Appreciate- October 2025

Last month Kat posed three questions to those of us who are using One Word to anchor/guide/ be a vehicle for reflection. I thought I should try to answer them today.

1 How is your year going? Mine took a most unexpected turn early on when I realised I hadn’t appreciated how much looking after one’s health and well-being impacted on life. The truth is experts can tell you what a healthy lifestyle looks like but eventually the message looses impact and becomes so much white noise. Until the day it doesn’t, the day you see for yourself that your BP is too high and the scales don’t lie. And so I embarked on weight loss through Slimming World and joined a gym, started swimming and walking, and most surprising of all started work with a Personal Trainer. My last visit to her was my 4th and I thought Goodness I am actually getting a bit of a buzz from this and golly gosh enjoying it.

2 Are you finding your word helpful? I think the best thing about Appreciate is that it encourages me to stay in the moment. To be mindful of the things around me. Those fleeting thoughts, observations, sensations..for example, looking out of the window as I type the sun is shining on the trees that are changing colour, leaves dropping gracefully from the trees in a gentle wind, and the poets are right leaves do dance. And oddly as the branches are laid bare I have more light in the house.

3 What have you implemented to your days thanks to my word? The answer to this is very much tied up to the previous questions. Embarking on weight loss and becoming more active and mindful are pretty big. Would I have done these things without my word is probably a better question. Yes I think I would have done the weight loss etc but would I have had the same motivation? Possibly not.. I have had this year a sense of time running out.. my life as yours is finite.. one day I won’t be here, and right now I want to be here, to have time with my family for myself and because I hope I add something to their lives, to enjoy the beauty of the world, to use what skills I have to the best of my ability, to challenge myself to be better at life.. just to have a bit more time on this glorious planet. Do we actually know how blooming lucky we are to just have this chance to be here?

So yes, I actively appreciate life, and I don’t think I will ever take it for granted again. Without the word Appreciate in my life this year I wouldn’t have had a peg to hang my thoughts on , to stop each month and just think about things.

Joining with Kate and other One Worders here-https://askatknits.com/2025/10/27/yutori-days-10-27-25/