Hi, How are you today?

I couldn’t possibly start without mentioning the MAHOOSIVE elephant in the room …Covid 19 … Its running amok through our lives now and seemingly fracturing a lot of what we steadfastly thought we knew and loved about the world. To anyone who has lost someone or is suffering, my love and heart goes out to you and I hope you can find your inner peace again. Time is the best tool we have for recovery, give yourself plenty of it.

That being said, I want to uplift and reframe this – our world is STILL ours, no matter what comes. I’ve seen around me amazing and inspiring examples of ways people have found to express and claim their identity and sparkle back. I’m in awe of you.

Six months of self-discovery have been MY key power in learning to handle my anxiety and how I continue to make changes in my life to bring me more contentment and satisfaction. What have YOU drawn on to help you out?

Once, a good night out with friends could do this for me, but, in these different times of online and masked 2 – metre meet ups, surely we have to find some new inner resilience and rely on our own ‘internal best friend’ to bring us this relief?

According to the leading psychologist, Susan Kobasa, there are three elements that are essential to building inner resilience:

Challenge – Resilient people view a difficulty as a challenge, not as a paralysing event. They look at failures and setbacks as lessons to be learned from and opportunities for growth. They don’t view them as a negative reflection of their own abilities or self-worth.

Commitment – Resilient people are committed to their lives and their goals – they have a compelling reason to get out of bed in the morning! Commitment isn’t just restricted to their work – they commit to their relationships, their friendships, the causes they care about and their spiritual and core beliefs.

Personal Control – Resilient people spend their time and energy focusing on situations and events that they have control over – because they put their efforts where they can have the most impact, they feel empowered and confident.

Follow these links for some fantastic self – awareness /building resilience tips –
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/5-ways-become-your-own-best-friend.html
https://positivepsychology.com/building-self-awareness-activities/

For me, learning yoga, changing my diet and positive self – talk have been my saviours – What are yours? I’ve put down the vodka and picked up a 2 litre bottle of water instead. My past frantic, pavement – pounding 3 mile running exertions have morphed into 6 mile, refocussing, nature – embracing walks and I’ve gone from never trying it in my life to 30 mins everyday, morning ritual yoga – I’ve never been so bendy!

Let me know what YOUR life changes have or are going to be – send me a message through our ‘advice and guidance’ – I’d love to share your ideas with our Wellbeing Community.

– follow the links for a few ideas about how to get started in Yoga ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7AYKMP6rOE
https://www.yogabasics.com/practice/yoga-for-beginners/
– the best app ever for ‘real time’ yoga sessions, any level, from 5 mins to 1 hour https://www.downdogapp.com/web