I can’t deny that the last couple of weeks have been a little tough at times. There just seems to be so much ‘going on’ at the moment, in all areas of my life. I’ve been caught in a vicious circle of getting myself overtired through being so busy, subsequently having several days where I can’t help but flop into bed as soon as I get home from work, watching the to-do list get bigger and bigger and then having bursts of busyness and anxiety about how much there always seems to do until I get myself tired and rundown again. I realise that this sounds really whinge-y, but I wholeheartedly accept that this cycle is entirely my doing. I wrote a blog post for High Tea Cast about busyness where I wrote “The
truth is, the cold, hard, mean old truth, is that busyness is a choice. All of the things on my plate are things I
have selected from the buffet and piled on in some kind of greedy binge of
over-commitment.”
I’m conscious that when I do have a spare moment lately I’m not spending it as wisely as I could be. As I said, there is a whole lot of crawling into bed at 8pm and sleeping my evenings away. Conversely there is a lot of sorting emails, checking work emails, organising errands and ticking things off the list that could probably wait a few days. What I really want is to use my free time to improve my ability to deal with the busy times. More sleep is helpful but I long to create some real ‘me time’ and to make myself feel calmer, be kinder to myself and help myself re-energise a little.
I’ve been reading a lot about Tao, mindfulness, meditation and spirituality in an attempt to help me stress less, stop me worrying about the future and generally be happier in my day to day life. On the occasions recently when I’ve curled up with one of these books, practised the meditation before bed or even just given myself an hour or so to read another (fiction) book, I’ve definitely felt more relaxed. I’ve also been doing yoga videos and other things to try and improve my overall health. One thing that has definitely been making me feel happier lately is my wonderful new Neom candle. I was sent the Invigorate Travel Candle (£15*) which is scented with grapefruit, bergamot and lime and just smells heavenly. It reminds me of being at a spa, it smells so fresh and zesty. The scent is said to ‘promote positive thoughts and a strengthened spirit’, which rather sounds like the perfect accompaniment to curling up and reading about meditation and finding peace. I’m now eyeing up the larger version of this candle as I’ll be sad when it burns out, it’s definitely bought a touch of calm to my evenings. I think I’d definitely like to try Relax, Restore and Tranquillity too, they sound like scents I am in need of right now!
Creating calm and appreciating those little happy little moments is definitely high on my agenda right now. I’ve been enjoying soothing mugs of hot chocolate topped with marshmallows, and Sunday breakfasts catching up on magazine reading.
What have been your moments of happiness and calm lately? Although I might be working some of Saturday I am also looking forward to a weekend of catching up on blog reading, taking some long baths, drinking camomile tea and reading (with my Invigorate candle flickering away…). What do you have planned?
| find me on facebook, twitter or bloglovin |
