I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and a good start to 2018!

Of course, January is always a tough month, the weather seems like an endless kaleidoscope of greys with no end in sight, the christmas holidays already feel like ages away and let’s not forget that we are right in the middle of Divorce day (January 8th 2018) and Blue Monday (January 15 2018).

Divorce Day, for those who don’t know, happened on Monday January 8th which is the calculated day of the year with the highest numbers of divorce requests to solicitors. I once wrote an article once about D-Day, as I call it, and I was contacted by Cotswold Life who asked to publish it, so here it is in their January issue:

Next Monday is Blue Monday which is the ‘lowest’ day of the year, based on weather, debt and low motivation and it would be easy to just completely avoid it by hiding under your duvet and eat Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream all day watching Netflix, but this year, I have decided to fight that negativity and low motivation with some positive New Year’s Resolutions!

So here are my New Year’s Resolutions: 

1. Add colour into my life: To beat the January weather blues, I’ve decided to add colour in my life anywhere I can: clothes, food, flowers and feelings. When I go shopping, I immediately gravitate towards black – well it’s slimming after all – but this year, I will introduce colours into my life. And for those who meditate, you can focus on blue for happiness and red for warmth. It’s one way to beat the grey-weather-blues.
2. Exercise: For those who don’t know me, I am more French in my philosophy of staying slim: ‘wear black, don’t exercise, eat green apples and smoke a few fags each day to keep the fat away.’ But this year, I’m forcing myself to get that oxygen into my oxygen-deprived brain. I have been invited to a Boom Cycle class and will give you an update next week!
3. Positive thinking and Positivity: It is easy to slide into pessimism when things aren’t exactly working out as you want them to in your life (which is inevitable at times) but there are ways to fight these thoughts. This is something I have been working on for a few years now, and although I am not perfect at it, I have significantly improved my positivity and stop myself as soon as I start feeling or thinking negative thoughts. There are tons of books written about positive thinking, but it really does work. Here are some tips from the Mayo Clinic about learning positive thinking: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-2004395
4. Gratefulness: Another skill to practice daily is gratefulness. I know, you read about it all the time, and when your children don’t listen for the 100th time when you tell them to get those shoes on in the morning and get ready for school and all you want to do is to shout at them, gratefulness just seems like far away annoying, new-age, mumbo-jumbo, but you kind of have to force yourself. They say to create a list every day of 10 things you are grateful for, which is something you can easily do with your children, and it can help lift your mood and teach your children a lesson at the same time.
5. Giving: This year will be my year of Giving. UNICEF is my chosen charity and I have become one of their Global Guardians. I am also looking into volunteering with children, which will be one way of giving back to the community. If you are interested in UNICEF and would like more information or interested in joining as a Global Guardian, please don’t hesitate to contact me! It’s a truly amazing organisation which looks at child health, education and advocacy. You can find out a bit more about UNICEF on their website: https://www.unicef.org.uk
6. Find something that you love doing and keep doing it, for me, it is to Keep Writing: Because I do enjoy it. It releases endorphins when I do it, I love seeing my work being published, and it gives me clarity of mind. It’s not for everyone, but find something that does make you happy, whether in your work, as a hobby or exercising, and keep doing it.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

Hope this will inspire you to start the year with some positivity, or if not, distract you for a few minutes from the list of things you need to do by pick-up time…!

xx

NHYM

http://www.nottinghillyummymummy