A Place in the Sun

  Jump forward a few months - and here we are, looking at Christmas!  I have come forward in leaps and bounds, and it's not been easy. In one of my development sessions, which I try to attend from time to time to keep on track,  I came up with the following: Every morning, say 3 affirmations for each of: family, career, personal life; and then practice gratitude (3 things you are grateful for). In the evening, do the gratitude bit again. Watch your life change. This morning, I logged back on to my DayOne App (Web Version) - or you can download it from here ! - to continue my journey in logging my progress. Thanks for the idea, Mark Manson !  Through reading his book and following his online articles and podcasts, I found a way to journal my progress and to be able to look back - just to see how far I've come! 

 I read about a stoic's attitude towards grief.  Of course it gets better but it comes and goes in waves. It is one thing when you have to move mountains to achieve something - a family event or requirement, a career goal or deadline.  That's an achievement in itself. It's another to have to do it when your heart is broken.  I asked myself - If I were to succeed in being a proper stoic, would this get better for me? There's a lot of hype around being stoic - and it seems to be a magic formula so as not to suffer so intensely. But I guess, pain is necessary for us to move past certain experiences, to learn and to heal. But, achieving your goals in life while healing a broken heart is tough, even if you are a 'stoic' or practice stoicism in some form. Making it alone in the midst of your grief isn't easy, but it is what makes you strong. No doubt the Stoics were people who had feelings - big feelings.  Look up Seneca's essays on grief and loss, or the stor...

  I have found myself scrolling social media like crazy in recent weeks.  When bored. When tired. When needing down-time.  Hell, I'm even writing about it. This morning I left my phone upstairs while having a coffee with mum in the kitchen. And I was pacing nervously about. She just asked: "What's wrong with you today? You're pacing about like mad." The truth is, I had left the phone and was unable to quell the itch to look at social media. I wanted to see whether my recent story had any likes, whether my recent photography posts had received reactions, whether my posts had any views. And it goes on. Bloody crazy, if you ask me. So I thought: this deserves to be treated like an addiction.  You cannot take the first peek (outside of set peeking times, at least) and you have to 'do something else' rather than indulge in the social media world. Going in there, I risk becoming sucked in like a whirlpool, while life is going on outside. Not good. The withdrawal...

Earlier this year,  I published my On Grief post. Water has flowed under the bridge daily. I wanted to share some thoughts here. My mentor, Jackey Backman , joined along with me on a holiday and we ended up being 'on retreat' together - mirroring each other and bringing up the other's isuses through being a mirror for each other. She also helped me process things as they came up, while we were travelling. We were out of comms half the time and I kept her busy tapping her phone - not on social media but on a Trip Meter (which is an app that counts metres / kilometres) as we passed important signs and landmarks along our Sicily journey. We had to keep telling each other not to squirrel away in our heads and it was quite funny. BUT there was great learning for both of us, I dare say, and having Jackey along (besides the great company) felt like doing a retreat. We were doing things we don't normally do, sometimes getting uncomfortable (including having ourselves in ...

The monster strikes again.  Love and loss - we can safely say that all love stories end in tragedy - either because of some form of separation, or death. Grief has struck again and it is unspeakable.  Through the tears, I am working on self development. I look for him on social media and he's just below the surface, but not making any contact except occasionally.  To that extent, neither am I. I am keeping time and space as my healer, and possibly as an insight to both of us as to where we want to go. Most people I talk to on his side seem to think that this was the real deal for him. That our relationship was, for him, the works.  What could have driven him ... fear of commitment, the intensity, the crazy schedule.  I know he needs time. I know I need time too.  Through this, I learned that many limiting beliefs have determined how i deal with grief. And I am trying to change them. I don't have to go through the pain of the bargaining stage - the bargainin...

 This morning I woke up feeling really upset. I did not have a good night's sleep and this may be in part to some anxiety rolling around in my head.   So, in view of the recent craze we all seem to have with AI and AI-generated text, I asked ChatGPT to generate an article on beating Monday Blues.  Here it is with some (a lot!)  of my personalised adaptations and suggestions. Beating Monday blues involves adopting strategies to start the week on a positive note and alleviate any feelings of stress or reluctance. Here are some tips to help you overcome Monday blues: Plan Ahead on Friday: Ensure that you wrap up your tasks on Friday and create a to-do list for Monday. This helps you have a clear plan when you start the week. It's easy to lose track when picking up some 3 days later! Positive Mindset: Approach Monday with a positive attitude. Instead of focusing on the beginning of the workweek, think of it as an opportunity for a fresh start. Create your own min...