Life update: Being your true happy self

Life over the last couple of months has been really busy with so much going on. This has meant more and more of my time is spoken for, between caring for Noah, a busy job, commuting and a rather manic life I can sometimes feel overwhelmed. 

I never really have a moment anymore just to be me and relax. In my twenties I thought nothing about sitting reading a book for a whole day. Exercise was a frequent activity and a past time I enjoyed. I loved going for long walks and enjoying the outdoors. I could regularly be found relaxing in a deep bath with a pampering face mask. 

If I have a moment now I'm riddled with guilt that I should be doing something else. 

I can be found doing two or three things at once on a regular basis, which means I often feel flustered that I’m not doing a good enough job in any area of my life. 

We live in a world and society that is constantly striving for perfection, encouraging us to do more and more as well as wanting everything done now. This can often lead to us overworking every area of our lives, but if we had more balance could we be more productive and happier.

Recently I have been left with the hanging questions:

“Am I applying my time and energies in the right places, to be my true happy self?”. 

"How do I take time for myself".

So I've been looking at how long I spend time on different areas of my life, looking at what I spend most of my time doing and how I can reduce the time I spend on some tasks to have more time for myself.  

Everyday I have been setting aside ten minutes to meditate, which has been a wonderful way at making me stop, take time for myself and bring about a sense of greater calmness. It has also helped to root me in the here and now. So I thought I would share some apps that I have been loving.

Being in the moment and relieving stress:

Calm: The app is free to download and has some great content that you don’t have to pay for but a paid subscription of £35.99 a year, gives you over a 100 hours of brilliant content which is constantly added too.

I use the beginning journey to calm which is a great introduction to mediation with a seven day session. The perfect place to start with focused sessions to relieve anxiety, overcome stress and the app also has wonderful sleep stories to send you off into deep slumber. 

Headspace: I have been using this app for over a year now and love it. It is easy to navigate, with defined timings of 5,10,15 and 20 minutes to meditate, so even those with the least amount of time have no excuses. It offers short and easy to do sessions, which have helped to alleviate stress and sleep problems.

If you love the app and want to have access to all the content then a yearly subscription of £74.99 is needed.

Rituals have a wonderful free app with guided meditation for three areas: relaxing the mind, relaxing the body and enjoying the moment. In which you can do 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes of meditation. They also have a guided yoga follow along too.

Still not convinced that meditation could help here are some additional benefits: 

I've personally have found the benefits of meditation to be huge. 

Do you meditate? How do you relax? Share in the comments below.  

Know someone that could benefit from this post please do share. 

Agua Spa at the Sanderson Hotel

If you want to get away from the world, relax and recharge your batteries the Sanderson Hotel London has to be experienced. 

For those of you who have been following for a while, you will know we love the Sanderson Hotel especially their Mad Hatter's afternoon tea. If you haven't been I definitely recommend it. 

Since having Noah (over two years ago) me and the other half haven't had a date night, so we decided to have a date day instead. So on a recent day off we decided that a visit to the Agua Spa at the Sanderson hotel was very much needed. 

To get to the spa, you are transported via a lift decorated with images of space and stars imprinted on the walls. 

On entering the spa, you instantly relax with softly spoken staff, candles, floor to ceiling drapes which all add to a dream like and serene ambience. 

The friendly staff show us to the beautifully designed changing area with large mirrors and beauty desks. 

I started with a relaxing sit in the female only steam room to clear the airways, followed by a nice shower.

Hidden away amongst the drapes, the spa offers private areas containing pods to melt into and relax. The pods which are small armchair beds, for me offered the best relaxation where you could snuggle up under a Goose feather duvet for hours. They were so comfortable, I thought I was in heaven.

Whilst in the pods you can enjoy a yummy smoothie of blackberry, strawberry and raspberry or choose something else from the food and drink menu.

The spa offers a range of massages, body treatments, manicures and pedicures. We opted for a couples soothing Swedish massage. Matt who did mine definitely has to be one of the best masseuses I have experienced. His fingers worked like magic to unwind and remove the knots from a tightly coiled back. 

I seriously felt like a new woman after my massage,  it helped to relieve my stress and I definitely felt re-energised. The benefits lasted for a good week afterwards.   

So all in all a wonderful day. If your looking for a spa  to unwind from the busyness of modern life, the Sanderson spa and hotel offers the perfect place to relax. 

www.morganshotelgroup.com

Do you have any other spa recommendations for us? Share them in the comments below.

Kew Gardens

What on earth is up with the weather? At this moment London is absolutely freezing, I personally will be so glad when the weather starts to warm up. 

