Being in the moment.

I've shared some of my happy lists on my blog before.

Sometimes I write them when I'm feeling a little down and it reminds me of all thing things I have to be happy about, sometimes I write them when I'm feeling quite good. 

Today I've had a fairly quiet and reflective day, I have quite a few weekends like that a month where I shut down for a little while and take stock of where I am, what I'm doing - in life and in that moment and think about where I want to get to or things I'd like to do.

My friend was speaking to me about how she's drafting up a list of things she'd like to do/achieve in 2018 and I thought that sounded like a great idea, I've loads of things I'd like to try, experience or achieve and over the next few weeks I'll put some thought in to that. 

For today though, I thought I'd make a list of some things that make me smile in the here and now. 

I'm used to keeping myself busy and I can get into a habit of thinking so much about what is coming next that I forget to check into whats going on around me in that exact moment.

I'm going to try and get back into the habit of doing these more often to remind myself of everything I have to smile about and to be present in the moment.

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A Thursday Happy List.

I haven't had a bad day, far from it, I had a very nice day....but it was a very nice day that felt a little bittersweet. 

So I made a happy list to remind me of some of the things that make me smile and encourage me to focus on positives. 

If, like me, you are into stationery and thought that looks like a fun notepad, my notepad is from Paperchase -
http://www.paperchase.co.uk/all-change-a5-notebook.html

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Embracing the happy and sad.

Embracing the happy and sad.

If you've read any of my other posts, or glanced at my twitter or Instagram, you'll know that I'm into Disney and embracing happy.

I watched Inside Out this week and I noticed a lot of similarities between what goes on in my head and what goes on in Riley's.

I wouldn't like to spoil Inside Out for anyone who hasn't seen it yet so I'll try not to go into too much detail.
The basic premise of Inside Out is that Riley, a fairly upbeat 11 year old girl, is controlled by her emotions, Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger who spend their days manning the control board and making sure that Riley's emotions and forming memories run smoothly and for the most part, Joy has things under control....sometimes a little too under control.

I've mentioned before that I like to embrace the happy in situations and that it's my comfort zone emotion, but I don't actually cope well with some others, particularly being sad.

I went for an interview last week and found out that I didn't get the job, which isn't an uncommon occurrence, but it doesn't get any less unpleasant or disappointing to hear it.
I spent a few minutes trying to brush it off but eventually, I allowed myself to be a bit sad about it before finding a way to cheer myself up.

What I learned from Inside Out is that while Joy should absolutely be working her butt off to make sure that everything is going good in the world of Rachie, it's okay to let some of my other emotions come to the surface as well.  For example, sometimes I have to be a little bit sad in order to pick myself up  and discover something else that makes me happy. 

I mentioned a few blog posts ago that I'm trying to embrace the happy challenge (photo a day for 100 days on my Instagram), I think it would also be good for me to be a bit more accepting of some of the things that make me sad - although I probably won't post a picture of those every day! :-)

I made another happy list this week :-)

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