Hi all! After a lengthy hiatus, I’m glad to say I’m back. I’ve been exhausted through pregnancy, and now as a mother to an almost 5 week old baby girl. It’s certainly been challenging to settle into the new rhythm of life as a family of four. I’d forgotten just how chaotic life can be with a tiny baby who relies on you for survival and comfort around the clock, but it’s so worth it!
Anyway, earlier I found the time to write my latest thoughts on simplicity, and how clutter affects ours and our children’s lives not just now, but far into the future.
I will publish this in the next few hours when I find a moment, but I look forward to writing more often again and sharing my minimalism journey with you all.
I realise it’s been too long since I’ve posted here, so here I am, sitting writing this at 12:50am UK time – a time I’m usually wandering around dreamland.
It’s my second night of being wide awake because it’s becoming almost impossible to get comfy now that I feel like a beached whale at almost 34 weeks pregnant. People tell me it’s a small bump for a second child, but try telling me that as I gasp from the exertion of using the stairs, and of trying to roll over in bed like a flipped over turtle.
Anyway, if you’re reading this, there’s a chance you’re wondering where my usual minimalism posts all are, or if this blog itself had become some long forgotten internet clutter, dusty and abandoned.
It hasn’t, and I’ve made more huge strides in minimising and simplifying my life – even more so now that I am mere weeks away from having my second child.
The truth is, I had forgotten just how exhausting pregnancy is, and along the way my mind has filled with emotional and mental clutter which has made it almost impossible to write.
First of all, I got worn down by the Coronavirus lockdown and adjusting to all of the uncertainty and the new strange ways of life. I’m quite the extrovert so it took more of a toll on me than I thought.
Secondly, I finished my level 2 Counselling course, but while I was ecstatic about being one step closer to becoming a counsellor, I was also incredibly sad that it was all over. Due to the nature of the course, me and my course buddies got to know each other on a far deeper and personal level, and it made the ending particularly poignant.
Suddenly, I found myself feeling lost on the days I’d usually be doing my course, and despite having a plan for the future, I lost more motivation to write and do the things I love.
Enter the final stretch of my pregnancy, and I find myself obsessing (more than usual) about everything being perfect. Logically, I know that there is no such thing as perfect, but that hasn’t stopped me from driving my husband crazy with my ‘everything has to be done and be perfect right NOW’ attitude.
Unfortunately, this attitude has also spilled over into other areas of my life and I have to admit I slipped into spending a lot of money and used a lot of energy on having to have the perfect writing device, the perfect footrest, and the perfect sized workstation for me in the living room (since the gaming room is very slowly transforming into a future nursery).
I thought, how can I possibly teach and share about minimalism at the moment when my mind is like a hurricane has ripped through it? I felt like a fraud.
I even feared for a while that I had fallen out of love with writing, but I realised how ridiculous that was because not writing was making me grouchy, and I’ve not stopped journalling. In fact, the sudden random urge to blog is another thing which was preventing me from sleeping tonight.
One more thing – to be completely honest, I’m also terrified because everything went wrong after my first pregnancy and I almost died from blood loss due to Plancenta Accreta where the placenta basically sticks to the lining of the womb and won’t come out. It’s not so easy to declutter those kind of worries.
For now, my plan is to take life as easy as possible and perhaps share more of my everyday life and musings on here.
Huge changes will be happening so I’ll be kinder to myself as I mentally take myself back to basics and rediscover my joys -something that we all need to do every now and then.
In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy, stay simple.
At the start of the coronavirus lockdown, people who weren’t key workers suddenly found themselves with a hell of a lot more spare time on their hands.
One thing I noticed was the sheer amount of people who were vowing to do amazing things with their time. Cook healthier meals. Declutter their homes. Start a daily exercise regime. Learn something new. Please note, I’m not talking about the people who are dealing with the terrible aftermath of losing their jobs and businesses, or are dealing with other horrible events in their lives here.
And for a while, people were doing just that, posting about the positive changes in their lives they previously hadn’t had the time for.
Yet, after the first few weeks, fatigue set in and people were soon posting and joking about their newly discovered alcohol dependence, poor diets, homes that were somehow messier than before, and sure they’d almost exhausted the extensive catalog of TV shows and movies.
That’s because no matter how much time you have in your hands, it takes grit and determination to make real, lasting life changes.
You could have all the time in the world and never have to work again, but in the end, it’s your mindset and how you consistently spend your time that makes the difference. It’s your why that must be powerful enough to drive you.
If you were unhappy and unfulfilled before, particularly if you’ve been in that state for a long time, it’s going to take a long time and consistent hard to work to change things. And if you weren’t committed enough to make those changes before, no world-changing event or amount of hours in your day will change that.
Only you can.
That means not giving up as soon as things get tough. And it means recognising that regardless of what’s going on in the outside world.
If you’re truly interested in levelling up your life, if you’re tired of feeling defeated, stay tuned for my upcoming article on why you stay stuck, even with hours at your disposal, and how you could start crafting an extraordinary life from today.
Hi all! Hope you’re all having an awesome start to 2020.
I know how it is when you see all these motivational posts by myself and other writers, and how disheartening it can be when you haven’t yet got to where you envision.
That’s why this week, I’ve decided to talk about the things I sometimes go through, and the times I’ve succumbed to weakness, to show you that while I’ve come far, and while I certainly believe in what I write, I’m not perfect.
You don’t have to be, either.
All you have to do is continue to be your unique self, and above all, love the person you are or are becoming.
Welcome to my minimalism blog – a place where you can learn how to live clutter-free and live the life you dream of. On this blog, I will share my personal story of becoming a minimalist, and share advice on how, you too, can create a spacious and serene home. Watch this space for upcoming content.
Minimalist Moments 