The joy and peace of mindfulness

If there is anything that I have learned recently, it is that the practice of mindfulness leads to true happiness, which in essence is peace and a feeling of contentment.

I recently had something happen in my life that could have brought on a resumption of my mental health issues, so rather then let this happen I decided to practice mindfulness and do all the things that make me feel good.  I know these things work for me.  There is a really good reason why hospital psych wards offer mindfulness and music and art therapy.  It is because they work in getting and keeping people well.

I practice mindfulness in my own life in several little ways. Everything from slowly eating and enjoying my food, to slowly patting Lily and concentrating on how soft and lovely she feels.  I definitely have been practising 🎶 music therapy as part of mindfulness,  by all day having the radio on in the background and slowly moving and swaying to the music.

The result of this focus on mindfulness is that I feel the most joy, peacefulness, and contentment in my life for several years.  I know if I can keep this up, hopefully I can stay well and cope with whatever curve balls get thrown at me in the future.

Now We’re Getting Somewhere

If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

If there was a biography about me, I hope it would be called now. We’re Getting Somewhere after the Crowded House song 🎵 🎶 of the same name.   About 10 years ago, I tried to write my autobiography with that title.  This was quite therapeutic and cathartic for me, as I wrote a lot about my marriage and its ultimate breakdown,  but it’s not something I would want to publish for public consumption.   Writing it was like therapy for me, and I would still like the title of Now We’re Getting Somewhere because it think it shows that my life is a work in progress and just keeps on getting better 😌.

An old cottage

Write about your dream home.

My dream home would be a little old cottage somewhere in the Macedon Ranges and surrounds.  It will have 3 bedrooms and a small garden with roses lavender and daisy’s.  I will set up one of the smaller bedrooms as a creative space with a writing desk,  an easel, a comfy 💺 🪑 chair, and a bed for Lily.   It will be close to amenities and a nice park to walk Lily in.

LISTEN TO “OH HI” CROWDED HOUSE LATEST SINGLE

Last night, I was fortunate enough to hear the worldwide 🌐 launch of the new Crowded House song 🎵 🎶 entitled Oh Hi. Neil Finn yesterday teased his fans online through email and YouTube that this launch was occurring, so I knew with a couple of hours’ notice to tune in. The way Neil uses modern technology to spread his word is breathtaking. He is definitely a modern man, who is so talented, gracious, and loving

The song Oh Hi Neil has written about the children of Africa that he supports through the work of So They Can, a children’s charity in Africa 🌍 thst he supports in many ways.

Yesterday, Mum and I visited a mutual friend, and my mum was discussing Jesus and how he would be up on a hill, spreading to the 🌎 world his message of love and peace. I hope my mum hears Oh Hi. Since hearing Mum’s comment and hearing Oh Hi, it has made me think about Neil Finn and his wonderful loving compassionate generous life and the fact he has such a huge number of fans, who like me love him and support whatever he mentions with a passion. Neil’s fans and his family and friends, of whom he has thousand’s listen 🎶 to his words and treasure them much like the large numbers of people listened to the words of Jesus. I consider myself a disciple of Neil’s and talk about him and his remarkable life to my family and friends. Neil has been a part of my life since I was 10 years ol, and I love everything he has done musically ever since. Through his fan club 💙 I have learned just what a humbl, gracious, caring and loving man he is. I am a disciple for lif, and I encourage everyone to listen 🎶 to his musi. Itt is loving, healin, and empowering. He truly is a gift 🎁 from God.

A break from the everyday routine

Do you need a break? From what?

Yes, we all need a break at times. Right now, I could use a short break where I take Lily away to a dog 🐕 friendly holiday place, where I can get away from the stresses of living day to day life with mental health issues. Sometimes, you need to shake up the everyday routines we all have and practise a little mindfulness. Living in the moment and taking things slowly help to bring pleasure 🙏🏽 and a touch of peacefulness and serenity to your life. The events of the last 12 months in my life have taught me what I can do when certain occurrences theathen my mental well-being. I have learned from these events to turn what is negative on its head and do things that are really positive and helpful for myself. Last year, something very hurtful happened, and my considered response was to plan a short holiday where Lily received a lot of love and attention. The result was a lovely night away where Lily was blissfully happy. I was overjoyed because for days afterwards Lily was very at peace and contented in her life, and I constantly came out with happy little sighs. This was just so good for me and definitely far more healthy for me than lamenting the negative things I can’t change in my life. Turning the negative on its head and focusing on the good things and making good memories would be my advice to anyone experiencing trouble in their life. Do whatever floats your boat, be it creating art, listening to music, or writing a blog 📫. We can derive pleasure 🙏🏽 and peace of mind doing the things we love.

