It’s a day to celebrate! One year ago today I was so stressed and anxious I could not even get out of bed, needed stress leave from work, and a huge amount of support from family and friends to get through it.
Today, one year on – I wake up excited every day, love my life, enjoy my job and am incredibly grateful for what I have, and am relaxed (well generally!). This is the reason for my blog – To document what I did next, after my period of being a complete mess. It was really only a relatively short period of time that I was unwell, but I believe that because I wouldn’t stop and slow down and change my lifestyle and thinking, my body did it for me. I never want to return to that state.

So how did I celebrate today? By hanging out with my amazing husband – and visiting the Farmers Market. To those people who know me, even this is a complete change – I used to have no real interest in food and cooking at all and now I am passionate about it.
My photography has a lot to be desired, but here are some photos from our relaxing trip this morning.

                                                                 Homemade relish

                                                     

One of the values I hold highly and aspire to is to live a kind life.

One of the things I find hardest about being kind, is being kind to myself. Being a perfectionist, I tend to be incredibly hard on myself. A classic case in point was the other day.
To begin with I slept in, and had no time to meditate. As I was running late to get to a seminar for the day and had to get the kids to school early – I didn’t eat a proper breakfast and knocked back a fair few coffees. During the seminar I was starving at lunchtime, so didn’t resist the cheesy bread rolls and profiteroles filled with custard and cream provided. The coffee was awful so I added milk. By the time I picked up the kids I was so rushed and stressed I ate a massive bar of chocolate. I then proceeeded for the rest of the evening to berate myself for not sticking to my promise to myself to give up dairy products and eat well and stay relaxed. And I mean really berated myself – for my lack of willpower, unpreparedness, rushing the kids – you name it I told myself off for it.

Has it been a friend who had a day like me, I would have told them not to be hard on themselves, that they were doing an amazing job with their changes in lifestyle, that tomorrow was another day, and that they were doing the best that they could. Why is it that we can offer such kind sage advice to others and not follow it ourselves?

My aim for the next few days is to practice being kind to myself. Iwill let you know how it goes.

I have discovered the wonderful zenhabits website over the past few days, and this article was just what I needed.  http://zenhabits.net/kindfully/

Hope you like it!