Letting Go of 2020

We're at the end of the year once again! The past few years I've written posts about letting go of the year. You can read them below:

Letting Go of 2017: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2017/12/letting-go-of-2017.html

Letting Go of 2018: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2018/12/letting-go-of-2018.html

Letting Go of 2019 + Starting a New Decade:  https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2019/12/letting-go-of-2019-starting-new-decade.html

 

2020 has been a difficult year for mostly everyone, so it feels appropriate to be writing this post now! I started this post a few days ago and I'm finishing it on New Year's Eve. I usually write mid-year reflection posts as well, so you can see the one from June 2020 here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/mid-2020-reflections.html

Gratitude List

 Things I'm grateful for this month:

• Christmas decorations and lights 
• Going for a walk by the river
• Coming out of lockdown
  
• Yule/the Winter Solstice
• Chocolate advent calendars!
• Hot chocolate
• Having a gingerbread latte from Starbucks
  
• Christmas presents

 

Gratitude List

 Things I'm grateful for this month:

• McDonald's iced frappes coming back! (I mentioned last month that I was having Costa Coffee Frostinos instead, but I think my local one is currently closed due to lockdown). 
  
• Going to Hove Park again after a while
• The last of the autumn beauty 
• Golden late autumn light
• Hot chocolate- now that it's colder I've started making my own at home again.
• YouTube
  
• The Chic Life gratitude challenge  
• Getting out in fresh air- we're allowed out for exercise during the 2nd lockdown. 
  

Feeling More Positive

3 years ago I started a series on the blog called Feeling Your Emotions. It's about your feelings/ emotions, and getting in touch with them. You can read the introductory post here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/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. :)

I started by covering to-called "negative" emotions- anger, sadness and depression, fear and anxiety and shame. Then I wrote a "neutral" post about the between point of "negative" and "positive" emotions before moving onto happiness. I've written two posts about happiness which you can see below:

FYE- Happiness (Part 1): https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/feeling-your-emotions-happiness-part-1.html

FYE- Happiness (Part 2): https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/feeling-your-emotions-happiness-part-2.html

 

This year I've also written two stand-alone posts called Feeling Lonely and Feeling Low. When I did the 2nd FYE Happiness post, I wasn't sure whether to do a 3rd post on happiness, or a separate one on positive thinking and gratitude. I decided to go with the second option. :)

Note: While I prefer not to put too much emphasis on labelling emotions as "positive" or "negative" because all emotions are natural (avoiding "toxic positivity"), for the sake of this post I'm going to focus on feeling positive as in feeling better in general.

It's been a difficult year with the coronavirus pandemic and racial tension and unrest, due to the injustice of the murder of George Floyd and similar killings. Many of us have found ourselves struggling. Some of us may previously have had mental health issues and some people may have found themselves feeling more anxious or depressed than normal. Just over a year ago I wrote about going through a down time, and as someone who has anxiety and depression, this year hasn't helped with that!

So, while I don't feel really happy right now, I'm focusing on feeling more positive. :) 

Gratitude List

 I normally post on Sunday or Monday, but running a little behind. So, here's a Tuesday post for a change! :)

Things I'm grateful for this month:

• Beautiful autumn trees and colours
• Sunny autumn days
• Costa's Coffee Frostinos- I keep hoping McDonald's will bring back iced frappes, but for now I'm drinking these!
• Going to Lancing Beach at sunset
  
• Going to Worthing Library
• You're Strong, Smart and You Got This book- I just bought it 
• Going for brunch at Crepeaffaire in Brighton with a Meetup group (my first meetup in 8 months!). We are currently on the Medium tier in Sussex. :)
  
• Hallowe'en/Samhain coming up!
  

I hope everyone's doing ok as we move into the last two months of the year. :) What are you grateful for this month?

 

Gratitude List

 Things I'm grateful for this month:

• Golden September days
• Madron/ the Autumn Equinox  
• Official start of autumn (although I'm always sad to see summer go!)
• Baking for Madron
  
• Going for a walk with a group from my local mental health resource centre
• Going to Goring (Worthing) Beach
• Blue skies
• The song Pink Dust by A.CHAL

 Here is a photo I took at the beach:

 

P.S. I'm trying a new "bullet point" style for the list. Blogger has changed their format, and I can't write it out how I used to. Hope you like it! :)

 

 

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

 

Lammas

Last full month of summer

Hot weather (although I had to adjust to it!)

