Great quote by John Kabat-Zinn – “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn to surf”.

It feels like ages since I’ve put “pen to paper”, which isn’t really paper anymore is it… Everything is on screen now, but I still like that old fashioned expression used to mean writing and expressing our creativity within.

With the whole of the pandemic, even though I did develop some new healthy habits for myself (meditation mainly), along with the older, more established eating and exercise habits, I did manage to get myself feeling in a bit of a rut, mainly due to all the stress and exhaustion having the kids most of the time, combined with the sheer lack of mental space and limited energy I now have, which is less than before lockdown. Stress puts a big strain on our body.

When I am low in energy, I get more stressed, more anxious, more exhausted, my body feels more pain and gets more run down. There has been so much change in the last 6 months, and now all of my kids are at school, we are all settling into a good routine, and at long last, I have been given an opportunity to start afresh, to create some mental space for myself, to recreate my life in essence, to find some kind of balance, and day by day, using the tools I know really help uplift me and help me navigate my way through life, I am finding new ways of adding more peace and calm into my daily routine. Also, as well as that, I look to bring some more joy and fun into my daily routine too as this helps lift our energy too – this has been lacking somewhat with all the extra stresses that everyday life now brings us with the situation as it is. Little by little. Step by step. Trying to manage with what is the “new normal” which is always evolving as the situation changes for the worse or better… We are all just in the process of finding workaround solutions that enable us to live our lives and not put others at risk in the best possible way, so life can get stressful with more to worry about than we used to.

I am however ready for change, and have been on a new mission since school started again to really focus on increasing calm and energy especially now I finally have some thinking time and time to take some action to improve things. Just making that time to prioritise what matters to me which is what helps to contribute to living a happier, less stressful and more fulfilling life. And the same goes to you too. Do what is important to you, make it a part of your being in the way you go about your life, your everyday routine

Since now I have very little time in the mornings with the rush to school, my original morning exercise routine did fizzle out a bit… I had to cut a lot out as I became very conscious of the lack of time, and suddenly I had little to no time again with the school runs – my exercise routine didn’t really work well anymore. Whilst at home, my morning exercise routine could go on for 30-45 mins with interruptions from the kids, or more some days.

Now, I only have a finite amount of time, I had to find a way to jazz it up somewhat but didn’t know how. I had to make it feel more exciting, meaningful and worthwhile. I felt it needed to change to make it feel more inspiring and achievable every day. I initially bought a book focusing on a more mindful yoga practice called Yin Yoga by Kassandra Reinhardt which I became curious about though I have practiced yoga before, and then I came across a huge range of yoga videos that she has produced on Youtube which are fab that run for the perfect amount of time I can fit into my morning routine. She runs a free 30 day yoga challenge which involves just 10 minutes each day which I have now put into my schedule and I set my alarm 15 minutes earlier so I can make this happen. I am on Day 8 now and really enjoying it. It does give me a great calm, energising start to the day, which is just what I need. And because it makes me feel good, this is what gets me to keep this new exercise habit up. Little habits are great, especially when they only take 10 minutes out of each day.

What habits can you start to introduce into your life? How can you liven your routine and make the most of each and every day?

Don’t wait until it’s too late, enjoy your life whilst you can. Live each day as if it were your last and savour every moment!