This blog post will be easy to write!! What a week I have just put behind me!! I will just have to share some of the stories before I will get back to where I left off in my last post. Somewhere in January 2017.

The Man Who Made Me Wonder What Happened To Sweden!!

On Thursday the 18^th January I travelled home to Copenhagen to connect with my mum in Sweden. When changing trains in Malmo station this young savvy looking Swedish man with a tweed coat, brief case (the modern kind) and a beer (what!!??) was standing next to me. He was having a face time conversation with a “lady friend” where they were discussing whether or not to continue their “romance”, which this same man clearly didn’t think was really working out but thought would be a good idea to openly share with the whole train, whilst including both picture and sound for adults and CHILDREN alike.

He went on to share some statistics, which entailed a recent survey that parents of children born in the 90s would get more action when the lights go out (if you know what I mean) than that of their children. Hmmm interesting….. (Hopeful here that the same will apply going forward to children born in the 00’s!!) Phone call ended he spotted me making a phone call to ICE Joe in my phone which he believed was a really cool name and that is where one of the funniest conversations I have had in a long time began.

I was quick on my feet and thought, hey I am not going to let on I know what he is on about, I am going to be Irish and not Swedish!! Didn’t fancy a debate about parents of kids born in the 90s or anything….. So it all started with me giving him a very puzzled face followed by him asking me “sprechen sie deutch?” to which I said. No, only English!

He asked “Where in England are you from?” and I said nope not from England I am from Ireland. Oh he said and I am a Leprechaun! Interesting one would think, don’t think I ever heard of a Swedish Leprechaun. He went on to show me the buckles on his shoes and the beer in his hand. I nearly believed him at this point!!

He subsequently shared with me his leprechaun story by simply stating some facts such as the fact that they had tried to diagnose him with ADHD, but that wasn’t his problem although he was quite sure that he had one! That he had recently bought an apartment in Marbella for his sister who is a sufferer of psoriasis.

He went on to share some of his worst vocabulary in English with me being thankful that he was more used to American TV from the 90s than real curses – well that was until he finished with the word c… ,which is my least favourite word, as some of you might be aware of, in the English language.

Well our conversation finished with the use of this word and its true meaning…. As he was hopping of the train he gave me a most polite handshake and set on his ways.

When he had left the train a lady in front of me turned around and said – I am so sorry. I did not know how to help you out of the conversation. Apologies for my fellow country man. To which I could only reply. Never mind – I deal with Leprechauns on a daily basis in Ireland.

It is these small moments in life that the beginning of 2017 taught me to appreciate!

We All Need Dangling Carrots

To finish this blog post I want to share one more of the simple tips that I implemented and which worked for me to commence the journey back to ME.

When things were at their toughest I set reward goals or events to work towards. It turned out that such rewards would come in two main versions;

1. Those I did with just me or;
2. Those I did with people I care about

To start with those I did with just me; They make me think of Newton Faulkner’s song Dream Catcher and in particular the part of the song where the lyrics say (oh hang on better play it on Spotify to make sure I am saying the right thing here) “There’s a place I go when I’m Alone, Do Anything I Want, Be Anyone I Want to Be…….. This phrase really summarises why I chose to spend some time with me. I could clearly think, dream, take in my surroundings and most important listen to me and what I really want… Albeit that this last bit is not quite clear yet – clouds have merely gone from thick across the sky to scattered with glimmers of blue appearing in between. Some days the weather is worse than others.

But being with just me allowed me to dream and start strategizing towards reaching my goals some of which I shared in my first blog post.

To be able to do this – be with me – is a large leap for me, totally a socialite hiding behind my willingness to support others before I help me. That has changed…. These one on one sessions can be anything from a walk or run to spending time in a quiet corner to read a book, have lunch with me and sometimes I might even stop the car on the way home and get a few minutes to gather myself before socializing!! So do do me time, it comes highly recommended.

So to the things I did with people I care about…… yet another story I need to come back to!! As mentioned previously I needed to find something to fill the void that was left behind after taking part in Strictly Come Dancing. One of these was to join forces with three wonderful ladies on who I went on a lot of adventures with in 2017 and more of them planned for 2018!! We did anything from cinema nights, nights spent like teenagers at 80s parties, “variety shows” and dance nights out to learning new skills, challenging our fears and most importantly laughing our socks off when sharing lots and lots of challenges, hopes and dreams. This team, you know who you are, have done a lot more for me than you will ever know!!

Spending time with my three wonderful kids and to connect with them again was something that started a little bit later last year. With them I couldn’t hide away from my fears quite as well so took a bit longer to come to the realisation how much, not just them needed me, but how much I needed them!!

Other rewards and other events to work towards included concerts, holidays to places I want to go, meeting with people I haven’t seen for a long time (lots more of those to catch up on) and taking on new challenges to materialise some of those dreams….

I still use these “dangling carrots” to keep my energy levels and motivation up with the best part being that when you start implementing them, more seems to come your way without you even having to look.