Brianna K's YouTube channel

Libraries re-opening for browsing

Reading new books

Having a Five Guys meal, especially the coffee milkshake! 

Golden early evening light

 

 

I occasionally share photos with these lists, so here is a picture I took at Brighton Marina when I went to Five Guys:

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Law of Attraction (LOA) 2.0

Back in 2013 (7 years ago this month!) I wrote an introductory/basic post about the Law of Attraction (LOA for short). You can read that here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2013/08/law-of-attraction.html

Since then I've written a few more posts on the Law of Attraction/manifesting. You can find a round-up of posts up to April last year in this LOA Round-up post: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2019/04/loa-round-up.html

I first got into LOA about 10 years ago. I had heard about it before then, because in 2008 I started a "Vision Pad" (like a vision board and I wrote a Life List in 2009, but I didn't really get more into it until 2010, after reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I started more actively working with it in 2011. I have manifested smaller things, but as I wrote in the LOA Round-up post I don't have any big success stories like some people do and have often felt like a "failure" in general. 

I feel like I have a deeper understanding of the Law of Attraction as time goes on, but there are still some things I don't understand, such as why "bad" things happen. It's hard to understand why we would have attracted something like the coronavirus for example. Melody Fletcher has a video and post on this if you're interested: https://melodyfletcher.com/2020/03/25/coronavirus-why-how-did-we-manifest-this/

Please note that I'm not saying that this explanation is 100% right, or that I agree with it completely. You'll probably find that it resonates with you or not. I won't be covering this subject myself because I honestly don't understand it, but I hope it helps you, at least in a small way. :)

I've seen some changes since getting into the Law of Attraction, such as losing weight in recent years and I've been working on my mental health and feeling better, and expanding my social life. However, I feel that my mental health has been worse in recent months. In fact, I've been struggling since last summer and autumn really. But I feel like writing more about LOA and felt like it was time to revisit the subject and go deeper. 

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful this month:

Libraries opening again for Select and Collect

Having a Coffee Frostino from Costa

Having a McDonald's breakfast!

Going to Hove Park again

Summer days

Listening to new music

Watching cute animal videos on YouTube!

Watching dance videos

Feeling Low

With all that's been going in these past few months (the coronavirus and lockdown/quarantine, and then the murder of George Floyd and all the racial tension and unrest), I've been feeling quite low lately. I'd imagine that many people are feeling the same, so I thought I'd write a post about feeling low and how we can start to pick ourselves back up.

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

I have written before about having depression and anxiety, and last autumn I went through a period where I was struggling. I did start to feel a bit better but then the end of the year was quite hard for me personally, and then of course in early 2020 the coronavirus spread and lockdown happened. I wasn't able to get to places and do things that I usually did, since everything shut down and we were all told to stay home. And then with recent events I've been feeling more unsettled. I wrote about my thoughts on the year so far in my Mid-2020 Reflections post. You can read that here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/mid-2020-reflections.html

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Hot weather

Litha/the Summer Solstice and the official start of summer

Lockdown easing more

McDonald's reopening (for drive-thru, delivery and takeaway)! lol.

Getting an iced latte from Tom Foolery

Going to the park more

Discovering new blogs

Re-reading favourite books- since libraries are still closed.

Mid-2020 Reflections

For the past few years I've written mid- year reflection posts. Well, the first one was in May and then in 2018 and 2019 I wrote them in June. You can read them below:

Reflections (2017): https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2017/05/reflections.html

Mid-2018 Reflections: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2018/06/mid-2018-reflections.html

Mid-2019 Reflections: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2019/06/mid-2019-reflections.html

For the past couple of years I've written end of year posts as well. You can read my Letting Go of 2019 + Starting a New Decade post here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2019/12/letting-go-of-2019-starting-new-decade.html

The first half of 2020 has been strange to say the least! I think at the beginning of the year few of us imagined that we'd have a worldwide pandemic with the coronavirus and almost every country would go into lockdown/quarantine because of it. So it's been quite hard adapting to that.

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Beltane

Sunny, hot weather

Hawthorn trees blossoming

Making new online friendships and connections

Lockdown easing slightly- I know we still have to be careful but it's nice to be allowed out a bit more.

Going to the park again

Getting hold of some light condensed milk in the shops (I made my own recently but it's easier to buy it)!

