Monday 11 January 2016

Out with the old, in with the new...



Brace yourselves for a very cliched post about new years and new beginnings, about spring cleans and de-cluttering and ways to feel better both inside and out, body and mind.  Oh yes! it's that wonderful new year post filled with high expectations and low achievements, broken resolutions and more ups and downs than you can stomach.  But it has to be done right?! and new year wouldn't be a new year if you didn't sit yourself down and give yourself a good talking to about how not to repeat the mistakes of yester-year and how this one will be the best year of your life because lets face it it probably wont be and in about 350 more days you will be right back here re-living this whole experience but it's a tradition I kind of never want to break..

Although it wasn't the best year of my life it certainly wasn't the worst and there have been lessons learnt along the way i.e.

1. how to be less of a twat and learning to tolerate others that are bigger twats.

2. how to never let others try and define who you are, yes you may be a twat but if that is part of who are then embrace it and move on, there's always this great need to try and fit in with society and it seems as though it's drummed into us from a very young age but the older you get the more you realise you don't want to be a part of that gang anymore.

3. Taking time for yourself is not selfish nor should you scold yourself for doing it, slip off into the sunset, drift off inside a good book, take a long drive with no real destination and then pull yourself together and carry on, you have no other choice but to so appreciate what you do have and live for the moment.  Spend atleast 10 or 15 minutes a day in just your own company and do a little something everyday that makes you happy.

4. Appreciate those around you, speaking solely from experience, tell your mum you love her as many times as you physically can, you can never say it enough, because should the time come you no longer have the option to, you will want to say it more.  Say please and thank you, it's the way you were bought up and it's the way I hope to bring up my own children one day.

5.  It's a new year which means we're allowed to wipe the slate clean and start again, remove everything that doesn't make you happy from yourself be that the clutter of your surroundings or certain people that bring you down and give yourself room to breath.  That means getting rid of the things you no longer have a use for, using things that can be used and storing the rest for the many rainy days we have to come.

6. And last but certainly not least, take care of yourself.  Feed from within and only with good things.  I read somewhere the other day that 'Food is the most abused drug for anxiety and depression and exercise is the least utilised antidepressant'.  I couldn't have put it better myself.  You will never regret going for that run or even taking a quick walk through the park and eating good things instead of junk and you will look and feel better for it.

This year I'm not calling them resolutions because that means they are made only to be broken in a few months, I'm calling these my lessons learnt of 2015 only to be improved on in the following year.

Do let me know if there are any lessons you have learnt in the past year that I haven't mentioned and what your ambitions are for the coming 12 months.