Monday 4 June 2018

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: https://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:  https://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.



I wrote about how I feel during the year in my Letting Go of 2017 post and I also said that I would try to accept how I am and go gently. I do struggle with accepting things. There's a concept called Radical Acceptance which I don't know much about, but I'm going to look into. The website it's on is about Dialectal Behavioural Therapy (DBT) which I've read a bit about. (It's mentioned in the book Heal Your Mind by Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz and Louise Hay, which I'm reading at the moment). I've tried Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) but not DBT, so I'd like to look into that more. There's also another concept (unrelated to CBT or DBT) called Radical Self Love which I first heard about through Gala Darling. Check it out here: http://galadarling.com/radical-self-love/


And as I was writing this, I came across this post of Amina Makhdoom's on a similar theme of accepting yourself: http://www.lunchwithcinderella.com/blog-posts/create-a-new-story

I've been feeling up and down with anxiety and depression lately. At the beginning of the year I took a Food and Mood course at my local mental health resource centre, about how food affects your physical and mental health. I enjoyed that. If you're interested in the subject of "food and mood" here are a couple of links about it:

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/food-and-mood/#.WxVWeooh0dU

https://www.mindcharity.co.uk/wellbeing-article/food-and-mood/ (redirects)


I went to a stress and anxiety group for a bit after that and also have just done a Five Ways to Wellbeing course. I'd like to carry on doing some courses and things like this. I set myself some loose goals in February, including learning more about self help for anxiety/mood management techniques, learning about food and nutrition and continuing to study the Law of Attraction (LOA) and magic/Wicca, so I'll see how I get on with that. I've also been to a few dance workshops (Bollywood and belly dance) and hope to do more this year.

As for the blog I started my Feeling Your Emotions series last November, and so far this year I've done two posts on anger- Anger (Part 1) and Anger- Part 2. I'm currently working on a post about sadness and depression and hope to have that finished soon. I also celebrated Falling Petals' 5th birthday in February; here's the birthday post: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2018/02/falling-petals-5th-birthday-fave-posts.html

So this is just a reflection on the year so far. I'll probably do another a post at the end of the year. Hope you enjoyed this post and that 2018 is going well for you so far! If not there's still half a year to go, so try not to put too much pressure on yourself. (Which is something that I tend to do, but am trying not to!). :)


Photo: Lancing Beach. Moonsparkle 2018.

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