So this years Summer Project is nearly over and have one last blog to share. I really hope you gained something from it, and please in the comments below, give me your feedback as it really helps me grow my blogs and that you keep on liking these blogs and subscribe, and you will be alerted everytime I publish a new blog.
Self care and development is what is is all about, and making sure you put yourself first on some days and have a life you are happy with. Of course there are events that are beyond our control, like a loss of someone and something, but having resilience and determination, you can rebuild your life to be better and listen to your feelings, and address them.
Taking time out from everyday life and having new experiences and meeting new people, to build new relationships and making existing relationships stronger than ever, and being with people who will listen to you aswell as listening to them.
See that you deserve a happy life and you are worth the things in your life, and the relationships. You should treat yourself and make deals with yourself as I find rewarding helps me to get things done, and not procrastinate and taking my time, and taking it easy.
Life isn’t about rushing around, but having peace and if you can’t be bothered then it could be that you are doing too much and need to reevaluate your life and making changes, so you feel excited and not crawling through tasks, but will give you good results. Also taking a break and getting rest, so you properly recharge and feel full of energy to have a good life that you love.
Soon I will be starting my Autumn reset and so once I do my final blog then my Autumn Reset will begin and so a lot more content to come.
My mental state was bad and it has taken me a lot to get my life back on track, but planning is always the one thing that gets me through it. I like planning my days and focusing on having a good day, whatever has tried not knock me off the path I have been going through, to be fully recovered. I did a video talking about a couple of days ago, when I went to pick up my prescription and bought a cold coffee, only to drop it as I was running for the bus back, check out my video here: https://youtu.be/L_bU-FKqtOQ and so not everything goes to plan, but I still got my prescription and I still made it back indoors to record the video above, talking about Using what you’ve got .
When unplanned events happen, it can take a while to get over and I believe in, allowing yourself to grieve and take time in coming to terms that sometimes you have to start again, to continue to grow as a human being, and that is exactly what I have had to do.
I started to get back on my feet by spending time away from my friends and family, and was helped with getting my life together, by having an income again and being reunited with, family and my son, and able to see him off to school and back. Getting in contact with friends via social media, and now looking to be connected to others again, as I do miss going out with friends and family again.
Never plan too big at first, and focus on one or two things, at a time. I began to Understand the condition I had and learned about the triggers, should I feel like I am having relapse, and learning about different mental health conditions. I did this by doing some free courses, and they have helped me, with these blogs, because I love to learn and educate myself. It is a great way to rebuild your life. I did some painting which I haven’t done in years and started walking again. Walking small distances, and exploring new places, getting back into writing books, and exercise is good for recovery as it does give you, good energy and it helps me to listen to my body that can help with my mind, by retuning positive feelings.
Healing relationships by forgiving and forgetting, and addressing the causes. Make a plan to see your friends again and spend time with family, and have them help you in recovery, You don’t have to go through recovery on your own.
Having a good sort out on things that you want to let go off and make plan to do this. Again get help. My mum helped me when I came out of hospital, and recently done a declutter, and doing this regularly can help the feelings of being overcrowded with stuff.
I am in a good place now and feel like my life is taking shape. There are still so much I wish to do, but taking it one step at a time.
Remember I do have books available on happiness and wellnesses, along with fictional books. You can find these on amazon, under the names, Carrie Challoner, Carrie Lee Holmes and Carrie Holmes.
When my son was born premature it really scared me and didn’t have any idea of what was going to happen next. I had no inkling that Henry was going to be born early and I shut down any thinking of the future, and I am a planner. The evening my waters broke I was going through my diary of how many weeks I had to go and that evening i went to hospital and then on the Monday of being in hospital from the Saturday, my son was born, and I never felt so frightened in my life and if my son was going to be okay.
I love taking pictures of London and good way of helping trauma that has helped me, is taking pictures and people I love.
Yes having a child is a miracle and I did want children but it was the shock, that made me shut down and for once was not worrying about what was going to happen tomorrow.