My Mum and her Dancing Queen.

I love my Mum dearly, but at times, she is amusing her behaviour towards me. I am the youngest of four children and the only girl, so I am very obviously still the baby in her mind. I will forever be the baby to her no matter how old I get. I am 54 years old, but to my mum, I will always be the little six year old girl that she took to dance classes and loved ABBA so much I even wore socks with ABBA on them. My mum all throughout my childhood would take me to every type of dance class I did from ballet, to tap and ballroom and Rock N Roll. To say she was dedicated to her little dancing queen, being me is an understatement.

My mum must treasure her memories, and I think that Dancing Queen is my Mums favourite ABBA song because of her memories of me. Alas I grew up and loving ABBA is no longer an obsession for me, my interests and likes have matured and changed as I have changed, alrhough I remain obsessed with Neil Finn, much to the amusement of my family and friends.

My Mum bless her soul really does try to make a connection with me her middle aged daughter and many a time now Mum will text me or call me urgently to let me know ABBA are on the television. I find this amusing and sometimes a little frustrating depending on what I am doing at the time. I really do think it would be inappropriate of me to tell her I am busy watching clips on YouTube of Simon Baker as The Mentalist and wishing he was wearing less clothes at the moment so I’m kinda distracted by thst. My regular readers will be aware that watching clips of Simon Baker is my guilty pleasure 🙏🏽 and not something thst I want to share with my mum.

I choose to be flattered that Mum still loves me so much that my past love of ABBA is something she still wants to share with me. I just hope that whenever she reads this 📫 post , she doesn’t have a heart attack disgusted that her daughter watches clips of Simon Baker.

My life is a work in progress not a problem to be solved.

Lately, certain occurrences have made me reflect upon my life. Whilst I was out walking Lily, I had an epiphany that my life is a work in progress, and I am not a problem to be solved. Somethings have happened recently where some people have wanted rather inappropriatel to interfere in my life because I am a person whom in their day to day life lives with a mental illness.

I’ve been thinking about the nature of love in my life and thinking about my true friends and why they are my true friends. I’ve been reminiscing about my lovely angel lady sister Susanna and rejoicing in my memories of her. I think about Susanna and how wonderful and generous she was to me. She was always kind and loveable, and she treated me as her equal in every respect 🙏🏽. She was my sister, and she was empathic and compassionate. There is a difference between empathy and sympathy. My true friends show me love and empathy and a good sense of humour, and yes I am in their eyes their equal.

Occasionally, some people I meet instantly judge me on the fact I live with a mental illness and feel sorry for me. They make friends with me, and at first show kindness and a need to be close to me. Things go okay for a while, and I accept their friendship at face value. What ends up happening is that these people feel the need to act for me in my life because they feel sorry for me and think sympathy is the basis of friendship. It is like these people acquaint friendship with pity and end up acting in ways that aren’t a part of a healthy equal friendship. There always is a need to control me me that becomes unhealthy for me, and I realise how unhealthy this is for me and I end up walking away from those relationships because it is not healthy for me. Those friendships don’t survive because pity towards me is not friendship, and certainly loving someone because you pity them is not the basis for a healthy, lasting friendship. These people mess with my head and confuse me, and it is only when I am free of that that I become both happy and healthy. Sure, I live with a mental illness, but my true lasing friendships are those where I am treated as a friend and not a problem to be solved.

A big declutter

Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.

Something that is always on my to-do list, but I never seem to get around to, is to spend a great amount of time decluttering my home. I plan to move in the future, and that won’t be in the really near future, so I get distracted by life and never have the time or motivation to undergo the big job of decluttering and downsizing my possessions.

Oh well, everything happens in Gods time. Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans.

Pasta with simple sauce

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

My favourite thing to cook at the moment is small pasta pieces, like shells in a very simple pasta sauce of cherry tomatoes cut in half, baby spinach leaves with garlic and chilli 🌶 and a good amount of olive oil. Cook the sauce in a large fry pan, and when the pasta is cooked, combine the pasta with the sauce in the pan and stir through. Use some of the pasta water to slightly thicken the sauce.

It was a very simple but delicious recipe that my friend Andrew gave to me.