Jan 1 2016

Happy 2016!

Hello beautiful soul!

Just wanted to wish you all the best of everything you wish for in 2016. I took some time out over Christmas and New Year, and that little bit of extra head space has allowed all sorts of mad and wonderful ideas to pour in, and now I am in need of creating a plan to action them! Some of them are already in process, and I know that others will need crazy deadlines in order to become a reality. I have new characters and stories running around in my head and lines of dialogue where there should be rational thought. So despite my decision to hold back on writing and publishing in order to focus on the marketing and other work, it appears that the Universe has completely different ideas!

2015 was indeed an interesting year, and to summarise, I published two more books in the Earth Angel series, I worked in Scotland briefly, I took part in Campnanowrimo, I did a 30 day blog challenge, and most surprisingly to myself, I managed to use my organiser, Astrid, for the entire year! In fact, she has been stripped of old notes and the 2015 diary, and there are shiny new empty pages just waiting to be filled with plans for this year. When I began using Astrid in January 2015, I was nervous that she would end up the same way as so many previous diaries did, put to one side and forgotten. But we are still best buddies! In fact, I did a little makeover, using some free printables I found online:

12465652_10153157622497163_773484409_o Taking the time to do some small crafty projects over Christmas, reminded me just how much I love to create things. I wasn’t planning to make any resolutions this year, but I do hope to be more creative, and make boring things pretty!

I will be adding a few things to my vision board, and I will be setting my intentions and goals in the next few days. I have a feeling that 2016 is going to be very interesting, and I am going to do the exact opposite to what I tried to do in 2015 (which was make a plan) and I am going to go with the flow!

In other random news, I was very pleased to have just passed the 40k views mark on this blog over the last few days! I started the blog when I began my journey in 2011, and in that first year, my blog received a total of 251 views! In contrast to that, the views for 2015 came to just under 18k. They might seem like small numbers compared to some sites that receive thousands of views per day, but I think it’s quite an awesome achievement. My readers in 2015 came from a total of 139 different countries! Knowing that these words are read by amazing folk like you all over the world makes me want to really share things that will inspire, help and make you smile 🙂

I do hope to blog more often, I know that I slacked off towards the end of last year, when I got busy with creating the Earth Angel classes and with editing work.

Wishing you an awesome New Year, whatever you decide to do with it! Thank you so much for reading my posts and supporting me in the last year, I really do appreciate it!

Apr 21 2015

Adventures with Astrid – April 2015

It’s been a while since I posted about how I am getting on with my organiser, who I called Astrid. But it’s not because I have stopped using it every day, on the contrary, Astrid is my daily companion! Admittedly, most days, it houses my to-do lists, but having my addresses, notes, and plans for the coming weeks all in the same place is very useful, and I think this may well be the first time ever that I have started a diary in January and am still using it in April.

I used to keep a journal-style diary when I was younger. At first, it was just an occasional thing, when I wanted to rant about something or express my feelings when I was upset. Then in 1999, my sister gave me a ‘last year of the millenium’ diary, which had a metal cover, and the idea was to write something every day. And I did. Then the following year, I got another one, this time, a whole page for each day. And for several years, I wrote a journal entry every single day.

I have all of these notebooks and diaries tucked away in the loft, and I have no idea what I will do with them, maybe one day I will put them in a pile and burn them, or perhaps I will go through them and see if there is anything useful or funny, who knows, maybe they’ll even inspire a series of blog posts.

The funny thing is, I would always write in my diary when I felt upset or down, but as soon as I got happy, I stopped writing diaries. I was too busy being in the moment of happiness to write my thoughts and feelings down. So some of the happiest moments of my life have gone completely unrecorded, and yet some of the most painful moments of my life will live forever through my written words.

It’s probably because writing has always been my form of therapy. But it makes me a little sad to think that I can more easily recall the bad times than the good. And it makes me a little more determined to change that, and also to release the old stuff.

This little rambling reminds me of a scene in The Elphite, where Ellie is encouraged to burn her diary, which contains all her many memories, in order for her to release her past and create a new future. I think perhaps having a bonfire may be a good idea after all!