I cried a lot. Taking one day at a time I just concentrated on doing what I could to feed Henry my milk and readjusting, when I could visit my son in hospital I did and helped with feeding, having cuddles and changing him, and take it step by step.
For me that is the best way, and just taking it slow.
Life has a way of surprising us, so it is important to live each day at a time. Yes I am into goal setting, but I do set goals daily as they arise and try not to worry about tomorrow all of the time. My Keyworkers, when my mental health wasn’t good, both said to take each day at a time, and is about getting back to recovery state so enjoy the days with my son, and rebuilding relationships that were on the brink of falling apart and concentrate on my health and on my environment. Getting back to doing the things I love, like blog writing, going for walks and spending time with my son.
I hope these blogs help you and lets support one another.
Yesterday was a really lovely day. It was almost affected coming back because of going through the gate at our local station, but there will always be those who think they are more important than you, and yes I did get annoyed but now it is the next day, I am not going to allow that, to ruin the joy I had yesterday.
Picture I took of the Shepperton Loch which was so lovely and recommend.
We went to Shepperton, which I have never been before and filmed a week in a life, coming soon, for my main youtube channel, where I post weekly vlogs, (https://www.youtube.com/@typicallondongal) and there was issues with the trains too, but had a nice meal in a local pub, called the Alex back in Wimbledon and in Shepperton visited the Loch and Canal there, which really helped with my mind and clear the cobwebs and we did some walking and completed over 11,000 steps and helped me in my thoughts.
Visiting a different place where you have never been before can really help, along with the weather too.
I know there are people who don’t always get to go out, and find commuting difficult, so if you can help them, then why not offer to take them out. My Uncle had a stroke some years ago, and it really turned his life upside down, and so my mum and aunty along with other family members would take him out and take him to see his daughter and grandchildren.
Our minds can get overwhelmed with every day challenges, so getting outdoors, seeing friends and family, doing a puzzle, listening to music and a hot bath for example, can really help in have peace and doing a brain dump and journaling your thoughts and feel at peace with our mind, which can help the body.
What can also help is extra rest, especially if you are a parent and work full time for example. All the things we need to remember and a overacting mind, which has been what I have suffered with. As soon as put my head on my pillow at bedtime my thoughts start to think of blog ideas and remembering what I need to do the next day and the worst case scenario and so taking time away from my phone and laptop and read, can be great in settling the mind.
Having clean and tidy spaces, and having a good drink you enjoy and catching up on a box set or doing a indoor workout, can all help to clear the head and relax the mind.
Its all about self care and development that leads to more positivity, and staying calm and feeling content with your thoughts, to your feelings.
This is something I journaled when away near the south coast of Britain in a caravan and is important to me because I do go back to the passed in my thoughts and of the future, but in order to plan for the future you have to live each day and be present, rather in a dream world all of the time.
So when I wrote this, it was to enjoy myself with my husband and son, and seeing friends and were friends who hadn’t met our son, and being present helped I feel, have a good weekend.
Write it out and I have just did a new page of my journal, to what I want to do right now and helping me to slow down and focus on one task at a time.
It helps me to prioritize, so I have laundry to sort out so going to, once written this blog, go and check to see if my clothes are dry and put another load on. I have an telephone appointment and so need to prepare for that and having breaks in between and not feel overloaded with stuff to do.
It helps manage the mind to prevent burn out, and not being stuck in one place all day, as this can effect concentration and our feelings along with our thoughts
Grab the bulls by the horns, Have you heard of that? Instead of sitting back feeling that you have no life set yourself challenges. These can really open your eyes of what you are capable of and can help feeling down about life, to feeling that you want to take on the world and get back up on your feet, if you have had bumps in your life that has made you feel that you have no life.
I love starting the year on a challenge, they help set me up for the year ahead and will be doing no spending January again as I want Jan and Feb 2024 be the last payments to pay off my credit card, I want to start doing fundraising events again and start with doing 5K walking and running events, and this year I am going to do NanoRimo to write my first Christmas book and want to do editing challenge for August and September and so when i decide of how I am going to do that I will let you know.