So to cheer us all up I thought I would share a recent visit we made to Kew Gardens, when the weather was much nicer. 

You know your getting older when you get excited by the prospect of visiting a garden for a day out. The Royal Botanic gardens, Kew might just be the exception; thirty minutes outside of London in Richmond it has something for all ages. 

Kew is set in 300 acres of stunning grounds and houses the largest botanical gardens in the world. In this post I will share with you my highlights:

1. Palm House: A Victorian Glasshouse with a rainforest climate that houses spectacular canopy palms. 

2. Welcome to the tropics, the Prince of Wales Conservatory houses beautiful orchids, an amazing cactus collection and ferns.

3. The Hive is a new installation created by artist Wolfgang Buttress, as a celebration to the importance of honeybees. At least one third of our global crops are dependent on honeybees as pollinators. 

At 17 metres high the Hive is a vast honey bee hive. A thousand lights flicker in time to the vibrations of the bees and sounds linked to a real hive in Kew Gardens, its a sight to behold. 

Noah was absolutely memorised by the sounds, glass flooring and lights. 

 

4. Walk tall amongst the trees, set 18 metres off the woodland floor the TreeTop walkway is a great way to get a top down view over Kew. 

If your eagled eyed you might even spot some beautiful birds high in the canopies. 

So when the weather warms up in a few weeks, head over to Kew Gardens for a great day out. Make sure you leave enough time for tea and scones at the cafe though.

Opening times:

Open daily at 10am 

Ticket Prices:

Online ticket prices (until 31 October 2018)

Adults £17.75* / £16

Children (4–16) £4

Children under 4 free

Concessions £15.50* / £14

* Includes a voluntary donation

www.kew.org

What's your favourite garden or day out? Share in the comments below...

The realities of early parenthood

When you first have a baby you are absolutely overwhelmed; the emotion of having a little person that is solely dependent on you and the physical act of looking after a baby, is both physically and emotionally taxing.You are constantly balancing everything. 

It takes a good few months for your life to have any resemblance of an equilibrium. Well to be honest it took us a whole year and even now I'm not sure we've mastered it. Life is fundamentally different and whilst I wouldn't change it for all the world, it can be hard being a parent. If you are expecting a baby or have just had a baby, make sure you check out my tips for the first six weeks here. 

So what have I learnt being a parent?

1.A baby makes you appreciate time, I have become more than ever aware of how precious life is. Don't wish it all away as you will unbelievably want it all back again: the sick, the poop and the sleepless nights. 

2.So much happens from the moment a baby is born that you find yourself recording their every moment and developmental success. Time to increase your cloud storage. 

3.Parenthood is a full time job. There are no rest days, so take any help where it is offered. Making time for yourself it's important, it will keep you sane and also make you feel like your old self. 

4.Even when your not with your baby, you will be thinking about them. Your child will fill your every waking hour. 

5. Parent guilt is real, you will always feel like you are not doing a good enough job and should be doing something else. You will analyse, criticise and feel like everyone else is doing a better job than you. Stop fretting! 

6.Babies constantly change; as soon as you have mastered one stage, they change and you find yourself having to master another. Anyone who pretends they have it mastered hasn’t really. 

7.You need a routine. A routine means a life, find what works for you and stick to it. Absolutely don't deviate from the routine. 

8.Everyone will offer you advice: breastfeeding, cosleeping, cry it out method, discipline, potty training. Just because they offer it doesn’t mean you have to take it. Just smile sweetly and say thank you. Do what works for you. 

9.Leave all your ideals behind, you will do all the things that you think you wont. You will let your child watch TV for just ten minutes of peace and give in to your child whims just so they don't cause a scene.  

10.Anyone who has a child over three take their advice with caution, they have long since forgotten what it's like to have a small baby.

11.Just because life feels like it's running at super speed doesn’t mean you have too, there is something about enjoying the moment. The washing can wait!

12.Going to the toilet on your own is no longer a one person pursuit. Surprisingly you will be OK with this. 

13.Eating a meal warm is a thing of the past. Accept it and move on. 

14.Coffee and cake will be your new best friends. 

15.Supermarkets hold a new found appeal that they didn't previously.  

16.Stop Googling about your child, nothing good can come of your search. If you want information or are worried about something, ask the health visitor or GP.

17.You will do absolutely anything to make your child smile even if you look like a crazy person. 

18.You will love your child more that you have ever loved anything in your whole life and they will be by far the best thing you have ever achieved. That is until they reach their teenage years.