I hope you have had a lovely week and you managed the snow when it came. It was my birthday week, and to be honest I always expect snow, because my family always remind me that it snowed when I was born, so don’t be surprised when it happens … 

Anyway, it was lovely and I spent my birthday with my special girl Adie — we went to the farm, fed the lambs, saw the baby chicks in the incubator, and said hello to the ponies, donkeys and the pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs … we saw everything. I felt the snow fall added to our special time. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who sent birthday wishes and cards — I really appreciate it, and it all added to making the day special.

Do you love love love routine? Do you stick to the rules? How does it make you feel if your routine is suddenly interrupted? Or how would you feel if you were asked to do something which you felt didn’t quite fit in with the rules?

My thoughts for Your Whole Self this week come from my own love of a routine, love of rules and regulations, and recognising how I feel when my routine is knocked off course unexpectedly.

It leaves me feeling quite stressed and at worse anxious. For example when the snow came last week, some of my One-to-One sessions were postponed due to the weather and travelling, which is totally understandable … but that meant my routine changed. What was I going to do with all of that gifted time? It wasn’t because I didn’t have things to do, I could easily fill that time, but it just didn’t feel right because in my head I had my plans for how the day was going to go, what I would be doing, when I would be doing it and so on. It took me a long time to settle and do something else — much to the amusement of Keith. 

The anxious feelings didn’t last long and once I got into my work I was fine, but I know this isn’t the first time I have felt like this. There have been more serious occasions when routine has had to change suddenly, and I know the affect this has on my cortisol levels, causing increased levels of stress and overall affecting my health. It also makes relaxing and switching off a challenge, when there is no need for routine at all … I struggle.

I likened this to my granddaughter colouring and not even caring about staying within the lines, not even caring about the colour of her sun, the colour of her sky — just feeling free to be creative. 

Is this where my need to have a routine began? Was I always told to colour inside the lines? It's definitely more freeing to realise how creative we can be when we step outside of the routine. Is this something we can work on so that our stress levels don’t rocket when things aren’t following the timetable we set out for ourselves? Can we be kinder to ourselves so we manage the disappointment when the routine we have committed to doesn’t go to plan? Can we rely less on routine, be more creative with our time, and go with the flow? 

It's certainly something I am going to work on, because I know this will help me to be more in the moment, be more present with the here and now, and ultimately lower those stress levels.