Happy New Year all. Hope the festive period was kind to you. I’ve spent the last fortnight in a bubble of family and food. Which of course is great but Christmas ends and January is hard on lots of us. Typically over the years January has been one of my hardest months, I have always found NYE pretty tough and the expectations that a New Year brings.
if I am being completely honest with you the reader, I have to admit that sometimes I can be a little too negative. The last few years haven’t been exactly straight forward and it can be all too easy to focus on the bad. There were so many times in 2019 when I sat and had a cry and felt sorry for myself. Crying isn’t always a bad thing and can definitely be good for the soul but some days it never seemed to end.
Towards the end of November whilst waiting for various hospital appointments to swing around for this constant back pain I broke and dislocated my toe – badly. For a few days I let that useless, painful feeling consume me. Breaking a toe probably doesn’t seem like a big deal unless you of course are the only adult in your home and you don’t drive! Combined with it arriving at that time of year when I had so many grand plans with the kids and well it broke me. I was in severe pain and I don’t tolerate pain meds very well so aside from the first 48 hours with gas and air to get it back in place and codeine I stuck it out after that with paracetamol. I ended up spending way too much time on my own and often felt stuck at home. My family as always were amazing, my sister in law ran the kids to school as often as she could, my parents showered me in their usual kindness and I was incredibly thankful for them. And just in general my family were ace. But it was so hard and I think it was the icing on the cake which made me really start to despair a bit at just how much was always going wrong.
I hated feeling that way. Lost, sad and frustrated.
On December 1st I made a pledge to myself to start focusing on the positives in my day, even if that day all I was thankful for was good coffee and a warm home. These little things, they are the big things. I shared on Twitter my plan for a Positive Advent and I invited others to join in, you can read about that here. I tried to do it every day without making it a chore, I skipped a day here and there, because some days it is really hard to force cheeriness. But for the most part I stuck with it, and so did others, so many of you joined in whether it was once or twice or every day and wow it helped. In fact by the end my original Positive Advent tweet reached nearly 20k people with nearly 1k engagements/responses.
When December 24th came and went and with it the end of Positive Advent I decided that this should be something I continue to do. And so along came Everyday Positivity. Finding little things about my day, maybe making a note here or there and a few times a week I’ll share them online. I don’t want it to be a challenge or a task I have to do but rather a burst of positivity in your feed every now and again. I have already begun to see that I am seeing more and more good things in my day. Minor things that would have upset me previously don’t seem quite so big a deal when I compare them to the good things. Yesterday my microwave broke and my back was incredibly sore but I also got to spend time with my big sis and her children for the first time in a few months ( she lives in Kent ). I had an evening with my mother and sisters while my kids played happily with their cousins and I came home to a cat in need of fuss and a warm house thanks to a well set timer. I’m starting to realise that life is hard for everyone, even for those whose lives seem rosy. We all have challenges, health issues, money worries etc. Maybe not all at the same time as has seemed this year but I’m stronger for it. By sharing these positive things I hope to help my brain focus on the right stuff, I also hope that others will see the occasional tweet and feel encouraged to seek out the good in their days.
If you are a regular follower maybe don’t expect me to be a ray of sunshine on a daily basis but know that I am trying. In all the ways that I can.
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
Helen Keller
[…] if I am being completely honest with you the reader, I have to admit that sometimes I can be a little too negative. The last few years haven’t been exactly straight forward and it can be all too easy to focus on the bad. There were so many times in 2019 when I sat and had a cry and felt sorry for myself. Crying isn’t always a bad… This is only a snippet of a Food Article written by munchiesandmunchkins Read Full Article […]