Well that’s 2012 finally waved off and here is the evidence that Alfie and I were on the sea wall overlooking the marshes to see the sun rise this morning. It was quite magical and I was so glad I made the effort, despite the mud and cold and only four hours’ sleep. I’m starting 2013 as I mean to go on: making time to be inspired, experience what is beautiful and be truly present. I learned a lot in 2012 and it will all be worthwhile if I put it into practice now.
So, what am I going to do? Today is the beginning of another Ultimate Blog Challenge which is a dare, of sorts, to blog every day in January. This will be my third go, and last year I managed 31 posts during both July and October, so I have set the bar quite high. I’m using the Challenge this month to blog about my progress with my book project. It’s a way of making myself accountable and also spreading my message a bit. I’m also hoping to get some feedback, comments and questions which will all help to make the book more useful and relevant.
This is what it’s all about. I could describe 2012 as a very hard year. A lot of horrible, upsetting and rather worrying things happened, most of them completely beyond my control. Luckily, I was already following a spiritual path and I had a wonderful support network around me, which meant that, even when I felt myself sinking into a spiral of anxiety and depression, I knew that I really wanted to swim and I had practices and people to turn to. Things were quite icky for a while, and I felt compelled to think, think, think about the worrying circumstances as if that would somehow give me some sort of control.
It didn’t work. I knew I needed to let go, accept things as they were and get on with living in the now. Easier said than done! What happened, though, was that slowly, imperceptibly, I started to act on advice and put things into practice that I had known in the past but only really paid lip service to. And slowly, gradually, I started to feel better and to realise that I was worrying less and less.
I had known for a long time that worrying is futile. For decades I’d had the mantra “If you pray, why worry, and if you worry, why pray?” in my head but I had still worried. I didn’t know how to stop. What I learned last year, and am eternally grateful for, was how to stop. Actually stop worrying, about really worrying things, When I realised that this was happening I was overjoyed and I started to make notes about the various strategies I was using to maintain my new–found peace of mind. I found that, every now and then, I needed to refer to my own notes to remind me of these approaches, and this was when I knew that I had something really valuable that needed to be shared. If I, who had been through this journey and worked out my own anti-worry package, needed to check my own notes to keep in tip top non-worrying form, then perhaps other people, especially those over-thinkers like me who struggle with worry, might find this information useful. For me it has been revolutionary and perhaps even life-saving.
So, the book is underway. I’ve written a fair bit and I’ve interviewed some of the special people who gave me advice that became part of my big solution. And right now, this month, it’s time for the big push to get this all churned out and into some sort of coherent form. I know it would be asking a bit much of myself to set a deadline for the end of January, but I can form an intention to get a LOT done, and sharing my progress in blog posts will help to keep me going and hopefully feel supported and encouraged. I’ll be reporting word counts and milestones and asking questions. And I would love it if readers ask me questions as well. This project may be based around my own experience but my reason for doing it is because I can’t bear to keep this stuff to myself. If I can help one other person to recover from chronic worry as I have done, then it will all be worth it. But my ambition is to reach lots and lots of people. Goodness knows we all need it!
If you’ve read this far, thank you for sticking with me, and can I invite you to read my posts during January, support me and find out more?
I wish I could let go of worry and anxiety – I don’t make resolutions, but I wold definitly letting go and just accepting one day at a time is a goal!
I don’t make resolutions either, as they can tend to feel like setting myself up to fail. I set intentions these days which is a softer, more encouraging approach. I’ll be sharing some of my anti-worry strategies over the next few weeks so keep an eye on the blog!
Congratulations (already) on that book that you’re working on, Harriet. I recently created a new blog and days before I published my first post, I turned into a worry wart of some sort. “What if nobody read my articles?” That went through my head over and over again. But then it dawned on me that there will always be someone, somehow who will read what I have to share. That sort of saved my day.
This was a great read. Good luck to you on this challenge!
Thank you! That’s the sort of worry that can stop us taking action, isn’t it? Well done for overcoming it.
Yes, it is how we can walk through the challenges in life will really determine the level of success we have.
When we make the decision to get through life in a positive frame of mind no matter what…watch out!
The past is past (even if it was just 5 minutes ago) and if we keep moving forward we will get to where we desire.
Happy blogging and booking!
Hi
I look forward to reading your blog posts. I am not doing the Ultimate blog Challenge this time, haven’t blogged much recently. I am far more of a talker than I am a writing. Also very much of a worrier so will be reading your blog posts with interest.
Jackie
Good luck with it all As my good friend Bernie used to say when asked if he worried ” I don’t do worry”
I really enjoyed your posts in 2012 – both because of what you were writing about, and because of the way you write – keep it up in 2013!
Cheers,
Gordon
Another wonderful post Harriet. Congratulations on creating such an inspirational and thought provoking place on the web! I’m looking forwards to your posts throughout 2013, now what will this year bring? We shall see… :)
Thank you Jo. It’s very much thanks to you that I have this place to blog; I’m continually grateful for the care you take of my site so I can get on with the writing bit!