If you’ve followed my musings for a while, you’ll know I love setting New Year goals. For me, it’s not a case of HAVING to set them. It’s more a case of WANTING to. They keep me focused on things I would like to achieve, and the geek in me loves to keep track of…
Tag: Exercise
New Year New Goals
Happy New Year! The end of 2021 flew by, and I found myself taking my lengthiest break from writing so far! I wanted to write, but time kept disappearing. In the past, I would’ve beaten myself up about this. This time, however, I decided to be kind to myself and accept that something had to…
What is Active Relaxation?
This post was originally published on 19th January 2019 and updated on 14th November 2021. We all know what relaxation is, even if we’re not very good at it, but how about active relaxation? The words alone seem to contradict themselves, yet active relaxation can be as good for us as any other form of…
Olhos de Água and Praia da Falesia
As we eagerly await Boris Johnson’s announcement tomorrow as he lays out the UK’s ‘Road Map’ out of lockdown, I thought I would take another look back at my solo trip to Portugal. Fingers crossed BoJo’s plans see us being able to travel again before the year is out. This post was originally published on…
The Wombles of Wimbledon
With my neighbourhood starting to feel like it’s part of Eastenders, I was grateful to get out to the outskirts of the city yesterday to enjoy some much needed peace and quiet. Over the last couple of weekends, a number if things have got me questioning, for the first time in nearly five years, whether…
My Top 5 Essentials to Surviving Lockdown
Whilst we sit here eagerly awaiting the Government’s next big announcement on Sunday, which will hopefully mean at least starting to understand what the Governments plans are for loosening social distancing restrictions, I wanted to share with you my Top 5 things which are currently helping me to get through lockdown. I’m not talking about…
Tips for Working from Home during a Pandemic
Tuesday 17th March 2020 will remain in my mind for a long time to come. My boss had scheduled a company wide ‘test’ working from home day. As the spread rate of Coronavirus started to increase in the UK, our ‘test’ day had been brought forward by a couple of weeks. Little did we know…
Looking back at 2019
Does anyone else keep forgetting we’re not only heading into a new year, but a new decade too? I considered looking back at the last decade in this post, but I’m looking forward to drawing a line under it and moving on into the new decade with a fresh perspective, embracing new opportunities and living…
Why do we exercise?
Ok, so a large part of exercising is about us looking after our physical fitness. Keeping in shape, improving our health, as a way of letting go of our frustrations after a long, gruelling day in the office, to improve our mental well-being. All perfectly valid reasons to exercise. Whilst many people choose to join…
Self-Care Neglect
As I write this blog post, I’ve been trying to think of a suitable word to sum up how I’ve been feeling during the last couple of months. All I can think of is… ‘meh’. A pretty nondescript word, but sums up how I’ve been feeling. Life has been a little bit all over the…
Is self care easier if you’re single?
A few weeks ago, I attended a friends hen party. The hen party was fun. But something was troubling me. I was staying in a hotel that night with another friend. While we were busy getting ready for the hen party, she started pouring her heart out to me. It appeared that her marriage was…
Knife crime, dirty laundry, and self care
The last couple of weeks have made me realise just how important it is to have a self care bank. If I hadn’t been able to cash in on some of my self care reserves, I definitely wouldn’t have got through it as well as I have. Most of the drama that has unfolded, has…
Praia Santa Eulália and Praia da Oura
I’m now back in gloomy, grey, England after a beautiful few days in Portugal. The flight into Gatwick yesterday was slightly unnerving, as we landed in high winds. There were gasps, followed by a few expletives from passengers as we made our descent, but thankfully, our pilot got us back safe and sound (and without…
Miss Explorer v Miss Relaxation
Since I arrived in Portugal, I’ve been feeling torn. My intention was to get away, relax, get some self-care points in the bag, and have some much-needed reflection time. However, my inner explorer keeps trying to lure me away from this. So, I’ve compromised, alternating each day. A day of exploring, followed by a day…
Self-Care Sunday
After the wobbles of last week, it’s been a beautifully chilled weekend. Whilst some of the immediate work pressures have been lessened, there is a lot to do over the next few months, with lot’s of evening meetings coming up. I knew I needed to get some self-care bonus points in the bag to help…
Wobbles, Living Alone and Holidays
I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful for the weekend to arrive! I had a bit of a wobbly moment midweek where I felt incredibly overwhelmed by the amount of work I need to do between now and the summer. Within the industry I work, everything seems to come at once. Deadlines galore, lot’s…
Readjusting
After a wobbly start to the year, a weekend readjusting was much needed. I took a brief trip to the lovely St. Albans on Saturday to meet up with my family. We’ve often suggested meeting half way between Northampton and London, but never actually done it. St. Albans is pretty much bang in the middle…
New Year, New Goals
It’s that time of year again when we take time to look back at the last 12 months and to look forward to the next. I reflected on much of the last 12 months in a blog I wrote earlier this month called Turning 35, so now it’s time to focus on the next 12 months. I’m not…
The Mindful Gingernut 