What has been occupying us for the past month(ish), from books to podcasts to recipes and beauty products. This April we got into some serious self-love and acceptance with buying yourself flowers at the market and embracing all kinds of sexuality and relationships with the Hook Up Podcast.
Buying yourself flowers at the market (Lilly)
One of the highlights of the month of April for me was buying myself an obnoxiously large bunch of natives at the local market. It was a gift from me to me and did not fail to provide the pick me up I so desperately needed. I even went to Kmart to buy a gigantic jar to house them because I didn’t have a vase large enough. Asides from making yourself feel good, I recommend doing this for two other reasons: firstly, market flowers are so much cheaper than florist flowers - I bought a bunch of proteas and a bunch of gum leaves for less than $20. Secondly, natives last for such a long time, and they are super easy to dry out – just tie the stems together with twine and hang upside down – meaning you can enjoy them for months!
The Hook Up, Triple J Podcast (Talani)
The Hook Up has become somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me. Produced by Triple J and hosted by Nat Tencic, the podcast explores all things sex and relationships. It is simultaneously inexplicably relatable and unashamedly explorative such that you almost always find an episode that fancies your appetite. They also regularly have some awesome experts on, including my icon @Chantelle_otten_sexologist. Some of the more relationship/situationship-y episodes they explored recently include loving the idea of a person more than the person themselves, navigating long-term relationships and how to get out of that damn ‘dating limbo’. They also have educational and explorative episodes ranging from exploring the kink life and how to have cyber sex in the age of COVID and rolling lockdowns to deep-dives into serious issues like consent and dating after sexual assault, living with chronic conditions like endometriosis and experiencing miscarriages. Basically - they give us all the safe and inclusive sex ed talks we wished we got in High School.
PSA: If you don’t already follow Chantelle Otten on Instagram, you really should!
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