Divest- The January Plan.

The aim- divest myself of negative thoughts and behaviours which cause stress- procrastination, over reaction and the ownership of excess stuff.

Objectives- Feel more confident and unencumbered.

Plan for January-

Aided by an excellent book called How to Stress Less, by Benjamin Bonetti, but with my own take on it, I hope to improve my reaction to unexpected events.

Step one – I will draw up a list of household maintenance for Winter/Spring , and contact relevant tradespeople. Before there is an emergency. My son who knows I am prone to what he calls catastrophising, even gave me a DIY book for Christmas. I may well not use it to Do It Myself, but I’ll be a better customer with it. So hopefully there will be fewer unexpected things.

Step two-, try to improve my mental health and well being, so that I am better able to deal with stressful things, and recover faster from them. Needless to say, this involves food, exercise and finding a happy place in my mind to go too to calm down.

I started to read this book in what to my mind, is an odd time between Christmas and New Year. I borrowed the book shortly after the soggy porch incident. It occured to me after some thought that I perceive December as being a difficult month. August is another one. Both have the extremes of weather and due to holidays an absence of tradespeople and family to call upon for help. Added to which we did once have an electrical problem on Christmas Day approximately 25 years ago which took out a major part of the houses wiring, and proved hard to get help for!

So I was already primed for panic and overreaction. Add to that dire warnings of power cuts ,expensive fuel, bad weather and flu and I was dunfor. Already somewhat over tired from too much fun and activity in the Autumn I hunkered down and hoped I could avoid spoiling Christmas with illness. I’ll be totally honest the boiler situation frightened me, and five days later having a wet porch pushed me into realising I had to do better. So to the library and this book.

And a little snippet on the radio about seasonal affective disorder. Now I don’t think for one minute I have this, but for certain sure hunkering down does include not going outside. So second step, which was actually the first step since I have already started is to include going for a daily walk and just get fresh air, and the feel of the elements on my face. After just three days I found myself working out when I could fit in going for a walk, looking at the forecast, because after the cold it ain’t half rained a lot. Not only that but feeling a bit twitchy until I went.

Step three- give up caffeine for a week and see if it improves sleep etc. Now I maintain that coffee doesn’t effect me, so this will be interesting.

Step four- Choose something to give to a charity shop, or craft destash table, or book free-library, or all three!

Step five- probably the most important one of all. Reflect on how I feel day by day, note if something happens how I cope, and have fun, enjoy using the things I keep, and show up here at the end of the month.

I think this is going to be interesting….

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