Quote of the day Monday...

Wouldn't it be nice if this was our first thought EVERY day? 

Be your own windkeeper...

Before you read this post I suggest you watch the clip below to gain some background insight:

Unfortunately embedding is disabled so click the link: Windkeeper

If you are unable to watch the link it is a clip from an episode of Friends (one of my most favourite shows EVER!) in which the girls read and discuss a book called 'Be your own Windkeeper'. It advises women to be strong and stand up for themselves.

Myself and a friend have amused ourselves with the idea of doing this the past month and we now refer to things as 'Windy activties' and 'Windy days'- I know, sounds ridiculous but it amuses us. We feel that we should incorporate 'windy activities' into our daily life to spend time on ourselves. We need to make sure that in this busy time we look after our self as well as those around us.

With this in mind I decided to treat myself to a 'windy day' today. I went to the local shopping centre (which is HUGE and has amazing shops- lucky me!) and had a day mooching around. I sat with my book and had lunch then treated myself to some shopping. What else was I going to do there?!

My Treats

If you've never tried Clarins I can suggest it whole-heartedly, my skin had never been more amazing before. The products aren't too badly priced and last an age, it feels like a little treat each time I use them.

What would you treat yourself to right now?

Writing for me...

My mind has been all over the place since getting back to work. I have been working so long hours and extremely hard. Due to this I haven't been blogging too much as I find my concentration span (which is not great terrible at the best of times) is just gone. My thoughts are just tumbling around with no connections. 

Last night however, I had this urge to write...not to blog...to write. I finished drying my hair (my mind wanders wherever/whatever) and picked up my notebook and before I started to write I had a flick through. In it were a fair few bits of writing that I have never finished. It seems I almost get to the end and fear I'm being too honest forget the punchline and therefore just stopped. This isn't a bad thing though as when reading back through my scribbles, I relived my thoughts and feelings from the past maybe 2 months. It was quite the eye opener and also nice to understand myself. Now I'm back teaching my thoughts are consumed with work and reading my writing made me think of all those feelings I have pushed to one side to help me concentrate.

After reading it, I actually felt a lot calmer as I centred myself again. I took time to accept the emotions and feelings which I was pushing to one side. I realised that even though I don't finish the pieces of writing or blog it, it doesn't make it any less important. I don't need a journal of my actions but I do want a journal of my feelings and my growth as a person. It's nice to re-read once in a while, even if I have a few self pity pieces but who doesn't?!

How does your writing help you? Do you ever read back your writing from the past?

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Quote of the day Monday...

I have been asking myself, and inadvertently others, a lot of questions the past couple of months. Some questions I had not wanted to ask due to worrying about the answer and others just because the question in itself seemed so difficult.  What if I ask the wrong one? What if the answer throws me off balance? What if the person does not like the questions I am asking of them? What if I don't like the questions I am asking of myself? 

This quote just makes me think that sometimes answers are simple, no matter what the question is and we shouldn't be afraid to ask them of anyone. In fact, I have found these questions have helped me focus my thoughts on the things which I need to and acknowledge things which I should have a long time ago. After all, even the most complicated sounding questions can give us a simple, much needed answer which in turn could influence our life in a good way.

New/Old friends...

I have been lucky in the last month or so to have made some new friends. Some will be people I will have the odd conversation with, whereas I know at least one is a very important person and I think they have been brought into my life (and vice versa) for a certain reason. Through this experience I have began to assess friendships and figure out if they are good or bad for me. Just like romantic relationships, friends can have positive or negative effects on you and your spirits. I have made a big effort to reconnect with friends who I have for one reason or another fell out of contact with. The result? 

Happiness and positivity.

Both have been people I have known for a similar length of time and met at work during my time at Uni (so nearly 6 years ago) and as I left the place of work myself anf one of the friends just kinda drifted. The other, we never fell out but something happened that changed us.We were still friends but just didn't have that same bond.

Last weekend we went out and in the spirit of being a new me, I told her how I'd felt and what had upset me. From being honest we talked and sorted things through, it was brilliant. It's like, why didn't I do that sooner? It's like having a brand new friendship but we know each other well. We've both decided that we are still the friends we used to be and we both need to make that extra effort to see each other since we're not at Uni anymore where, let's be honest, it's such an easy time to go out and plan things. Once you leave and get jobs and start living you 'real life' things get harder. 

I have known the other friend for just as long and we used to work an evening shift together at work. We used to gossip about boys and bonded over the trials and tribulations of two certain boys. Regardless of the couple of years difference between us, it seemed our love lives mirrored each other with unfathomable guys. We've always kept in contact over the years and met up to have chats where we find nothing's changed. During the summer she went travelling and when we met up after I had returned we realised that we were both in the same place. We both feel positive and are trying to find the good in situations which maybe in the past we'd have thrown our hands up in the air and thought, "What on earth am I to do here?"

It is nice to not just have new friends but also reconnect with old friends. Maybe we all need a time out sometimes to get ourselves back on track and realise what we want in our life and friendships. I am pretty sure that, like everyone does, we want friendships who can be happy for us when things are good- even if they aren't in the best place themselves, console us when things are bad and help make us laugh when we need a pick me up.

Have you ever re-connected with an old friend only to wonder, "Why did we lose contact?"