Reflections - some of my favourites of 2016

Just like last year, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the past year. Two posts will follow - this one of some of my favourite things of 2016, and another one on things I've learned in the last year (coming soon). I will try not repeat too many of the same things from 2015's posts, but be warned there may be a few similar!

If you want to see what my favourite things of last year were then click here, and if you want to see what lessons I've learned (and compare them to this year) then click here.

As I said last year...without further ado, and in the immortal words of Julie Andrews, these are a few of my favourite things (from 2016)...

• Cheese - in all its wonderful and varied forms

• Yorkshire Tea - DECAF - aka nectar from the Gods

• My friends (work, uni, old, new) and my family

• Instagram - yes, I succumbed finally...

• Twitter - enough said

• GIFs - for an illustration of my love of these, please refer to Twitter ;)

• Tagging and being tagged in memes

• Procrastination - see above for one of the ways I do this

• Whatever the antonym for procrastination is

• Self-care

• Ice-cold cider

• Summers spent watching cricket

• 1 Second Everyday - I have almost completed a year of film clips, and am yet to miss a day

• Facetime/Skype - vital for keeping in touch with family and friends in far-flung places

• Helix piercings - bucket list item fulfilled

• Seeing Muse live - another bucket list item and there are no words for how good they were

• Exploring new cities - Bristol and Geneva, especially

• Swimming with swans in Lake Geneva

• Puns - one of the many ways to my heart

• Being made cups of tea without asking - another way to my heart

• Long walks with stops at pubs (shout-out to Devon for this)

• Freckles (again, and always)

• London having a heatwave, and all those Snapchat pictures that were just blue skies with the temperature

• Baking (in an oven, but also see above...)

• Starting university - one of those 'pinch me' moments

• Robing rooms and court rooms - (still, and again)

• My gut instinct

• Wahaca piña coladas

• Rooftop bars in London

• London

• Dancing all night

• Sleeping all night

• Giggling all night

• Nights in

• Nights out

• Planet Earth II - especially this scene

• Housemates (old and new)

• Change - even if it's scary

• Being honest and congruent

• Washing being magically hung up for you

• Reaching three years since I left hospital (and the milestone almost passing me by)

• Writing the Wellbeing Basics Series (sporadically) for The Olive Fox

• Homemade gifts/cards/food

• Still having more favourites than not, despite a roller-coaster of a year

...and so much more...

What are your favourite things of 2016?

How to get in touch:

YouTube - http://t.co/CGZBkZnWU2

Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/Recovering_Life

Blog - http://yourlifeinrecovery.blogspot.co.uk/

Email - yourlifeinrecovery@gmail.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Recovering.Life

Voting: UK Blog Awards #UKBA15

Amazingly I have been nominated in two categories of the UK Blog Awards  - more information is provided in my previous blog post on the awards here.
The two categories are Best Health Blog and Young Person Recognition (18-25.)

So now for the REALLY exciting part - voting is now open for the UK Blog Awards 2015.
Voting commenced on November 10th and closes on December 1st and I'd very much appreciate any of your support or votes.

 To vote for this site in the Health category click here or you can click on the lovely, shiny picture above!

You can also vote for me in the Young Person Recognition category here or again, click the fancy image above.

Here's an extract from the UK Blog Awards website describing the voting process:

"How to Register your Vote: Select the Blog entry you wish to vote for and fill out your Full Name and Email address in the required fields before pressing Submit!
Please note, if you vote more than once for the same Blog entry in the same category, your vote will be disregarded.
Some #UKBA15 entrants decided to enter their Blog into two different categories and we welcome you to vote for these Blogs across both of the categories.
All email addresses must be valid to register your vote effectively.
After voting, you will be redirected to the Public Vote page and will receive an email confirmation to the account you have chosen to vote with.
Don’t forget to help your favourite Blog gain more votes by sharing their Unique URL/s via Social Media."

There are some incredible individual/freelance bloggers (like me) plus some brilliant company blogs in the many categories and I would encourage you to have a browse on the UK Blog Awards site and see if any other blogs tickle your fancy!

As I said earlier I'd hugely appreciate your votes but also would love for you to share this blog post or the voting links with your family, friends, work colleagues, neighbours or anyone you think might be interested in showing their support for me and my site.

I want to say a huge thank you for all your wonderful feedback, comments and the lovely interactions so far. If just one person is helped through Life In Recovery I will have achieved what I set out to do.

How to get in touch:

YouTube - http://t.co/CGZBkZnWU2
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/Recovering_Life
Blog - http://yourlifeinrecovery.blogspot.co.uk/
Email - yourlifeinrecovery@gmail.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Recovering.Life

UK Blog Awards 2015 - #UKBA15

I have a BIG announcement to make.... Life In Recovery has been entered into two categories for the National UK Blog Awards 2015. The two categories are Health and Young Person Recognition (18-25) This is obviously hugely exciting for me and I am very pleased to be involved in the awards.

The UK Blog Awards© are the only Blog Awards recognising a multitude of industry professional talent across the UK. The UK Blog Awards provide a unique opportunity for individual professionals from their sector and organisations to be recognised for their social media achievements through blogging, with the chance to network and be inspired by other industry bloggers.

