Mid-2018 Reflections

Last year I did a post called Reflections writing a bit about how I was feeling then. You can read that here: http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2017/05/reflections.html

It was last May, so it's already over a year since I wrote it. I thought that since we're now halfway through 2018 I'd do a mid year reflection post. (Seems strange that we're already in June!).

On New Year's Eve I wrote a post called Letting Go of 2017 which you can read here:  http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2017/12/letting-go-of-2017.html

I always find it hard after the excitement of Christmas; New Year doesn't seem that exciting to me and then January is bleak because all the celebrations are over, and it's winter and cold.. I like spring and feel better as the weather lightens up, but this year it seemed to take until May for me to feel like I'd really "eased into" the year. I enjoy following seasonal cycles and celebrating the wheel of the Year, so I think a lot about how the seasons affect me. As I wrote on my other blog The Seasonal Life, winter seemed long this year but now summer is finally starting. During 2018 I'm reading  Debrorah Blake's A Year and a Day of Everyday Witchcraft and Kate's West's The Real Witches' Year, both of which have meditations, spells or just something to think about for every day of the year.

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Beltane
Eurovision
Sunny, hotter weather (summer is starting!)
Roses on the bush outside my window
New series/season of Teen Mom 2 starting
The Tribal Remix show I went to with my belly dance group
Having Harry Ramsden's fish and chips
Free reservations on non fiction books at my local library

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Easter
Leftover chocolate eggs!
Blossom trees
Spring properly starting
The lovely summer like weather we had a couple of weeks ago
Joy Challenge with Amina Makhdoom- been doing it all month
Going to a Turkish restaurant with my belly dance group BD4U
Doing a tribal fusion/gothic belly dance workshop with Lianna Greene

Feeling Your Emotions- Anger (Part 2)

In February I wrote my first post on the Feeling Your Emotions series on the subject of anger. You can read the Introduction  post here: http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/feeling-your-emotions-introduction.html

I decide to write two posts on Anger and you can read Part 1 here: http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/feeling-your-emotions-anger-part-1.html

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, so if you're having mental/physical issues please seek medical help in addition to reading this. :)

In the first post I wrote about anger itself and how suppressing it can be bad for you. I also talked about accepting anger. This post will focus more on releasing it. It's taken me a while to get back to this, since, as I said in my first post, I don't think anger's an easy subject to talk/write about. But I'm trying my best. :)

First of all, here is a good article I've found about anger management: http://www.pathwaytohappiness.com/anger/anger-management.htm

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Having a nice birthday
Birthday wishes from friends and family
Going out for a meal at a Turkish restaurant with my belly dance group
Birthday meal at Nando's
Coming across books I want to read at the library
Daffodils and snowy daffodils! (We had more snow yesterday).
Oestara tomorrow
Cake!

Falling Petals' 5th Birthday + Fave Posts

Today is Falling Petals' 5th birthday. Wow, can't believe it's been 5 years! I started this blog on 25th February 2014. You can read the first post here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/welcome-to-falling-petals.html

As I said in the first post, the name inspiration came from Liza Dalby's book The Tale of Murasaki which I was re-reading at the time, about the real life Japanese author, poet and lady in waiting Murasaki Shikibu who wrote The Tale of Genji.(I actually just finished reading the book again). One of her poetry subjects was the seasons, e.g. the cherry blossoms in spring. She also observed seasonal changes like I do on my other blog The Seasonal Life.

On my About page I mentioned how when I first started FP I planned to have a more spiritual/philosophical type blog (compared to Star Sparkle Blog, the only one I had at the time which is about entertainment) but I was unsure exactly which direction it would end up in. I started writing more about self help/personal development, the Law of Attraction (LOA) and spiritual concepts, and then in 2016 I decided to make it a resource  where you can find lots of information about self help/personal development, LOA and related subjects. I'm continuing to build up my Resources and Helpful Articles pages. (You can find them any time on the sidebar to the right if the blog). Although I post less often here than my other blogs- once or twice a month on average- I try my best to provide helpful content. :) Blogging here has helped me to express myself and work through things and I hope my post can help others too.

In celebration of FP's birthday here are the most popular posts and my favourites so far. (I've listed the popular ones by the most views).


Most Popular/Viewed Posts

Top 10 Self Help and Personal Development Blogs and Sites:

http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/top-10-self-helppersonal-development.html

Raising Your Vibration (Or Feeling Better): http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/raising-my-vibration.html

Law of Attraction: http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/law-of-attraction.html

What Is Possible? (LOA)  http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/what-is-possible-loa.html

Romantic Love (part of The Love Project series): http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-love-project-romantic-love.html

Feeling Your Emotions- Anger (Part 1)

In November I started my Feeling Your Emotions post series. You can read the first post here: http://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/feeling-your-emotions-introduction.html


Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, so if you're having mental/physical issues please seek medical help in addition to reading this. :)

As I mentioned in the Introduction, I'm starting with the more "negative" emotions first, the ones that are perceived as negative. So let's start with Anger. (I won't capitalise it for the whole post, just when I first introduce it). It's taken me a while to write this, i don't think it's a particularly easy subject to write because we're taught that it's "wrong" to be angry. But it's very important to discuss these things and express our emotions. I've decided to split it up into two parts, so for today I'll write about anger itself and accepting it, then the next post will be about releasing it.



A lot of stuff I've read says that suppressed anger can be bad for you. In itself it can be very destructive and if you hold it inside then it will hurt you. Depression is often called "anger turned inward". If you have depression (as I do) you may find it helpful to explore that more. I'll look more at sadness and depression separately later (grief might need its own post) but for now here are a few links on depression and anger:

http://www.transformationalwriting.co.uk/blog/depression-can-repressed-anger-cause-depression

http://www.emclear.com/Emotions/Emotions_depression.html

http://www.emclear.com/Emotions/Emotions_anger.html