Hello 2018.

Hello hello and happy New Year to you!

It feels like forever since I last sat down at my computer, loaded up this page and tapped out a post...about 4 months ago. There was no sinister reason for my absence, or even an exciting one. It was just that little thing called life getting in the way as usual.

Over Christmas I stumbled across a link to Susannah Conway's Unravel your Year workbooks. I downloaded this year's and sat down on New Year's Eve to start working my way through it, unravelling 2017's highs and lows, and noting down my dreams and plans for the year to come. It's a really lovely idea and something I think I'll try to come back to year after year. It made me take some time to take stock and, what I think was most important for 2017, to look for the good times in a year that I've really struggled to see the good in. It has monthly reflection posts for 2018 too so I have no excuse not to check in and do the exercise on a smaller scale each month.

As I was completing my workbook and thinking back to January 2017, all those months ago, when I wrote this post about my chosen word for 2017 - 'balance' - I came to realise that despite my best intentions it's something that I'm just not very good at! When things get stressful (and 2017 really had its moments!), I often lose sight of what's important to me - the little important things that I need to keep me going and retain a sense of self. For a while there I couldn't even focus on reading and hello to the 4 months hiatus on this little space! In fact, looking back at last year's post, I said exactly the same thing at the end of 2016 (perhaps the lead-up to Christmas is particularly stressful?!) which in turn made me feel even more stressed because I hadn't achieved enough/done enough/ticked enough off my to do list. I think the quest for balance in my life is something that will take time and I don't think I'm alone in that.

It took me a while to decide what to choose for this year's word but I eventually landed on 'kindness' - kindness to others is something I think I'm ok at (right, people who know me in real life?!) although that's also not something to ever stop doing, but to be a bit kinder to myself and to try not to heap so much pressure on these shoulders. Practising self-kindness will involve reading, yoga, blogging, more adventures with my love and saying no more. As a dear dear (half Danish) friend said to me, "you need to find more time for hygge!" and that's particularly pertinent on this chilly January evening. So instead of listing 801 things that I should be doing tomorrow, I'm curled up by candlelight with a big mug of tea, a chocolate egg (because yes, they're already in the supermarkets!) and catching up on some of my favourite blogs. 2018's off to a good start.

What are your plans for the year ahead?