Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has had a great week and have lovely plans for the weekend. There is a lot of Christmas shopping talk in our house, not from me, I’m definitely not there yet. My daughter is asking us for our Christmas present ideas! I like to ease myself in with some Christmas music and I am still playing Joni Mitchel on the record player. Maybe I need to get a tree this weekend. I wonder how many of you already have your tree up? Would love to see a sparkly tree pic in the comments.

This week has been a challenge. At the beginning of the week, I felt wrapped in a blanket of anxiety and as the week played out I found I was becoming more overwhelmed. Last night I took myself off to bed to rest in order to hopefully wake up today feeling refreshed and ready to start a new day! I have said, “it will be fine a lot this week and I do believe it will be, but when your in the middle of it you can feel completely suffocated. I have definitely felt like that this week. I have been quiet and less sociable and I’ve not been able to get my head around doing certain tasks.

I do recognise when I am feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed. However, what I am not always aware of is how I got there. For me it tends to be a drip, drip, drip affect, until suddenly that light backpack I started off with, feels like someone has just shoved a couple of enormous boulders in it!

More form filling 🤦‍♀️

I conclude that form filling sucks! It’s all new to me, and I don’t know an awful lot about how to get support, even though I have looked at websites, it’s still a minefield! i.e finding my way through forms that need to be filled in, to help us get support while I am not working. I am having to write down personal information about how I am finding life now that I have a disability. I don’t want to have to justify why I need help, or indeed that I do need support at all. However, I am slowly getting there by completing a bit at a time.

How do others manage??

My husband called during the day and I said, “I really do not know how people manage to complete these forms. They are extensive! the one I am trying to do a bit at a time is 24 pages long!” I will tackle some more today and then finish it together at the weekend. I can imagine people struggling with no support whatsoever would not even know where to start with some of this stuff.

I understand that services are inundated with people who need support with this kind of thing, they are doing their best. I tell myself that while I wait, and I am grateful when I manage to get through to someone helpful.

Words of wisdom

My husband has this saying, which more, or less goes like this- get the stuff you really don’t want to do started first thing in the morning. Get it out of the way and then it’s done and you feel like you have accomplished something. He says this to our kids, regarding homework and chores. I have heard it quite a lot and I look at the kids with this encouraging nod, indicating that I think their Dad is wise and I agree.

Even though that saying does seem to make sense. It does not work for me at all! For instance, I’m sitting here writing this at 8am and what I should be doing is filling out a couple of long winded forms, in addition to making a few phonecalls to organisations that will have me waiting in a queue, with goodness knows how many other people. Quick tip though, as I have been caught out with this, make sure you visit the loo beforehand, as sometimes the queue isn’t as long as you think and all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of a wee, when a cheery voice suddenly chimes in with a rehearsed company welcome.

What helps me

So, what have I done to help myself feel a little less overwhelmed this week?

Meditation – find a quiet space if you can, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it can be your bedroom for a few minutes with your phone on YouTube for 5 minutes i.e something like this: https://youtu.be/inpok4MKVLM or this: https://youtu.be/k0PSUDvLi8E

There are also apps like: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getsomeheadspace.android

Do something you enjoy. Do you get a sense of achievement when you bake a cake? (sweet stuff is always my go to when I feeling a bit less perky). Or, maybe you like making savoury food. I love making homemade pizza, or bread, I find it therapeutic.

Do you enjoy being creative? I made some Christmas decorations recently out of clay. Our son also sat down and made some Christmas owls with me, (I’m not sure owls are a Christmas thing, but we had fun making them) it was a lovely opportunity for us to spend time together.

Also, seeing a close friend that you feel comfortable and happy around, a person that will lift you up can be a wonderful way to unwind. Laughter really is the best medicine.

Whatever you decide, be kind to yourself.

Have a beautiful day, sending so much love.

C x