Recharged and Reconnected…

Hello all , its been a good few weeks since I last posted and there’s a very good reason for that, I have been taking some time to relax and recharge my batteries after a crazy festive season and end to 2022, this topic is something I wanted to delve in a little deeper with today to restart my posting for the year.

Admittedly its a little more time away from posting than I intended to take but I think its super important to remember that we are all comprised of energy and that energy can be easily drained leaving us feeling tired and over worked. The end of the year always carries so much pressure with the festive season and after running around like absolute lunatics I feel we all need to take a leaf out of the book of nature and slow down to recharge.

Paying more attention to the seasons we will notice that in January in particular, not very much is going on in terms of nature. Nothing is growing outside, wildlife has gone into hibernation, and there’s a peaceful silence if you listen to the earth, it’s resting. Like the wildlife, like the plants, we are also part of nature and would take great benefit from doing the same, taking that time to just ‘be’… relax and put our feet up in the warm, not feel the need to have to socialise so much or to have to post and keep up appearances, but to take the time to heal and reflect, to rest and recuperate, prepare ourselves for the spring where everything begins to grow, and creatures begin to awaken from a long deserved nap.

In this modern world filled with social media updates and everyone striving to be the best, the fastest and the most perfect versions of themselves, it can cause feelings of pressure or underachievement, it can cause people to feel they have to keep up or they will get left behind, when the truth in the matter is, it doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing, how fast they are going or how perfectly together their lives may seem, it has no bearing on your life, seeing somebody succeeding in something doesn’t make you any less successful, but its this very feeling that causes us to drive ourselves into exhaustion. Drive is a good thing we all need that to be able to succeed but should our drive not come from within ourselves? Wanting to do better for our own reasons and not for the reasons of feeling ‘less than’ even if at the cost of our mental health.

Taking time out and giving ourselves that chance to recharge our batteries, reconnect with nature and think about what we really want, will help us to come back to our work or our social lives filled with confidence, ambition and bursting with creativity and new ideas, knowing we are on the right path for what we truly want, sometimes we need to stop and think for a while, and check ourselves to realign.

Here are some of the things I did whilst taking some time away, feel free to try some of them out for a little selfceare and relaxation time for yourself.

• My birthday was in January and some may find this completely boring, or feel like asking me the question ‘how old are you again? 89?’ But, it was what I really wanted to do and it made me happy so here it is! It was pouring with rain, dark and super freezing cold outside which only made this more magical – I baked myself a vegan birthday cake from scratch – it was a cherry sponge with orange frosting that I created myself and it was amazing! I lit candles and incense all around the house and ate cake wearing a fluffy jumper and did a jigsaw puzzle with a cup of my favourite tea! – if you would like the recipe for my cake comment below and i’ll happily add it into the comments.

• One evening I had a warm bath with bath salts and essential oils, I gave myself a mini facial and felt like a completely new person when I was done. ( just so we are clear I did have showers in January too, just incase any of you thought I had only bathed once all month, can’t have that )

• I binge watched lots of cheesy movies on the Hallmark channel, you know the ones! Girl moves to her hometown for work, volunteers for some sort of charity Christmas or winter festival and ends up having to work with her high school sweet heart – obviously they fall in love and live happily ever after, you know what’s going to happen before it happens and I still love the pure cheese of it all. 

• I went for lots of winter walks – wrapped up really cosy, hat, scarf, gloves and eskimo coat, I could of walked past my mother in the street with the amount of clothes I had on and she wouldn’t recognise me – taking that time out to reconnect with nature and appreciate the trees, how bare they are at the moment, the beauty of the frost sparkling on the ground first thing in the morning, breathing in the fresh cold air and then returning to the warm heat of your house really makes you appreciate how blessed we are to have what we have. For me noticing these small things in our everyday lives, that we sometimes take for granted and taking a moment to really appreciate them is something that makes me feel really happy. On my walks I find listening to a podcast or some music really relaxing, a podcast I’m really enjoying at the moment is called “wicked spiritual’ its on Spotify and its three really cool women talking all things spiritual and healing, so if your into that give it a listen! 

Have you been feeling pressured and feel a break could do you some good? Or have you also been taking some time for yourself? If so let me know in the comments, I would love to hear from you!