Currently we're running through a Z-A of activities to try, in order to manage stress and anxiety and support self-care.
10 Things I Love About Spring
I’ve used a Writing for Wellbeing invitation as a basis for this piece.
You will probably notice that there aren’t 10 items on this list. I feel this wonderfully demonstrates that we don’t have to stick to the rules. It’s just a diving board to get our minds exploring possibilities. The prompts are a bit magical like that. You somehow get where you need to go.
I’ve repeated several words and missed punctuation, amongst other things. Because this is not creative writing, it’s about the process, it’s liberating to not edit it. I wrote down whatever came out of my brain and simply rearranged it a little bit here for this post. I mean a little bit! I hope to write here in this way on a regular basis. Feel free to explore the prompt in your own way and let me know how you get on!
The bursting of colour,
green and yellow,
the grass is greener on your side
Growth and rebirth of old and new
A cleansing process
Changing over clothes in my wardrobe
Decluttering, letting go, a sigh of relief
Revitalising shift
We are somehow OK with change at this time of year even though we don’t like it in general.
Sitting in the sunny silence of the new.
Positivity
All the things I’m going to achieve this season
Warmth in the air, not just the temperature
People seem warmer
I feel like a weight has lifted
Laughter echoes
I’m more integrated and open
Possibility
Clearer paths
Adventures planned
Lazier days of Easter and Bank Holidays
Outside becomes a more inviting place.
The weather improves
Lighter mornings and evenings
More sunshine, less cold
Long sunny days
Visions of running through a meadow
Passages of time
I don’t mind losing an hour for the light
Memories flooding
Nourished by the echoes of my youth
The sound of the lawn mower signified Dad’s day off
Preparing for family get togethers and friends over for lunch
Cosy and comforting drift back.
Thursday 28th April, 5:36pm
New Maidenhead venue
I'm so excited to announce that I have a space in Maidenhead (Furze Platt) to work out of one day a week. Seeing clients face to face is wonderful. Online therapy can be equally effective but I think people have really missed that 'in person' connection due to all the lockdowns. Some of us are fed up with staring at screens all day and I completely understand. It's great to be able to offer both options so my clients can feel as comfortable as possible.
The room is an Osteopathy clinic, Body BackUp (pictured below.) I'm taking the blue sky as a sign that brighter days are coming, not just weather wise.
Sometimes the starting point isn't at the beginning
and it’s not a race anyway.
Welcome to my first ‘Unwind & Uplift’ blog post. I had a blog in a previous life as a writer but that was mainly just for my eyes and for me to quote the bits I liked occasionally that made me proud. Being proud of something is actually a great place to start. I’m proud I started that blog, proud I wrote some great words, proud I started my own business and proud to be sharing content with you again in my different role.
Another place to start is with purpose. I love what I do, each day reaching out to people or actually helping them. It’s something I always wanted to do, just for a long time I didn’t know how to make it happen.
I know I’m not the only one who has struggled with a starting point. If you are deep in the throes of anxiety, stress or depression, the smallest of tasks can feel like attempting to run a marathon. It all takes too much energy or you spiral into overwhelm before the whistle has been blown. As I’m often saying to my clients, it’s really hard to take that first step when you’re looking at the whole race (or staircase.) It’s really not a race anyway. I know there’s a lot out there that makes you feel like it is.
If the pandemic has taught me anything, it’s to slow down and appreciate more. It’s OK to fall over sometimes. It’s about your choice in how and when you pick yourself up.
Let me throw this out there…your starting point might not be obvious until you’re already on your journey. It’s that moment where you look back and realise how far you’ve come just by trying.
You might have decided or know in your gut that you need to make a change, but what that change is might not be clear. Staring out at the long track ahead of you, unable to move isn’t going to make that change. But I want you to know that you can do it. I’d like to offer you some ideas on how to start.
If you can’t decide what you want to do….
Starting can be the first and worst hurdle. Once we’re over it, we can forget it seemed impossible.
Continuing to Start
I may not have covered everything I wanted to by the end of this post, and it certainly went in directions I wasn’t anticipating, but it doesn’t exist to be perfect. It can be edited, changed as we constantly change. I started it, as will you and if you don’t continue then at least you tried. So well done!
Thursday 7th April, 6:00pm