YouTube- been spending a lot of time there lately, lol.

I occasionally share pictures in my gratitude posts, so this month I thought I'd share a sunset pic I took at the park:

Feeling Lonely

If you follow the blog then you'll know that I've been doing a series called Feeling Your Emotions. You can read the intro post here (and find all the posts under the label "FYE"): https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2017/11/feeling-your-emotions-introduction.html

One emotion I haven't covered is loneliness. Since  I'm "moving up" through the scale of the so-called more positive emotions, I decided to do a stand alone post on loneliness. Hopefully it will be useful, especially during this time when we are advised to self- isolate and social distance due to the coronavirus. :)

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


What is loneliness and what does it mean to feel lonely?

Loneliness is described as an "unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation and also "social pain" (Wikipedia) ,and a "distressing experience that occurs when a person's relationships are perceived by themselves to be less in quantity or quality" (Encyclopaedia Britannica). So it's a strong feeling that is thought of as negative. I would also describe it as an "empty" feeling.

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

The NHS, supermarket and other essential workers who have been working during lockown
First full month of spring
Easter
Chocolate Easter eggs (especially Bournville!)
Blossom trees
Wimpy still being open
Doing some baking and making Dalgona coffee
Some products being back in the supermarkets (it's still hard to get flour and eggs though!)

Bonus: Amina Makhdoom's 30 Day Joy Challenge


Hope everyone is staying safe and doing ok. :)

Gratitude List

It's been a difficult month worldwide with the spread of the coronavirus and lockdowns in various countries. But I thought it was important to still do the monthly gratitude list.  Of course if you practise gratitude you may not be able to find anything to be grateful for right now depending on your circumstances, and that's completely ok. Just put it on "pause" right now and concentrate on what you can. :)

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Birthday presents and birthday wishes. :)
Birthday cake! (Tesco's red velvet that I also had last year).
Daffodils
Going to Nando's for my birthday (this was just before they shut all the restaurants down).
Oestara/the Spring Equinox
Sunny days- it's nice to see them out the window even if you're not going out.
Hot chocolate- I've been drinking ready made and also making my own.
Toilet roll being available again!

Hope everyone is doing ok. :)

P.S. I'm taking part in Amina Makhdoom's 30 Day Challenge which starts on 30th April. I've done it the past few years and it's always fun. Read more and sign-up here: http://www.lunchwithcinderella.com/30-day-joy-challenge.html

Feeling Your Emotions- Happiness (Part 2)

This is the next post in the Feeling Your Emotions series. You can read the introduction here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/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. :)


So far in the series I've covered the so-called "negative" emotions- anger, sadness and depression, fear and anxiety and shame. Then I wrote a "neutral" post about the between point of "negative" and "positive" emotions before moving onto happiness. It's quite a big subject so I decided to split it into  a couple of posts. You can read Part 1 here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/feeling-your-emotions-happiness-part-1.html

Now I'm going to go deeper into the subject of "happiness".

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Imbolg
Amina Makhdoom's Love Expansion programme- I was one of a few people chosen to get it for half price in the Adventures with Amina Facebook group! :)
McDonald's caramel iced frappes (I still miss mocha though!)
Finding new inspirational websites
Daffodils starting to bloom
ASMR videos and audios
Going to Lianna Greene's gothic fusion belly dance workshop
Listening to new music

Gratitude List

Things I'm grateful for this month:

Taxis
Sunny winter days
Food delivery services
Early Easter chocolates!
Leeor Alexandra and Jasmine Lipska videos
Duolingo- I've been using it to learn Spanish and (more recently) Korean
Yallabina!- belly dance event I went to yesterday.

Also I thought I'd share a photo here since I don't do that often:

Sunny winter day- Shoreham-by-sea.

Feeling Your Emotions- Happiness (Part 1)

This is the next post in the Feeling Your Emotions series. You can read the introduction here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/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. :)


I started this series over two years ago with the intent of exploring emotions and "feeling them to heal them". So far I've covered some of the so-called "negative" emotions- anger, sadness and depression, fear and anxiety and shame. Then the last post was a "neutral" one about the in between point of "negative" and "positive" emotions. That was in July, so it's taken me a while to get back to this. I wrote some other posts in between, including one called When You're Struggling which you can read here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2019/10/when-youre-struggling.html