September favorites

I thought about publishing monthly posts about my favorites – when I was younger, I used to watch my favorite beauty and lifestyle youtubers´ monthly videos where they showed their products and things they currently viewed as their favorite – with the intention of selling stuff to their viewers - and as a 15-year-old viewer myself, I often felt influenced and the urge to purchase specific things because I “had to have them”.

Since y´all know I don´t promote overconsumption, my favorite posts will look a little different: my favorite meals I´ve eaten, favorite movie I watched, favorite book I´ve read, favorite album I´ve listened to, new skill I´ve learned, the list goes on. Maybe as an inspiration for you to listen to more whole albums, to go to the movies more often, read more, or try new things instead of doomscrolling. Just a safe space to find good music, books, movies, exchange favorites in the comments and use those posts as a resource to connect with like minded people. That´s the idea behind this section of the blog.

I don´t know if it´ll be a monthly thing - I think it would be nice, but don´t know if it´s realistic. But whenever I feel like I have things I wanna share, I will.

When I went to London in the beginning of September, I bought this acoustic live album by Band of Horses in a secondhand record store, and I´ve been listening to it on repeat all month long (and won´t stop listening to it anytime soon). My favorite Band of Horses song is no ones gonna love you, which was also on that album, and the reason for me to buy the album (and it was only 2£ and the money went to charity).

For me, it’s the perfect album to listen to in my room in the evening cuddled up on my couch with cozy lighting, maybe even candles, having dinner or reading a book. The nights slowly get longer and longer, it does get dark way earlier so spending cozy evenings at home has been my top activity this month, and the album was the perfect soundtrack for that.

This month, I rediscovered Ecstatic Dance, a hobby I started in the beginning of the year, and for some reason stopped doing. Ecstatic Dance is using dance as a form of personal expression and emotional release. Which means, you can dance and move the way it feels right to you and your body while dancing in community. As someone who loves dancing and struggles with dance in its classical form and sticking to a choreography, this is a true blessing, and I can only recommend it.

It has a spiritual / esoteric side to it which I love, it feels like such a safe space, it´s a great sport to go to alone (most people come alone), and I literally feel the positive impact on my body and life the following days. Since it´s an alcohol and drug free space, it feels even more special to me because I stopped drinking over two years ago, and sometimes struggle with the side effect of loneliness that came with the decision of quitting alcohol. Dancing it out (like Cristina and Meredith in Greys Anatomy always did) works wonders to get everything out of my system - if there´s one thing I can recommend, it´s Ecstatic Dance.

I´m also not the biggest sports person, and to me, Ecstatic dance doesn´t even feel like a workout because it´s just so much fun, and I can tune in with my body and move accordingly to the level of energy I´m at that day. It feels more like a party than a sports class, and that´s probably what I love about it the most.

My friend and I have a little book club, where we recommend each other books we read and liked and talk about them, that´s where she gave me You exist too much. It felt captivating to me from the beginning, there are lots of jumps in time between the past and the protagonists time in Palestine, while still focusing on the present and her struggles of growing up in two different cultures, finding their own place in this world while talking quite openly about things like mental health struggles, love addiction and addiction in general. There are lots of book reviews out there, and since I have no idea how to write one, I´ll leave it at that. I enjoyed reading it, the reading flow felt very natural and I kept on looking forward to continuing reading. To me, the book is a 9/10 and definitely the best book I´ve read in a while.

I love love love movie documentaries, it´s one of my favorite genres of film, and this one follows the Band Buena Vista Social Club, obviously the soundtrack was a 10/10, I have the album at home and listen to it a lot, I even thought about choosing it as my favorite of September. When thinking about my favorite movie this month, I knew it had to be Buena Vista Social Club, even tho I´ve noticed later when looking at the movie ticket I actually watched it in late August, but it doesn´t really matter, and I didn´t go to the movies that much in September anyways.

The documentary just gave such a lovely insight into the band, every band member got their own section to share their story and personality, and I just couldn´t help myself but love them and their wholesome silliness. My favorite part was the ending when the whole band went to New York City to play a concert and explored the city together.

The whole time I was in the cinema I couldn´t help myself but smile, the bandmates and their personality really carried the movie, and my boyfriend who I watched the movie with felt the same, and we talked about it even weeks later.

This month I started brewing Kombucha, which is a fermented beverage made from tea, sugar, and a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Basically, it tastes like soda but is really healthy, full of probiotic bacteria that are good for gut health. This summer I started obsessing over store bought Kombucha which one of my hometown friends introduced me to when she visited me in Berlin.

Since the store bought one is kinda expensive, I fell down a rabbit hole of watching many many videos on how to brew Kombucha at home, and all the science behind it. I got said friend who introduced me to Kombucha equally obsessed about the idea of brewing Kombucha at home, so we started this little project at home, giving each other updates on the brewing and fermenting process over the phone due to our long-distance friendship.

The whole process took over two weeks since the drink had to ferment for 10-14 days. It was lots of fun, a lot of try and error, and since I´ll continue brewing Kombucha, I think there will be lots of room for improvement, and I´m curious to see how my second batch of Kombucha will turn out.

These were a few of my favorites this month - do you wanna share anything you obsessed over this month?