Now comes the part where I need YOUR help. The blogs are short-listed based on a public vote. This vote opens on November 10th and closes December 1st. The lucky 20 finalists will be whittled down to the winners by a panel of expert judges. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in April 2015. The theme of the 2015 awards is #BeBold.

So I'm going to Be Bold and say that when the public vote opens I would love to get a vote (or two) from you all. This is obviously only if you feel Life In Recovery is worthy of a vote in the categories. There will be lots of other amazing blogs and websites in all the categories that I'm sure would also appreciate your votes, so keep your eyes peeled and your fingertips at the ready on November 10th!

I'll update the blog to remind you when voting starts and I'm sure there will be some sort of countdown to polling time on Twitter!

Many thanks for all your wonderful feedback, comments and interactions so far. If just one person is helped through Life In Recovery I will have achieved what I set out to do.

How to get in touch:

YouTube - http://t.co/CGZBkZnWU2
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/Recovering_Life
Blog - http://yourlifeinrecovery.blogspot.co.uk/
Email - yourlifeinrecovery@gmail.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Recovering.Life

Anniversary - One year on from hospital....

I have just written a 'status update' on my personal Facebook page to my friends and it occurred to me that I also want to say thank you to all of YOU. So I'm going to paste in what I wrote word-for-word on here.
This isn't something I thought I would ever feel comfortable doing. I try to keep Life In Recovery and my personal life reasonably separate. Not because I am ashamed of the blog but because I think it works better if I don't use this as a platform to air my private life and that I use my past and present experiences in a constructive way to help others who may be struggling. That won't be changing.

Keeping this blog, creating videos and posting little (or a lotta) bits on Twitter has been an absolutely wonderful experience. I hope to continue the work I have only just started and love interacting and discovering all of you 'out there.' This is why I felt it was relevant to post the message I sent to my friends and family to you all as well.

So here goes...

I don't normally do this on FB but it's a handy way to reach a lot of you all at once!

Some of you will already be aware of the significance of today's date to me but for those who aren't...Today (August 5th) marks exactly one year since I was discharged from hospital!

Words can't express how wonderful and incredible the last year has been. To be able to be writing this at all is mind-blowing!

I can't say thank you enough to those of you who helped me through the tough (!) times for so many years. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I wouldn't be here today without you. Your ongoing friendship means the world to me.

To the friends I've met more recently I also wish to thank you hugely. Your support, understanding and most of all your inclusion of me in your lives has been so amazing and life-enhancing.

I thought about how I wanted to mark today and decided very quickly that I wanted to go back to the hospital I was last in. So today I am off to pay a visit to the unit I spent my last few inpatient months in. Taking along a HUGE home-baked carrot cake, lots of tissues and a sack full of gratitude and news! I'm going to spend a couple of hours seeing some of the doctors and nurses who have made such an impact in my life and I’ll also be able to tell them that properly face-to-face.

Going back today will also be a chance to reflect on and try to digest the enormity of the past year and just be able to reflect on how much has changed for the better. The past year has been full of firsts (and seconds and thirds…) and it's been a roller-coaster ride of epic proportions to say the least.

I wish I could convey to you all how much I appreciate and value your presence. Sharing this new chapter in my life and revelling in the real chance of a happy, healthy and full life is the best I can do to show this. I know how lucky I am to have such excellent family and friends.

Here's to another blockbuster of a year!

With love, thanks and amazement.

How to get in touch:

YouTube - http://t.co/CGZBkZnWU2
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/Recovering_Life
Blog - http://yourlifeinrecovery.blogspot.co.uk/
Email - yourlifeinrecovery@gmail.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Recovering.Life

Bitchy women: crescendo in catty culture

Near where I live there’s a very nice organic, home-made, yoga lifestyle sort of café. In essence it should be the kind of place I’d be naturally drawn to and want to frequent. 
However, I don’t. 
In fact when I pass it, as I do almost daily, I scuttle by and try to ignore its siren call. Why? Is the coffee awful? Or are the owners rude? Is it dirty/smelly/noisy? No. 
The issue isn’t with the café itself it’s with the people who choose to eat and drink there. It’s a yummy-mummy hangout which is fine in itself but the problem is that all these women seem to talk about is how, "Mrs F looked rough this morning", "Miss B is having trouble with the boyfriend" or that, "Mr and Mrs T are struggling financially". You can’t escape the conversations, however hard you try not to hear them. 

The first time I visited the café I very nearly walked over to the circle of gossiping women to point out that maybe their ‘friend’ was having so much trouble because, instead of trying to be there for her, they were choosing to spend their time ripping her life to pieces instead. The phrase “With friends like these, who needs enemies” hits the nail on the head.

I have stood on tube platforms, been in a queue or looked up from chatting with friends and received one of those up-and-down looks from another woman where you’re made to feel about as small and welcome as a cockroach. The American’s call it giving someone the ‘stink eye.’ This sums it up nicely. It’s hugely rude, disrespectful and hurtful to be judged purely on the way you look or just because you happen to be a fellow woman who might be competition.

