Happy New Year (little early)

2014 has been a rough year for a number of reasons.
There have been good times but also some really low times.

I've decided I need to make some changes this year and actually put in my calendar and diary time for me.
This may be time to exercise, time to craft or just time to chill and do nothing but it's my nothing and it doesn't mean I'm not doing something important.

Just as I had to learn that I'm good enough to use my 'good' dishes and cutlery and any day is good enough to wear my 'good' clothes I will learn that I am important enough to have time for me.

So if I say no to something next year please don't take it personally it's simply there may be more things to do than I have time to do them.

Some of the things I'm hoping to do in 2015

• Run
• Walk
• Swim
• Take photographs
• Make Cards
• Scrapbook
• Sing
• Play Games
• Cook
• Bake
• Visit family and friends
• Get to a musical
• Visit the beach
• and lots more.

Happy New Year!

Conquer Worry

Last week at work I had a mini meltdown over something that was actually quite small but managed to reduce me to tears in the middle of a meeting.  This coincided with a friend sharing a tweet from @ConquerWorry

Struggling? Would you like to join us for the July Jump Start Challenge? conquerworry.org/jump-start-cha… pic.twitter.com/eYjKFHwtjW

I took time to read through the pages and realised I've let myself get back into a place where I am just working, sleeping and worrying without having time for me or friends or exercise. As a result my physical and mental health is stretched which contributed to my meltdown. 

I was going to start July following the Conquer Worry Jump Start Challenge and began over the weekend thinking of things to be grateful for.  However, as Burns said "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men  Gang aft agley." Translation - the best laid plans of mice and men often go wrong.

I started the weekend with an allergic reaction that made my right eye swell up like I'd been in a boxing match and as that went down my cheek started to swell up. This turned out to be an abscess so my 1st of July started with an emergency dental appointment and extraction. 

The Jump Start Challenge has some steps to get us started 

1. Pick three Daily Tasks
2. Do each task daily for 21 consecutive days
3. Record your results
4. Record one thing you are grateful for.
5. Record on positive experience that happened that day
6. Start over if you miss a day.

My tasks I'd picked were to exercise, get 20 mins sunlight and work on daily prayer. This is my attempt to record how I got on,

For exercise I'm counting the walk to work, the walk from there to the dentist, the walk back an hour and half later and then the walk home to recover.  

As it was a beautiful sunny day yesterday I'm counting that as my sunshine exposure as well. 

I'm not sure I should count the praying it would end during the trip to the dentist but I do keep a prayer list and when the painkillers had kicked in later last night I did work through it.

The positive experience of the day was, unlikely as it sounds, the extraction itself. My dentist was amazing and took her time to make sure I was fully aware of what would happen and comfortable at all times. The extraction itself was the least painful I've ever had, not counting those when I was younger when they could still knock you out :-) 

I'm grateful for the support of colleagues, friends and family when I was feeling lousy and those who contacted me to make sure I was ok.