hey guys, welcome to Scaling Up with Sana! ⭐ This is a simple, recap of my thoughts, media I’ve enjoyed and a couple of self-development tips I’ve learnt throughout the month🪴

If you’re new here, it’s lovely to have you! My name is Sana, I’m an MArch student in London, creator of :scale blog and advocate for healthy habits for architecture students ✌🏻

February felt like a bit of a rollercoaster of events but my main focus has been to iterate. This month I wanted to keep churning out ideas and content, building and iterating my design project and try to keep things in motion really. The way I can do this best is by being consistent with everything and trying to have better focus. I reckon my design project is in a much better place than it was last month which is a sign of progress.

Overall, I would like to think I kept a decent focus apart from a couple of rough days, but that’s life eh? Maybe the focus for next month will be to explore the things around me a little more and make use of the fact that there are no immediete deadlines ahead ⛳

Jay Shetty is someone I’ve been following for quite a while, he’s incredibly popular in the meditation, self-help and growth areas and is best known for his journey being a monk and translating those values and lessons to everyday life. From this podcast I learnt about the flow state which Jay describes as the point at which the skills you have match the challenges you face, a phase where you are ‘expanding your challenges or broadening your skills’ will lead you on to the path of success.

Speaking of success, Jay says that in order to live intentionally, you have to think about 4 key things;

Perhaps next month I’ll make an effort to dive into Jay’s podcast too and learn more from the guests he brings on. Also adding his book to my wishlist 📖

How the entrepreneurial mindset can change you - TED Talks

A great quote from this video:

Why I Live a Boring Life - Captain Sinbad

searching for peace of mind - Bobby Nsenga (this is a great playlist that I often put on when working 🎵)

21 lessons from 2021 - Doobydobap (a hidden gem from this highly entertaining YouTube channel)

I’ve been finding it a weird task to try and create ‘content’ on Twitter, perhaps it’s because there really aren’t many architecture students on there looking for that sort of thing. But maybe someday, for now I’ll just use it to document my thoughts and ideas🤞🏻I am however always looking for new people to follow, in any kind of industry so if there is someone you absolutely would recommend I follow, let me know!

For now, I’ve linked 2 interesting threads above - yes I know reading threads is a bit of a chore but these are structured quite well and resonated with me personally.

It takes me quite some time to build a habit, but it takes me even longer to actually try approach the entire notion of building a habit. I’ve been meaning to implement some kind of ‘exercise’ into my routine for a long time now and I’ve settled on a pretty good weekly schedule which I can start experimenting with.

For starters, I just want to do the bare minimum - I’m not looking to join a gym or run a marathon anytime soon, just be healthy enough and start exploring different options. So I’ve been trying to go on a 30 minute walk each day and so far so good, I’m getting some kind of walk in, not counting any steps and not giving myself added pressure. We’ll see how it goes.

I also tried doing simple home workouts for a week which was better than I thought - 5/7 days and I’m thinking once I can consistently do this for a month I’ll treat myself to something!

This is a concept or term created by author and YouTuber UnJaded Jade. Casual magic is synonymous with gratitude, but it’s more about the small simple pleasures in life than larger concepts, finding the casual magic in every day life. I love this approach and I’m going to be doing more of this.

This past month I’ve actually been keeping a journal of sorts. I don’t have prompts and don’t write daily, but I use the app Diary with a Password to write out my thoughts, emotions and moments of gratitude whenever I can or need to, (I’ve also been using the Voice Notes 🎙️ app to record any bright ideas I have - usually late night when I’m in bed) but getting things out of your head is a great stress buster.

So a couple of casual magic moments for February💞;

Hopefully that wasn’t too intense of a newsletter and perhaps next month I’ll bring something totally different to the table! As always, if you’d like to have a chat or suggest something just hit reply 😉