Spread Kindness

?✨? Happy Magic Monday My Fabulous Ones ?✨? As we enter autumn and it gets a little colder (sitting here in my woolies) we can forget how this season can also have an impact on our mental health – this time of year can be particularly triggering for people that suffer with their mental health so it’s really important that we are all aware of this ✨ In September 2016 something happened that I never thought could happen. My gorgeous sister had seemed ‘a bit down ‘ for some time but I never knew the extent or that it would turn out that she would be diagnosed with depression. No one would have known that behind her smile and the rainbows she adorns herself in that she was suffering – not even me and I live with her.

It is so important that we really make sure if the people around us are actually okay. It is only when people get talking and ending stigmas, that the importance of mental health can be kept alive. Mairead describes living with depression as like ‘living in a body with a mind that’s trying to die.’ No one should have to face feelings like this alone.

One thing we can all do is practice kindness, smile at strangers and say kind words, remind the loved ones in your life why they are so special, say and send kind messages to people you care about. If you think something lovely about someone why don’t you tell them? So this magic Monday let’s celebrate kindness ✨ If you are struggling right now please talk to someone, there are also so many wonderful communities where you can seek help such as @mindcharity and @mh_stories_ is also a wonderful online platform where you can find support ? Thank you @mermaiidmairead for allowing me to share your story ?❤️

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A Christmas Wish 

Hello Reader,

The Christmas holiday is here and I am very much looking forward to. I hope you are too!!! I get a little more excited every year, I’m sure!!! The reason why I enjoy this season so much is that it is one of the few times,  if not only time, where the noise of the outside life grows quite, enabling one to be fully present for a while.

Christmas has the ability to play different cords of the heart. Sometimes the tune echos love and a sense of elation, allowing one to experience the much longed for time with loved ones and create memories to cherish. But at other times, the Christmas melody unveils a melancholic mood with the vibrant Christmas lights perceived as dim. The latter description of the Christmas sounds connotes the internal suffering one may experience, in a time where there is an expectation to “Have a happy Christmas.”

Over the last few days, and perhaps as I write, people are frantically trying to finish getting their essentials, striving to fulfill an idea of perfection, that is simply non-exsitent. Meanwhile, the true sense of Christmas, having goodwill towards others, is forgotten. Some people this Christmas might be alone or away from loved ones, some people could be sick with the day being seen as another battle to fight an illness that they wish they could triumph and be able to experience Christmas day only as Christmas day. Then there are others who do not have shelter, who are wrongly prejudged by passers-by, who yearn to have someone to exchange Christmas wishes with. If you took a moment to be still and think of those who are less fortunate than you, what would you regard as important? What you refrain from fretting over?  What would replace this panic?

It is important to be thankful for all we have and think about the less privileged. This Christmas the simple gesture to send a wish that everyone will be able to seek comfort and happiness could be what is needed to for someone to feel the sweet sound of Christmas .

Thank you so much for reading this, dear reader, I wish your Christmas brings you love and tranquility.

All my love XX

Big From Small Ways

Hello Readers,

I know it’s been quite some time since I last wrote to you, and for that I am sorry. I managed to, somehow find myself lost in my thoughts, as people do from time to time, and somewhat lost focus of what I was writing; when that happens, how can one then inspire others?

Words are not just words. Words lead to the arrival of emotions, the trigger of thoughts and the onset of behaviours. Even though words have global definitions, I believe words are also individually defined by the very people that speak them. Every one of us feels, thinks, visualises and expresses words in different ways. Therefore it is stunning when one can speak such words that they do not truly mean! How can one separate their feelings from their speech? Do they visually see words and feel what they could imply?  Or do they perceive words as simply a collection of letters that do not encompass any depth? In order to write effectively, one should write through thoughts, not just to fill a blank space that affords writing. From one tiny word, one’s perception of what they are reading or writing about can change in a flash. One may not consider how a word can have such significance, being ignorant to the fact that small ‘things’ hold much power, perhaps greater power, than the entities that create such noise yet holds little substance; the smallest ‘things’, become the biggest and are no longer just ‘things’ anymore. So words would no longer be words. Words would be thoughts. Words would be feelings. Words would lead to actions.

Small ‘things’ are not just found in words, but in daily life; a person’s smile to make your day  brighter, a thoughtful gesture that someone else made to alleviate some the weight you struggled to carry today or maybe a magical moment in nature happened while you were in its environment. However as you were running late, had a careless attitude today or were still thinking over an argument you had- you later forgot, you  did not return that kind smile of the person who you passed on the street that you now wished you emulated; you snapped and disapproved of your work colleague’s help that you now yearned for and wished you showed your appreciation; you dashed past the trees that you now longed to meander by and look up and watch the miraculous autumnal coloured leaves fall so elegantly and quietly to the ground. We often lose sight of the things that brings kindness, joy and a sense of weightlessness to our lives, which would perhaps a shift our focus from our internal world.

Go back over your day: do you now think ‘I should have’? Did you miss an opportunity to experience someone’s kindness? Did you ignore a helpful suggestion? Were you ‘too busy’ to be a part of was a beautiful scene? When you wake up tomorrow, what will you do differently? Is there something small you could do for another? Sometimes to be brave doesn’t mean to do something completely extreme, but simply to go a little outside of your comfort zone. You could be the reason why another person smiles. So stop living inside yourself!

All my love XX