Please do comment below if you write diaries, and if you think it’s a good idea to burn old ones in order to create a better future, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Jan 19 2015

Adventures with Astrid – January

In December I began my Adventure with Astrid, in my attempt to change my haphazard ways and become a more organised person for 2015. The reasons for this were to get my life in order and to make things happen that require some kind of long-term planning. The first step I took was to buy myself a gorgeous planner, who I named Astrid. In my planner I have sections for everything. Addresses (I’m always losing my address book) diary, goals and dreams, to-do list, and notes from books I’m reading and ideas I have.

Astrid has stayed faithfully by my side since I bought her, and since the beginning of the year, I have been filling her up every day with things I want to do, but I also have used her to form some daily habits that I have wanted to have, but never got round to creating.

Some things have been blanked out to protect the innocent. Hehe

Having Astrid by my side has helped me to take part in a 30 Day Blogging Challenge, of which I have done every day for the last 19 days on my author blog, and I have also begun a new blog on my business website, all about Indie Publishing, and I am on day 4 there.

I have started the habit of meditating daily, going for a walk every day, reading a book every week, reading through my Love List every other day and writing one thing I am grateful for every day.

My Sunday walk in the woods

In terms of long-term plans, however, that still hasn’t really happened. I had a session with the Time Doctor, Mike Gardner, and he helped me to realise that I am a creative person, and not a linear-thinking, organised person. So perhaps instead of trying to become linear – I should come up with creative solutions to my problems.

Part of me still very much wants to just go with the flow, and just see what happens along the way. But another part of me really wants to break the cycle of not moving forward in certain areas of my life. I think if things were good financially, then I would feel more justified in going with the flow, because I could afford to. Which might not make a scrap of sense, but it seems to make sense to me.

Anyway, my plan now, is to create creative solutions for the areas of my life I’m not happy with. I think the solutions need to be very visual, colourful, fun and maybe even a bit silly. But I’m not sure yet what they looks like or where they’ll come from.

What I have realised, is that having a structured routine might just not be the right way forward for me. So although I have daily ‘action’ lists, I don’t stick to rigidly to doing each thing at the same time each day, as long as I can tick it off the list by the end of the day, when it happened doesn’t matter. Though I have been trying to fit my walk in before dark!

I consider my adventure to be successful so far, as I feel quite calm and peaceful, which I think is down to the meditation. In all the years I have been reading spiritual self-help books, I have never had the daily practice of meditation. But I can see now, finally, why so many people swear by it! It creates a space in your head, it makes room for growth, for new ideas, for love to envelop you. In fact, I think I may sign off now to meditate for a while.

How are your New Year plans coming along?

Dec 15 2014

Adventures with Astrid – December 2014

This is the first post of a series I will be posting on a monthly basis. In the last week or two, I have had some major life realisations, thanks to a bunch of seemingly unconnected and random things, all mixing in my mind to create an AHA! moment. As a result of these realisations, I have made some decisions on how to move forwards.

The main decision, is that I want to become more organised and start making long-term plans. I have always been good with setting short-term goals and completing them, but long-term ones just don’t happen. I never usually plan more than a month in advance, and hate it when I have to. But I am going to change this, by planning out my entire 2015, in January. Obviously, not every single day will be planned out, there will still be room for synchronicities and spontaneity, but I will book events, and plan where I am going to be, what projects I am doing and also put a financial plan into place. To do all of this, I have taken the first step, which is to purchase an organiser.

Now, most years, I get calendars and diaries, and by the end of January, I’ve stopped using them. So this time, I have had to get creative. I am putting everything into my organiser – my goals, dreams, to do lists, addresses, diary, notes – everything, so that I am more likely to keep it with me at all times. And to ensure that I bond with it, and don’t give up using it, I have even named it!

So let me introduce you to Astrid:

I bought extra inserts and of course, unicorn and rainbow 3D stickers, because let’s face it, planning doesn’t have to be boring!

A peak inside:

A few of my 2015 goals:

Now, I know that going from being a short-term planning procrastinator to a super productive long-term planner is not going to be simple and straightforward, and I will need to use a variety of techniques and get people to help me in my weakest areas, but I am writing this post, and I am sharing this with the world, because I am making a commitment to my future, to my success, and to living my life fully. And if I happen to find things that work for me, then I hope they may work for others too.

The major planning session is going to happen after Christmas, at the moment I am just gathering ideas and energy to implement these changes and to figure out what 2015 is going to feature.

So I hope you join me on my adventures with Astrid, it’s going to be an interesting ride!

(Oh and if you have any good tips, please do comment below and share! Thanks 🙂 )