The yearly challenges I have been doing for the summer months is walking each day and get outdoors and help get my legs strong again so I can get back into running and build my steps and I really enjoy it as it makes me feel I have more energy when I do and reading a book a month. This challenge (reading) began last year and I love it. In August I find it hard to read, because of the school holidays but I have just kept going and read so much by doing so, and read during the day where possible.
They help to stimulate the mind and look forward to getting out of bed each day and you learn so much about your self.
If you find it hard to take a challenge on your own then see if anyone will join you. When I was working at a call centre I had colleagues wanting to join me in fundraising walks and family too. It can really help boost relationships and that your in it together and egg each other on.
Start by choosing one, and it can be writing for ten minutes each day, go for an hours walk or 5 minutes declutter each day or once a week and organize a room that has been bothering you and dread seeing the mess everyday, as untidy spaces can get us down and feel stuck in a rut. There are 30 day challenges and when I began doing challenges they became addictive and did one to Instagram to post for 30 days for an entire month and I enjoy posting on Instagram as I wanted to post more frequently to build this platform along with Facebook and Twitter.
Setting challenges helps to change our habits, for example it has helped me to be more productive, feel more positive and dealing with hurdles like I am not a naturally tidy person so since challenging myself I do a tidy each morning to get it out of the way and not avoiding tasks.
Thank you so far for liking these blogs and there is more to come. Please check out my Pinterest site where you can find more of my content for my Life Coaching programme:
If you follow me on this blog you will be alerted of when I post a new blog and with challenges set targets and what you want the outcome to be.
Today after being away at the weekend did a tidy of my bedroom, took Henry on a bus ride and on the train and then came back and sorted out my clothes that I had been meaning to do and tomorrow going to continue.
>It does mean having a good amount of sleep and relaxing properly so you can start each day fresh faced.
>It means taking time to have some self care so I had a shower and washed my face, hair and body.
>It means taking time out from being on my phone and being present and having a good daily routine
>This weekend away I journaled which I hadn’t done for a while and drafting for videos I want to film and blogs I want to write
>Making time to visit and meet with friends, having a night out doing something different that you don’t always get to do, and went to social club this weekend away where they were playing Bingo
>We walked along the seaside and had fish ‘n’ Chips and went to a pub we hadn’t never been to before and had a climbing frame for kids
>I caught up on my steps I like to do each week and went swimming with my son and my husband. something we rarely do together, it was such a shame that on that it was windy and rainy
>I did some laundry and unpacked from being away this weekend
>I did some reading and had a cooked breakfast which is very rare these days
>Now I am catching up on posting my blogs, whilst I watch a live video
>Started to go through my finances that I like to do each week
>Tomorrow I will be getting my son ready as he is going to a holiday club and getting myself ready for the day and got to have a blood test and catch up on editing my book I am writing and dusting my bedroom.
I like having things to do because it helps to manage my mind and not wasting my days and getting as much out of them as possible.
I write about this a lot on this blog but that it is so important to spend time giving yourself some self care that helps you develop and feel better about your life and we all need that time.
1>. Watching a movie after having a hot bubble bath with a glass of wine or a cup of tea.
2>. Going for a coffee by a river or lake when the weather is good and a picnic with a bottle of Rose’ wine and meet up with a friend to join you
3>. Going for a long walk and write in your journal with a take away coffee or one you made at home and meeting up with a friend you have not seen for a while
4>. Do some exercise if you are not into walking but like to workout indoors. Check our Youtube as there are loads of different workouts on there and completely free or there is Davina McCall Own your goals and the body coach, Joe Wicks: https://www.thebodycoach.com/ and why not invite a friend to join you as sometimes working with a friend can make it more fun and more likely to stick to it.
5>. Read a book with a blanket over you, and put your mobile on silent and create a do not disturb sign.
It is about making the time for you and not what you always get to do, and we all need that down time.
So lets make the most of being free when we have the chance and now the schools break up for the School Summer Holidays, the more self care we can get, the better.
