Becoming the very best that you can be.

Sometimes life gets stressful and you don’t have a lot of time alone with your thoughts. But since I finished my 3^rd year of Uni last week (YAAY!) I’ve had some time to relax and recover, and in wedged in that a bit of thinking time - and in that time I decided on some “life tips” for myself. Nothing revolutionary, or even particularly interesting – but I think they might help me J

·   Before you say something, ask yourself if you’d be embarrassed to have it repeated.  I don’t think there’s a person on earth that hasn’t said at least one thing that in hindsight they are quite ashamed of. Whether it’s a catty comment about a friend, or a joke that could actually be perceived as quite unpleasant. But once it slips out, it’s so easy to get repeated and even passed back to that person. It’s the old “if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. Solid advice by Thumper from Bambi there. I know when I say something nice about someone, even if there’s no way they’d find out, it just makes me feel good J so do it for that selfish reason if none other! ;)

·     Try and be a bit healthier. Notice I say “healthier”, not healthy! I am very much someone who loves curling up with pizza and ice cream and completely depriving myself of that may be good for my hips, but would almost certainly make me very sad! But sometimes too much fatty/sugary foods makes me feel gunky, I’m afraid I have no technical term for it. It ends up making me feel lethargic, has nasty effects on my skin and I just generally end up feeling yucky on the inside. I try and balance this with some salads and substituting chocolate for fruit, but I want to start doing more exercise. I love horse riding (which does take a surprising amount of physical effort, despite everyone who says the horse does all the work!) but I want to start going to the gym more. I stopped going this year because my workload and placements stepped up a LOT this academic year, but now it’s summer I have no excuse. Exercise classes keep me motivated and I always leave with endorphins fluttering around me J boxercise, let us get reacquainted.

·         Be someone YOU’D like to spend time with. By that I don’t mean stop being yourself, or pretend to be someone you’re not. But I think it’s easy to assume people will always be there for you, whether its friends, a partner, family. But taking people for granted is something that causes the destruction of so many relationships. If you think of a compliment, say it. If something someone has done has made you smile, tell them. Small gestures mean so much, and even a text message that takes 20 seconds to compose has the potential to turn someone’s day around. If it’s something you’d appreciate, chances are someone else will too!

·         Be grateful for small things. This is bordering on cheesy, and I don’t want to get my snorkel and get too deep now. But I am henceforth going to try and focus on the little positives of my day than the little niggles! I am very much someone who can get bogged down by little worries, and blow them up into big things in my mind rather than thinking “oh well, happened now!” which would be a much healthier thought process. Instead, I want to focus on all the lovely things that happen every day that we take for granted, whether it’s a nice meal, a quick phone call with a friend, or even just some nice weather. It doesn’t have to be a day with a trip to Alton Towers to be amazing/ memorable.

·   Turn negatives into positives. A long and stressful day at work can dictate and ruin your whole day. Or, you can think “I have accomplished so much today and worked so hard, I’m proud of that”.

"The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our cicumstances"

- Martha Washington