "bad", negative feelings into pictures. Especially if you can't draw! Make them ugly, funny, messy. Demystify them and take away their power.

Similarly to how we dress and what nail color we choose, our wall art aesthetics can change over time and we could evaluate it and re-imagine it, to make sure it still reflects our personality, our style and even the goals we want to achieve. From a design, symbolic, or even law of attraction perspective, what we have on our walls matters and the after-holiday period is the perfect time to revisit it and make any changes we feel like making.

Life pie is a tracking exercise to get a little bit clearer about your goals or just your behavior, by... rating how you've done every month. I did this exercise every month for a year and the results are this fun, tangled web which reminds me of my feelings during 2019. I intend to make an artwork using this as a... map... But that's a subject for another time...

Follow me in this short visualizations and let me guide you through some festive feelings that aren't forcing "jolliness"! Experience some Christmas before Christmas!

It's been a few years now that I've been choosing a word of the year, a theme if you will for the goals of the year. This time, though, it feels more actionable than ever... It feels like an actual umbrella, a category under which my goals sit with which are glued together.

Dreams are such unique experiences that we feel so intensely some times. I've been having the weirdest dreams lately, and I couldn't not share them along with a little "dream" experience.

Here are the French-inspired books I've read in 2019 and a Book experience to accompany them. Most of them written by non-French authors, giving us perspectives of expats -or just francophiles- about French culture, and literally I couldn't ask for more! Books mentioned: French women don't get fat - Mireille Guiliano Paris letters - Janice MacLeod A Paris year- Janice MacLeod Bringing up babe - Pamela Druckerman Bébé day by day - Pamela Druckerman Bonjour kale - Kristen Beddard Paris for dreamers - Katrina Lawrence

When I ask someone “What do you do for yourself? When do you take time for you only?” I'm usually met with a sarcastic smile or annoyed look before they say “Who's got time for that? Are you kidding me? I barely find time to shower before I pass out at night! There simply isn't time for me”. At the same time, there is an underlying brag, a sacrifice for the sake of others “I'm not selfish to take time for myself. You know how giving and caring and generous I am, right? Well, if you don't there's your proof!”. I've experienced first hand how putting yourself last not only won't prove how much you love others, but it's immature and irresponsible like you'd put the oxygen mask first on your two-year-old and after you've passed out, expect him to be safe and happy. You can't pour from an empty cup. And if I've missed any other clichés, feel free to add them in the comments below!

To French people, la rentrée means much more than just “back to school”. One of the reasons is that in France (as much as in my country, Greece), August turns otherwise busy cities to ghost towns. August is the vacation month and everyone deserves vacation time. If you have a shop you close it and go to the beach. Naturally, all those people that go away, come back in September. So there you have it, la rentrée. It's been about 13 years since my last “rentrée” and I've always loved this feeling. Even way back in the past, when I didn't truly enjoy school, I always loved the feeling of going back to it. This year though there are many reasons for me to legitimately get this feeling back. It's the first time my son goes back to school and oh, I anticipated that moment!

A beauty routine can be the beginning of better mental health to the point of consciously avoiding insidious marketing tactics. It all starts with a small act of care… Self-care… Welcome to an experience as inspiring as a ritual, as calming as a coffee talk, as exciting as Friday night, and all that, on Monday morning. Hello, I'm Friday. But you can call me Evi. Get your free issue at helloimfriday.com

Welcome to "Hello, I'm Friday"! There's too much discussion on social media about Friday excitement and Monday blues. On a deeper level, it's kind of sad not only because it seems most people don't feel excited about their work, but also because we haven't found a way to take lightly the must-dos. On a more entertaining level, the memes and the giggles are amusing and make it easier to describe a feeling just by mentioning a day of the week. Get your free issue at helloimfriday.com