Hello and welcome to a new blog. There has been times where I have felt I have let myself down, like when I had a chance to join the Fulham Ladies football team back in 1998, via my brother as he knew the Manager of the ladies soccer team, and I went twice and met a friend of mine from when I used to go to a dancing school, but getting myself there would take a lot and I would play images of not being good enough, not having natural skill and was way out of my comfort zone. I did play at Primary school and at Secondary, but because of hearing from one girl I played football with at school, said “Couldn’t even kick the ball” stopped playing at school. I feel that effected me when I should have ignored her and used it to show actually, I can kick a ball.
I felt bad, because my brother had gone to that effort and he bought me my own football boots, but I just couldn’t get myself there due to the movies I would play in head of feeling out numbered, and not being good enough.
This has helped me to make sure I take on opportunities as I did my Level 1 Football coaching qualification and did run a children’s football team for a while, and then I was going to do my level 2 coaching badge but once again my confidence got me and so decided not to continue.
Yet I did Manage a Football team The football team in that I was coaching was taken over my some of the boys dads, and was disappointed about that, and was going to suggest it, but when the Charmain of the club said that I can coach the next under 8’s team, and then coach a girls team they wanted to coach, I felt like, “What so because I am a woman I should be coaching women?” and left.
Anyway I found out I was pregnant and didn’t feel wise to continue, and so stopped and was good experience and did feel let down a little, because I was running the team by myself and should have had one of the parents to help manage the team, to help me. However I felt I did okay and would like to continue one day and do sports coaching again, and my aim was to coach a team from kids to teenage years, and further. This is still something I’d like to do, but it is a massive commitment and so see what the future holds.
When I worked in Contact Centre often felt like I let myself down by not getting good feedback on the telephones and I wasn’t rude, but found real tough when people would ring and complain and not knowing what to say and felt I could have done better. That’s life though we won’t always get it right but you have to get it wrong to make sure you get it right, whatever you do and life is about learning and growing.
Football teams for example like Manchester United were Champions of the Premiership, yet it took Alex Ferguson 4 years when he began managing the team that they started to win trophies and was put under enormous pressure and became unbeatable.
You know when you feel you have let yourself down, because you go through what if’s and play scenes of if I had taken up that opportunity where would I have been right now? Would I have gone on and become a professional Football coach by now? and really life is about choice and often we do choose the wrong path or it goes into a different direction, Again that is life.
Doesn’t mean that it won’t ever happen, and I didn’t always get it right being a football coach but they did win games and did improve their ability, and their skills, and did get messages from parents when I left thanking me, so it wasn’t all bad and I did enjoy it, just didn’t like how it ended.
Yes Yes Yes! NO this is not copying when Harry met Sally, if you remember that film, I have set my goals for the summer, ready for the next season and to grow. Setting goals helps me to accomplish the things I want to do, and help me get through challenges, like for example I want to do fundraising events again but worry that I am not fit enough and have had injuries in building my walking and running again.
Running and walking on uneven pavements can contribute to that so it important I continue to walk as much as possible and get my body used to it again. There will always be hurdles, and so use this when it comes to achieving your goals, not to exhaust yourself but to stir you on to complete them.
I separate my goals into three categories, Home, Work and Play.
So in home is anything like my finances and Henry, my son like getting ready to prepare for his new school,, work is like my blogs and youtube for example and hopefully be outside work soon, and play is going out to dinner, trips and playing with son having lots of fun.
Here a printable I made to help you begin your Summer Goals:
The summer me is getting outdoors and exploring and do things that you can’t do in the Autumn and Winter, like swimming outdoors and have a meal in the garden. Well I suppose you could do these things in the Autumn and Winter, but would need blankets and coats, but for the summer you don’t and just having a lunch outside of a restaurant can be uplifting and, so they don’t have to be serious goals but ones that you can almost feel the enjoyment and motivation already, just by jotting them down.
You can keep; track of my blogs but following me and if you’d like to share you goals the please do. You can comment below..
