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When we get excited and have fun, it allows us to access a brighter part of ourselves and it brings us a sense of newfound both mental and physical energy, and especially if you are consistent with doing what lights you up inside.

Consistency is key, building fun habits as well as those more mundane ones into your life. Therefore, excitement can be in essence our guide to bringing more happiness into our lives on a regular basis if we let ourselves feel that feeling.

Have you ever thought about what your purpose in life is? It’s not just about what you do work-wise (if this is something that excites you), it’s something that you can think about to cover all other areas of your life too. Of course we interact differently with different kinds of people but we can show up as a whole as one kind of person and take control of how we want to feel in life, which’ll ultimately come across in the way we behave with ourselves and to others in the outside world.

Singing can really make a difference if you make it part of your daily or weekly routine – you can do it anywhere, anytime. There is much more opportunity now to have music surround you in life wherever you are, what with access to YouTube on our phones and Bluetooth too… You can use those spare tedious moments effectively by including music into your life to uplift and de-stress you.

Singing has been such an important part of my journey in improving my energy, growing my mindset, motivating and empowering me, making me feel good, and more importantly increasing the flow of joy and happiness into my life.

So let excitement be your guide – never lose your childlike spirit!

Mark Twain was right. There’s so much more to discover about ourselves when we start exploring within our very own selves that we never even knew existed.

A year ago, I never knew I would be writing regular blogs, actually produce the content for most of my book, and get as inspired as I have done with all forms of music – it has played such a big role in my life fulfilling lots of different purposes.

Life is so full of stress, overwhelm, obstacles and challenges, and so it is crucial that we must look within ourselves when we come across and have to face any one of life’s challenges. It’s important to learn to find the opportunities to learn something new and pull something positive from each one of these experiences even if it is a negative experience. Push past those barriers, have more faith in yourself, take the plunge, each and every day of your life is valuable – we mustn’t waste a moment.

Sometimes I don’t always know if I am heading in the right direction (it can be difficult to know for sure), but I do have to just trust my intuition as I go along, that gut feeling inside, that I am taking the steps that are right for me and the path I am heading towards, my goals and ambitions. My future. And your’s too.

It’s important to remember that it’s your road and your’s alone – other people can walk it with you but can never walk it for you, which is why it’s so important to empower ourselves to live our best lives through connecting to ourselves, our needs and passions to get the best out of life. No one else can know this better than us.

If time, money or even children weren’t an issue, what would you want to pursue in life? What are your ambitions, what do you dream of? Open your heart, eyes and mind… see what comes up.

We have to give ourselves the mental space to breathe and think about what these even are. When we go from one task to another without stopping, it’s hard sometimes to know what you want from life as there’s not much time to think about it all.

Dedicate a little time in each day to think about this, find a little activity that you could do regularly that would start helping you to build those blocks towards that thing you dream of – and include it as a regular, routine part of your life. Routine doesn’t have to be boring!

Don’t let mental blocks control you. Use them as an opportunity to grow, feel more freedom to be yourself and ultimately start to see yourself in your true colours.

We get so used to the routine in our daily lives that we sometimes forget to make fun a part of it too, especially if you are someone who gets overwhelmed easily just trying to keep up with everything (especially for me coming up to the end of the school year with doctors appointments, inductions, shows, school trips and sports days just fill up the calendar and a constant juggling act with my 3 kids). You may also be someone who has a routine involving tasks or chores that are mindless or unexciting like housework, cleaning, sorting through clothes, sitting in heavy traffic on and off all day long, a long train commute, and so on.

The lack of stimulation is so incredibly draining on the mind…. when really you can make life more exciting and add to the equation some music or listen to a motivational video, even if for just 5-10 minutes, which can suddenly make you feel more energised, uplifted and in a better mood for the rest of the day. Or find another calming mindful activity, meditate or delve into a good book. Just listen to your body and feel what it needs, then go and do that thing. This is what self-care is all about.

It’s not just chores we can add fun to, it’s everything in our lives. It could be that you are making the best of what you have, for example, with chronic fatigue, chronic disease, a hearing disability or sight loss. Life can be really tough and very challenging, and we have to make that choice to push through doing the best we can to make positive life choices to be able to better handle the negatives that come our way.

