So, this is definitely going to be a work in progress but I have finally got round to actually starting my first blog!

‘Got round to it’ is actually more like ‘finally found some strange courage’ because if I’m being honest, I’ve been putting it off for years… I’ve always wanted to write a blog but there’s something scary about putting your thoughts and feelings down for people to read but if you met me you’d know I’m very open and hopefully what I write about, will be able to relate to you in some way too and some people say they like to hear my views on certain things so while I’ve now got a bit more time (in lockdown and currently hiding from my kids on the stairs!) why not..?

Who am I? and What will I be blogging about??

Well, right now, I am a 38 year old mum of 3 (Emily (10), Jack (9) and George (almost 1)) and I am married to Michael (who I’ve been with for 20 years this year!). He’s been telling me for years to just do it, write down what I want to say and do what I love to do, which is to help people and share some of the experiences I’ve been through in my life to maybe help them with their experiences and hopefully bring a bit of humour with it too!

I’ve never wrote more than what I used to put in my diary when I was a hormonal teenager so I obviously won’t be winning any awards for my grammar, punctuation etc (I actually feel sorry for my poor kids having to have me home school them for these next few months!) its just me, writing what I feel and how I interpret it, errors and all.

Now…

So, aswell as being a busy mum, I am a yoga & pilates teacher, a reiki practitioner and sports therapist working from my studio, that I am very grateful to finally have. Its taken me (so far) 21 years of 6am starts and past 10pm finishes, working 6-7 days a week for commercial gyms, freelancing & working for myself then co-owning and running, a busy gym for 6 years while having, a then 7 month old and a 17 month old, while also planning and arranging our wedding in Italy at the same time! Needless to say my life has been very hectic at times…

Then…

I’ve been there and done it with cramming work, work, work into every minute of the day while trying to wear the mum hat, the wife hat, the cleaner, the cook, the boss, the maintenance man, the therapist, the trainer teaching 15 classes a week, the accountant, the list went on and on until, similar to life now, everything came to a stop when I (and my then business partner) decided to close the gym and I had my 2nd miscarriage, all within a day of each other.

Old habits die hard…

It was obviously a very difficult time so I then chose to take 6 months off (which turned out to be more like a year) to decide what I wanted to do next but mainly rest… but somehow we ended up moving house, became landlords, I studied to become a yoga teacher, a reiki practitioner, built a new studio, started a new business then found out I was 2 months pregnant (with George) a month after opening the studio and somehow, found myself… (haha not really!) but I did realise that I was always telling myself I didn’t have enough time to do this and that and really, it was always me, giving myself more and more to do. Without going too deep, a lot of it was in my mind and old habits that I kept running over and over again…

Changing old habits…

I’ve realised I was constantly saying “I take too much on” and “I haven’t got enough time” and guess what… I always had (and sometimes still have) too much on and never had enough time.

I still have to keep pulling myself back from this feeling that I’m not doing enough and could be doing more but like this blog, its a work in progress and I’m always learning.

I’m realising that I have old thought patterns that can make me slide back into my old ways, that make me keep myself busy (maybe to stop me from thinking about things but thats another blog in itself!) and as everyone does, I will always get lessons in life thrown at me/us but its up to us to either let them hit us in the face or catch them and learn from them and thats really what these blogs will be about… what happens to us, how we respond to it and how I think I’ve learnt and am learning from it all… and a bit of my experience with yoga, pilates, exercise, movement and reiki thrown in too…

I hope you enjoy it!

Love Susie xx