This is still me ❤️

True Crime articles will now be posted on Thursdays I can't tell you how good it is to be back reading articles on Medium. I honestly noticed a massive dip in my motivation without them. I've read so many inspiring articles recently, that I currently have 50 saved on my list, but today I am going to share the 5 that pulled me out of my funk this week. I'll start with You Are Not Alone by Kristin Austin. For some time now, I've been trying to think of a way to capture how I am feeling. I've tried mood tracker apps but I find them to be quite limited, so when I read Kristin's article, I was intrigued by the image at the top of the article. Graphics show what she was thinking and what she was feeling, as well as her mindset while writing. Where do I get myself this? That is when I discovered 750 words . I'll let you read the article for the full details. "Suddenly, although I was travelling my scary treacherous life path, I was no longer alone. Big

In yesterday's post July Reflections - What I Loved, What I Learned & How I Can Improve I shared some areas I wanted to improve on during August. I found these articles on Medium, which I will use to help me. Diana Meresc reminds me of the key habits we should all be implementing in 12 Simple Habits That Will Change Your Life “How often do you wish you had done something different in your life? Most of us get caught up in the daily hustle and bustle of our lives. That means we miss opportunities to improve ourselves every day.” Emma Carey gave me some clarity as to why I struggle to be body positive, in 7 Reasons Why Body Positivity Isn't Always A Good Thing “If you want to love who you are, you must process any trauma, difficult past events, and the emotions that come with it.” Briana Belcher gave me some great ideas on making my mornings easier in 6 Things I Do Every Night To Set Myself Up For Success In The Morning “After reading, I always check the reminders

Last Friday, I woke up feeling full of cold. Great, just in time for the weekend, but I was determined not to let it get the better of me. I’ve been taking a long hard look at my to-do list and chopped it up a bit. I want to give myself the option to take weekends off from writing and learning and avoid putting too much pressure on myself. I was really looking forward to going out for dinner with our friend's birthday, to celebrate a birthday and there was no way I was going to let having too much to do or a poxy cold, get in the way. On Saturday, Toby, who I think is having an identity crisis and thinks he’s a cockerel, wakes us up yowling at the crack of dawn. There was no way I was getting up early, the cold combined with too much white wine the night, was not leaving me feeling energised. We had a wedding reception to go to that evening. Again, despite my feeling rubbish, I still wanted to go. It's just a cold, I told myself and went off to sit in the garden to get som

I always believed that I was the type of person, that if something wasn't going how I wanted it, I gave up. If the weight didn't come off after eating well for a few days, I would get bored, eat cake and say screw the diet. If I slept in when I was supposed to get up and exercise, I would decide to stay in bed and then barely move all day, thinking what is the point. Even sometimes in the past with writing, I would miss it for a day and then think "Oh I've blown it now" Whilst consistency is extremely important, it doesn't mean that we have to live our lives by ridiculously strict rules, in order to achieve our goals. For example, going back to dieting. If I put myself on a strict 1200-calorie-a-day diet for a month, I would lose weight, but I would be miserable and this is where I have gone wrong in the past. It's the same with exercising, I put myself under so much pressure with it, that any enjoyment I do get out of it is ruined because it is now

Small steps, daily. Set up a LinkedIn profile This week, I am going to set up a LinkedIn profile for my writing. I'm feeling quite nervous about this as although I have been writing this blog for 5 years now, I don't have any "work experience" when it comes to writing. It feels a bit like a catch-22 situation as I may not get writing work with no experience, but how can I get experience if no one will hire me? Well, no one is going to know anything about me if I don't put anything out there so this will be a good step in the right direction. Incorporate some movement into my days. I need to find something I enjoy to get me moving more. I'm feeling overweight and unfit and the exercises I have done in the past seem like such a chore, so this week I am getting up, getting my happy playlist on and I am going to have a little dance for a few songs. I think I'll enjoy starting the day like that. Finish the online SEO course I started this course a co

Feeling Thankful I’m so thankful to have had a positive week. Although I do wonder how much of it was simply down to my mindset. Reviewing my outgoings. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had been sort of putting this off. I was scared that I would look at the numbers and realise I needed to earn money immediately and would have to take the next job that came along. Thankfully, I have enough money to pay the bills for a few months. This does of course mean that I have to cut back on a lot of things but when I weigh it up, the choice between being at home doing my writing vs earning lots of money, there is no contest. Money really can’t buy happiness. Good results on medium I’ve had my best month on Medium since joining back in April. I’ve had lots of views, claps, comments, and followers and I have earned the most! Sadly not enough to pay the bills, in fact barely a cup of tea but it’s a huge win for me and I have learned so much from all the other brilliant writers. Mee

Finally, a week where I can stop and breathe. It's been a positive week and I feel with each new day, brings new things to learn. I sometimes feel like I have only just begun living my life as I am meant to, which is odd at the age of 41. Last week I started adding a "song of the day" to my social media pages, the intention behind these is to get everyone's day off on a positive note. I thought I would share these on my Friday posts for everyone to enjoy, by adding the link to the day of the week. On Friday I went out with a couple of friends for some Friday night drinks. We sat in a beer garden, drinking rose and chit-chatting about our lives. I had a picture taken, which I usually hate but for once I didn't. When I wondered why I noticed that I looked relaxed and not like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, it felt good to realise that. There was a man at the pub that I was convinced was the actor who played Martin Fowler in Eastenders. I was t

