Reflections - things I learned from 2016

Here is the second instalment of my 'Reflecting on 2016' series. If you didn't catch the first one, listing some of my favourite things click here, and if you want to read my life lessons from 2015, and see if I repeat any (I did have to check myself) then click here...

• Being a student isn't all laughter and hanging out with your mates

• Being a student isn't all studying and hanging out in the library

• You can't make yourself feel more for someone than you do, however much you may want to

• Grief can hit you out of the blue

• I don't like my family living in different countries

• Change is good

• I'm learning to love LinkedIn

• My intuition/gut instinct is spookily correct

• Law degrees are hard work

• Goodbyes are never easy

• I somehow know enough about make-up that I got offered a job at Space NK on a window-shopping trip

• Just because someone has done a "bad" thing, it doesn't make them a "bad" person

• Sometimes you have to go further into something to get closure/know where you stand/know how you feel

• I look younger than I am

• 'Feeling the fear and doing it anyway' is harder than it sounds

• I'm more comfortable with being wrong, or looking silly, than I ever have been

• I don't always practise what I preach

• When you know, you know, and don't let anyone (including yourself) convince you that you don't

• I have a fantastic NHS doctor (not a new lesson)

• It takes me a while to open up, and that's okay (another not new lesson)

• I love an afternoon of batch-cooking

• Flu over Christmas and New Year is the worst

• I'm one of life's feeders/looker-afterers

• It's enough for things to be 'good enough'

• It's okay to feel like you've made a mistake 

• I'd rather try than not

• I'm still finding my balance

• I'm still finding my health

• I can be made speechless

• I can achieve things I thought were impossible for me

• There is always a positive to every negative

• This year has far outweighed my expectations

• I am now sufficiently enough of a grown-up that if I get a bad haircut, I don't cry

• I am not sufficiently enough of a grown-up when it comes to needing help with my CV

• Inside me is a lioness that I am able to tap into more and more

• Life is still an incredible, surprising and wonderful thing (and far too much has happened this year for me to neatly sum it up in these lessons)

What life lessons did 2016 bring for you?

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

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

Vote for me in the WEGO Health Activist Awards

I am delighted to say that, following nominations back in 2014 - Life In Recovery has again been nominated for the WEGO Health Activist Awards for 2016. Life In Recovery has been nominated for the Best In Show: YouTube and for Best Kept Secret awards.

Now here comes the part where I ask for your help and support..! With awards, always comes voting and the WEGO Health Activist Awards are no exception... If you have enjoyed reading my blog posts, watching my videos or trawling through the stream of consciousness that is my Twitter and Facebook pages - please consider 'Endorsing' my nominations in both categories. Endorsements run 12th September to 21st October. AND REMEMBER - YOU CAN VOTE ONCE EACH DAY! You can select from a drop down menu, which award to endorse - in Life In Recovery's case there is the option to endorse one or BOTH awards and you can find the profile here: https://awards.wegohealth.com/nominees/7691

"The WEGO Health Activist Awards were created to embody the mission of WEGO Health: to empower Health Activists. We connect with so many inspiring Health Activists who raise awareness, share information, support their communities, and much more - often without recognition. The WEGO Health network is centred around Health Activists, so we knew it was up to us to tell these leaders how great they are! We wanted to celebrate those who have made a difference and thus, the Awards were born. We've since found that these Awards are one of the best ways to introduce new Health Activists to the online community and have community members say "thank you" to the leaders they love."
Make sure to take a look at the other incredible nominees! :)

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

A few of my favourite things: AUGUST 2016

A video featuring a few of my favourite things from August 2016 - where I try not to cry (several times) and talk about intuition, trust and yoghurt.

Victoria: http://www.itv.com/hub/victoria/2a4229a0001

Great British Bake-Off: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013pqnm

BBC Radio Four Extra: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra



What are your favourite things from August? Did you go on any Summer holidays, read any good books, take on a new challenge?

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 - three years on from hospital...

So...it's 5th August and that means *drum roll* it's time for another emotional/personal post marking my (this time) THREE year anniversary after being discharged from hospital.

I will start this post with the same preface as the last two years "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."

For the full effect (and for the new readers amongst you) you can read my first year anniversary post here and my second here.

Here we go:

"WARNING – another of my soppy anniversary posts (read: essays). Today is August 5^th, and marks three years since I was discharged from hospital.

This year the anniversary feels quite a different beast to the last two years. It crept up on me, for a start. I completely forgot about it until I was on my way into work yesterday and panicked that I’d somehow missed it. Personally, I think this is a great sign; a sign that I am starting to feel more space between me and the years I spent unwell. A ‘healthy’ space. A space that means I feel I am not completely defined by a decade-plus of illness. A space that feels good.

This past year has been another roller-coaster of a ride. Yes, I still have to be careful. Yes, I’m still finding my way. No, I won’t forget what happened or pretend it didn’t. No, I won’t take things for granted. This year there have been tears and triumphs. Things to grieve over, and things to rejoice about. Things I have done for the first time, and things I have done for the last. There have been people I have said goodbye to, and many people I have met for the first time. We have worked, we have played, we have studied and we have lived. For all these things and so many more, I am grateful.

On this day, three years ago I woke with the knowledge that a new and exciting chapter of life was just beginning. Three years later, I woke up this morning with the same knowledge.

Sitting here typing this (fairly un-edited stream of consciousness) with tears running down my face – I am completely at a loss to express how much I (still) feel about the last few years and the time I was unwell. I have so many of you to thank. So many of you who helped me reach where I am today. So many who are helping me discover just how incredible and exhilarating life can be.

A year of milestones, surprises, new beginnings, goodbyes, change, love, laughter, tears, family, new and old friends. A year of growing, learning and maturing. A year you have all been part of. And for that I am very lucky.

I will quote my post from last year, “To the friends and family who have seen up close the changes these past couple of years have brought and who've been there with a solid shoulder, a helping hand, a beaming smile or a thumbs up - thank you”.

Life. Is. Good."

What anniversaries do you mark? Are you a fan of reflecting on milestones or key moments of your life?

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