I have been experimenting with my new hearing aid to take advantage of the latest technology and using Bluetooth which is a completely new experience for me. It really is like having headphones on without wearing headphones (I like the 80s style “over the ear” ones) whenever anyone calls me or I play any songs on YouTube, which is quite cool though it does feel a bit strange talking to people on the phone with no mobile attached to my ear. Or maybe i’m just a bit behind on the times as more and more people are wearing Bluetooth headsets whether they have any hearing loss or not.

It could also be that you would like to make interactions with your family more fun which helps to make your home environment less stressful and helps to snap out of the routine a little, making your lives feel easier and more enjoyable. We have to make a conscious effort to add little drops of fun into our day to keep up our energy and to be your best self.

Kids learn best through fun and play, and the same really does apply to adults aswell. There is always something new we could be learning, and this is a great way to energise your mind and grow your mindset.

We can take control of our thoughts and beliefs, and empower ourselves to live happier lives and not let everyone and everything around us dominate our lives, leaving very litte time and space in our minds to do anything for ourselves.

Think sideways and out of the box, maybe there is something more that excites you in that direction. And do more of that in your life – be happy, you deserve it.

As someone with moderate hearing loss myself, I have always been told it’s ok to hide my aids underneath my hair and no-one will see it so I won’t need to worry about what people will think of how I look wearing hearing aids…

Whilst I was growing up as a child, I found the whole concept of wearing hearing aids really hard to bear, and so as I had so much hair anyway, hiding them seemed the best solution and so this is exactly what I did, so most people didn’t really know I had any hearing problem unless I told them.

However, I really feel now that maybe this wasn’t the right thing to do as it pushes all that negativity and anxiety under the carpet, which is probably why it has resurfaced in the front of my mind as an adult. I didn’t deal with the anxiety well back then, and I ended up tuning it all out for many years, and had gotten used to life as it has been with its limitations, and to be honest, I didn’t think twice about it anymore as I thought “this is who I am”.

Through hiding and not talking about what I was feeling, I made the decision at some point early on to put limitations on myself on what I could achieve due to my hearing loss, and I didn’t want to make my life harder than it needed to be. So I lived my life feeling limited by my hearing loss, and I didn’t push or challenge myself to do the things that are really hard and scary, the things I thought I couldn’t do with my hearing loss, to face my fears and try and find a work-around solution. The fact that I didn’t feel comfortable talking about this part of me really did have a knock on effect on my confidence and self-esteem over the years without even realising.

I didn’t want to make a big thing of it at work as I was worried about being discriminated against, so I kept quiet about it most of the time and didn’t get any extra support that could have helped me. I have always had to manage it on my own, and this is what I got used to. I really worked hard at school, and especially for the things I loved to study at school, like foreign languages. The ironic thing is the subjects I loved at school are subjects that are a big challenge for people like me with hearing loss, but the fact that I loved learning foreign languages really helped me to succeed, and I mostly had very supportive teachers who I am really grateful for.

The truth is that there is no need to hide the hearing aids under the hair, so for those of you, both adults and kids, growing up now with hearing loss like myself and my daughter, I would say just expose your aids, and allow yourselves to let feel those feelings you have about your hearing loss and get proactive on a regular basis and find ways to reward yourselves with love and self-care, and incorporate regular mindful activities into your daily routine that can give you relief from those negative feelings and take you to a different place in your mind doing something calming, uplifting or joyful. This could be music, meditation, art, gardening, reading, having a warm bath, going for a walk or being outside in nature, buying a small bunch of flowers, the list is endless, just do what makes you light up, something you love to do or experience that is soothing on their mind and makes you feel good inside. It has to become part of their daily routine.This also applies to anyone who has any kind of anxiety relating to any other special educational need, health issue, chronic disease, or parents and people in general who lead a stressful lifestyle. Anxiety has to be managed daily.

Don’t let yourself or your kids feel embarrassed to have hearing loss, there is no need to feel ashamed or embarrassed by your scars and to dream big – this is YOU. You are unique. Choose to live your life with hope, with positivity, dream big, as this is what’ll really help you or your kids to feel good about themselves on a regular basis and help to manage and calm down any anxiety.

Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to make a conscious effort to do it and realise that our needs are important too. Sometimes, you just need to create your own sunshine even if life gets cloudy, and learn to love yourself without being so attached to the idea of being loved only by someone else.