The best laid plans...

2014 is about to  come to an end. It’s been an amazing year for me. I've paraglided off a 1,700 metre high mountain, performed as part of the chorus for a performance of the Mikado, sang backing vocals on a CD and sung a solo on WOAPA's annual WOAPA day, to name but a few highlights. I also had the anticipation, as well as the stress, of learning the alto part of the Messiah, which I was due perform, along with some of my fellow WOAPA singers in the Royal Albert Hall at the end of November.

In September after 3 years of talking about it, my hubby and I decided to move house. We put our house on the market and it sold for the full asking price to the first person that viewed it. We put an offer on a house we had fallen in love with the next day and it was accepted. We couldn't believe it. It all seemed too good to be true. 2014 was continuing to be one of our best years yet.

But it’s one of life’s funny little peculiarities that things can change in the  blink of an eye.


Things were progressing along quite nicely and we were looking to move at the end of November. Then on the 16th October everything began to change. A phone call from the estate agent ended our hopes of moving into our lovely new home. Due to a change in their personal circumstances, the vendors had decided not to sell. The following Monday, our buyer pulled out because of an issue thrown up by a survey they'd had carried out. This was a bit of a blow. But worse was to come as around the same time we heard some distressing news about a member of the family who was battling cancer.

This was devastating and certainly put our problem with the house into perspective. The next few weeks proved to be very stressful. I fell behind in my studies and the ongoing situation with the house didn't help.Then, towards the end of November, I began to feel unwell and ended up in hospital with pneumonia. This came as quite a shock, especially when my doctor told me that stress may have been a contributing factor.

All of a sudden, what had been an amazing year, seemed to be going horribly wrong. 

I won't lie. I did go through a phase of feeling sorry for myself, especially when I was in hospital. But then I thought back to the good times I'd had and felt lucky to have had them. This is what life's like. We have good times and we have bad times. I've said in past blogs that the bad times have helped to make me a stronger, hopefully better person. I also reminded myself that I have a choice. I can either choose to let the bad times make me feel down and resentful, or I can choose to remember the good times and use the memories of them to help see me through the bad ones. (See my blog titled 'Golden seams' link below).

But what has this got to do with the list of New Year resolutions at the the beginning of the blog?

When I came across this list on Facebook, I realised that somewhere along the line I'd forgotten how to take care of myself. This might seem selfish. but if we don't look after ourselves, how are we going to be fit enough to look after others? So I'm going to print off this list and put it somewhere that I can see it on a daily basis.

I didn't get to sing the Messiah, but there's always next year. I've learnt that a long as we have our health and the support of family and friends, then life can be an adventure, even if at times things aren't going the way that we'd like them too.

Resolution number 8 says, 'Be kind to yourself,' so we've decided to take our house off the market for the time being. Why put ourselves under undue pressure?

Are there things in your life causing you undue stress? Is there anything that you can do to get rid of it? I challenge you to do so. After all life is short and, at the end of the day, good health is the most important thing any of us can have.

Make 2015 the year you determine to look after yourself. This is one NewYear resolution I intend to keep.








http://isabelj327.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/golden-seams_15.html

Resolutions picture courtesy of:- https://www.facebook.com/LyndaFieldLifeCoach/photos/a.258400014202527.62678.145359422173254/860587503983772/?type=1&theater

Happy New Year picture courtesy of:- https://www.facebook.com/sungazing1/photos/a.136345136520324.30543.136336876521150/469252649896236/?type=1&theater