Dream. Plan. Do. I have a lot to think about this week. For those of you that have read my posts this week, you will know that the job I was offered a couple of months ago, has not materialised, for those of you that haven't you can read here . In all honesty, I have avoided thinking about it too much. I know I need to, but I needed to get over any feelings I have about it first so that I can sit down with a clear head and think things through. It makes sense that at least some of my intentions should be around this. Review my outgoings This week, not only am I going to sit down and go through my budget daily, I am going to review my outgoings for the next couple of months and cancel some things that are not essential, namely my subscription boxes (sob) Hopefully, it won't be for long, but I would rather be prepared than stressed out about how I am going to pay for things when I am still getting a monthly box of beauty goodies I don't really need. Read For the l

Mind, body & soul I’ve been so focused on my writing lately, that I have neglected some other areas of my life, so I’ve decided that I would try and do 1 thing each for my mind, body and soul. Put my phone away In last week's blog post I mentioned an advert I saw at the cinema about putting our phones away and enjoying what we are watching. I am incredibly guilty of this, even as I sit and type this now, I have a program on in the background that I have recorded. This week, I am going to put my phone on Do Not Disturb each day and put my phone, IPad & laptop in the kitchen whilst I watch a program. Sounds easy, but even in the cinema, I had to resist the urge to get my phone out of my bag. It's a very bad habit and I want to undo it. Get my steps up Although I am thoroughly enjoying the amount of time I have available to spend writing, the downside is that I am spending less time walking around. This week, I aim to try and increase my daily steps by 1000. I w

My productivity has skyrocketed since setting clear, concise goals. After spending some time last week reviewing my current goals and setting some new ones, I'm feeling quite excited about the future. For the first time that I can remember, I am very clear about what I want in life and it feels pretty damn good. Sometimes when I set my weekly intentions, I struggle to think of some, which is where I will usually chuck in something vague like "drink 2 litres of water each day" and then inevitably, don't follow through with it. Now I have some crystal clear goals, it's so much easier and I could list several intentions I have for this week (don't worry, I won't) I'll just give you the usual three. Finish my article One of last week's intentions was to write an article, I started writing one but as I mentioned in last week's post , it was bringing back some pretty painful thoughts and feelings. I will go back to that article, but only whe

“Build Small Habits, Make Big Plan” — James Clear This week I have been thinking a lot about my goals, so this week, I thought I would share some inspirational posts on this.

So much has changed since January and that includes my goals. I looked back at the goals I had originally set myself at the beginning of the year and half of them are no longer things I wish to achieve. I’ve been reading The Power Of Focus which has some great guidance on goal setting, so I am planning on working my way through that over the next week or so. I want to write some more articles so that I have some ready to submit to publications. I often have ideas pop into my head and I keep a note of them. I currently use Evernote for my blog posts, I just need to organise my folders a bit better as I have almost all of my blog posts in there! Lastly, but most importantly, I am going to block a day out in my diary each week where I make no plans. No lunches, no appointments, no dinners. Nothing. It’s a day just for me to do the things I need or want to do for myself. What are your intentions for this week? ❤️

After having a massage last week and spending most of it having my brain race around, I tried a couple of mornings last week just sitting in complete silence, no phone, no TV, just me and a cup of tea. My brain was free to race around and do whatever it wanted and I found this helpful, so I am going to give this a go for 10 minutes each morning, instead of meditation. At the beginning of the year, I set myself some goals. Some were long term and others were short term and I try to base my monthly and weekly goals around these, to help me to achieve these. As the year has gone on, I have achieved some of these goals and some I have changed my mind about, so I am going to sit down and look at these and set myself some new goals. Once I’ve done this, I can update my vision board so it reflects my current goals. I hope that the second half of the year is as amazing as the first half.

This week, I want to focus on my physical health. I've been feeling sluggish and don't seem to have much energy lately. I'm going to try out some different exercises this week, I want to find something I enjoy, there must be something surely?! Drinking water is back on the list. Again! I've noticed my skin has been feeling a bit dry too so I need to try and get to grips with this water drinking malarkey if anyone has any tips on how to get more water on board, let me know. I also want to add more fruit and veg into my diet. My diet has improved, I've not been having many takeaways and have been cooking lots of healthy food, I just need to make sure that veg takes up a lot of my plate and maybe have some fruit for breakfast. What are your intentions for the coming week?

After walking to and from my counselling session last week, I realised how much I benefit from going for a walk, so this week I am going to get myself out each day for a morning walk. I want to update my vision board, the focus has been on the mind for a while now and I feel that I have made some good progress there, now I can work on some other areas. I didn’t manage to get the medium article written last week, so that’s a definite priority for me this week. I have a nice quiet week ahead so will be able to make the time needed for this without feeling rushed. What are your intentions for the coming week? ❤️

It’s been one of those Mondays today, so I thought I would share some posts that serve as good reminders that there can be something good found in every day ❤️

The last few weeks have been really busy. I’ve had lunches, dinners and weekends away with friends so I’m really looking forward to having some time at home with the husband. Whilst he is working away in the day, I am going to get through my ever growing to do list, this includes finally writing and submitting my article for the medium publication. It’s been a couple of weeks since I got the invitation, but as it would be my first time submitting something, I don’t want to rush it. I have already decided on the content and I am quite looking forward to cracking on with it. I’m also planning on doing some cooking. I do really enjoy cooking, so now I have a bit more time, I would like to cook up some nice lunches and dinners, especially now I have the new Lucy Lord cookbook. What are your intentions for this week? ❤️