1st June: Your mid-year review

How do YOU want to feel? 13 heart leap moments from the last 6 months

Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash

Instead of setting goals at the beginning of the year, I asked myself -  how do I want to feel? (Loved, connected, inspired, delighted and interested, if you’re interested.)

It felt like a big ask.

Because  6 months ago, I felt flat, fat and deflated.

My mood and energy were low

 I was missing my son after his 4-week Christmas visit and he’d gone back to university (shouldn’t I have got over my empty nest syndrome by now?) and there was not much optimism in my tank.

My hormones weren’t helping, and I felt like I was scraping along in midlife mood mud.  

It’s hard feeling low when you’re self-employed and you live alone and you’re trying to build a new life/ friendship group/work-life from scratch in a new town. 

There’s no coasting.

 You have to keep the show on the road and keep motivated and keep taking action, despite feeling like you want to put the duvet over your head and not come out ‘til Spring.

A foundation built on baby steps

I had decided that my word for 2024 was going to be ‘foundation’ and I was using the metaphor of building my foundation brick by brick to give my days some focus.

 I split my life into 8 areas and tried to build one brick a day in one section of my foundation:  health, wealth, love, work, friendships, writing, spirit, community.

Every day, no matter how low I felt, I tried to take one baby step forward in one area of my life. I committed to one daily baby steps with a few giant leaps (when my mood lifted)

I made a concerted effort to seek support too.

Here are my heart leap moments:

1. I have consistently hosted two writing hours a week and 6 masterclasses in my Heart Leap universe and hit my 1K subscribers on Substack with 89 paid subscribers.

2. I have written for two new media outlets – The Guardian and Positive News.

3. I have had positive feedback from two literary agents about my book and now have a new writing goal – to turn the memoir into a novel.

4. I have worked with a dog trainer to train my rescue dog Bertie to feel more secure.

5. I signed up to work with a dating coach to help me navigate the horrors of the internet dating world and now have a lovely new boyfriend who I like very much.

6. I have put an offer in on a tiny house in Alnwick.

7. I hit 100 days streak of daily meditation and instead of getting floored by my mood, I’m surfing it.

8. We hosted our second

   Alnwick Story Fest
   and it surpassed my wildest expectations and we have decided to run our third festival in 2025.

9. I started working in the Accidental Bookshop, my local bookshop two days a week and I love it – regular contact with people IRL,  talking about books.  

10. I have been on six new friendship ‘dates’ as I try to create a new friendship circle in Alnwick and have reconnected with old friends.

11. I have been swimming in the sea (once)

12. I worked with coach Dave Cosgrove on the stories I was telling myself – and am working on ‘adulting’.

13. I bought an ironing board (see above).

    Your 6 months review –

    Questions to ponder:

• What is your word/theme for the next 6 months?

• What baby steps have you taken in the last 6 months, which have resulted in a heart leap moment?

• What has worked well and why?

• How do you want to feel by the end of 2024?

• What areas of your life can you work on that will help you feel like that in the next 6 months?

• What support do you need and how you find the right people to give you that support?

• What baby steps can you take every day to take you in the direction you want to go in?