However, it’s not just us as individuals who seem to enjoy bitching and sniping about other women; the media adds fuel to the already blazing fire by publishing articles that pit one woman against another. 
Did so-and-so wear it better? Is what’s-her-face the new ‘it’ girl? Ms X dethrones Ms Z as the new princess of pop/queen of our hearts/fashionista/media darling. 
It’s a human version of cock fighting. 
Yet instead of realising how barbaric, demeaning and destructive this trend for setting women against each other is we, as a society and a sex, are in the thick of the crowd egging the fight on!

I’m not asking that all women should link arms and walk off into the sunset together; that’s not realistic. We will have our differences and disagreements - that’s part of being individuals. All I ask is that we stop perpetuating a hate and vitriol-filled society where we seem to take pleasure from other people’s pain. Where we revel and crow over our neighbour’s failings and misfortunes. 

My wish is that we can accept other, respect choices, support our friends in rough times and not judge a book by its cover. My wish is that we can enjoy each others successes, not view people as a threat, or someone to 'take down' and that we can be confident enough in ourselves to build up and boost those around us.

Someone once said “When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself”. 

Do you feel the same way (as a man or as a woman)? Have you been on the receiving end of one of those 'stink eyes'? Do you feel that the media pit women against each other one minute and then berate the women who do "compete"?

How to get in touch:

YouTube - http://t.co/CGZBkZnWU2
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/Recovering_Life
Blog - http://yourlifeinrecovery.blogspot.co.uk/
Email - lifeinrecovery@mail.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Recovering.Life

Health Activist Twitter Talk Results

I'd just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined in on Tuesday's #hachat. We had a great  mix of people and lots of interesting conversations took place.
I know there were a few people who were unable to join in and WEGO Health have put a run-down of the chat on their blog. Click here http://blog.wegohealth.com/2014/06/26/your-patient-journey-health-activist-twitter-chat/ if you want to go and see what we were talking about!

Many thanks to WEGO Health for asking me to guest host and providing a space for people to interact with like-minded individuals and share experiences.

How to get in touch:

YouTube - http://t.co/CGZBkZnWU2
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/Recovering_Life
Blog - http://yourlifeinrecovery.blogspot.co.uk/
Email - lifeinrecovery@mail.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Recovering.Life

I'm hosting a Twitter Talk for Health Activists!

I have been asked to guest host a Twitter Talk for Health Activists by WEGO Health. The Twitter Talk will tale place for an hour between 3pm-4pm EST and 8pm-9pm BST on Tuesday 24th June 2014.
I have created a list of questions that I hope everyone will find thought-provoking and will hopefully stimulate some good conversations between us all. The questions will be listed below so you can have a sneaky preview to get those 'little grey cells' and fingers ready to go this Tuesday.

If you are unsure what a Twitter Talk is then I'll try to explain what they're all about. Twitter Talks or Twitter Tweet Chats are conversations that have an allocated hashtag (HT, #) that helps link and group all the messages being sent, questions and answers. They usually take place at a prearranged time and sometimes have an agenda or list of questions to help engage and promote conversations between participants.


Come and join me (and many more) on Tuesday at 3pm EST/8pm BST


 

 

Questions for #HAChat Twitter Talk:

 

 

1.       What's the one thing you would like to change most about how medics have dealt/deal with your health condition?

            What do you think the most important attribute a medic ought to possess?

 

What is the most destructive/disappointing/upsetting attribute a medic can possess?

2.       What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given that has helped you cope with your illness?

What is some good/valuable advice you might give someone with a similar condition to you?

Do you feel it is important to you to share advice and support to other sufferer’s?

3.       Do you consider yourself 'ill'? Why/Why not?

Do people’s attitudes/opinions of and towards your health have an impact on your overall condition?

 

How do you cope with stigmas or judgements that might be made? 

4.       Do you struggle with keeping hope and positivity alive?

Do you have strategies for this?

If so, what are they?

 

5.       Do you make sure that you devote equal amounts of energy on 'feeding' your 'soul/spirit' and other interests?

 

            If not – why not?

 

If so does this cause difficulties/guilt/concern that you’re not focusing on ‘trying to get better’ or ‘managing your condition’?

Who are WEGO Health?

WEGO Health is a different kind of social network, built from the ground up for the community leaders, bloggers and tweeters who are actively involved in health online. WEGO Health is a platform for committed health advocates to foster new relationships, gain access to helpful resources, and to grow their communities.
If you'd like to read more about WEGO Health then click the following link to go to their website www.wegohealth.com which contains a whole host of exciting and interesting information and lots of opportunities to flex your health activism muscles.

I really hope you manage to join me and many others for this weeks Health Activist's Twitter Chat at 3pm EST/8pm BST.

How to get in touch:

YouTube - http://t.co/CGZBkZnWU2
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/Recovering_Life
Blog - http://yourlifeinrecovery.blogspot.co.uk/
Email - lifeinrecovery@mail.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Recovering.Life