1. Be happy and become more mentally stable.

Previously I’d mentioned that spending time with my fur babies helped me to feel somewhat better, that I’d been forcing myself out to go swimming in a bid for some alone time and that I’d also reached a decision regarding work. I still love to spend time with my munchkins and have since welcomed three more into the Davis family, the incredibly adorable and cheeky African Spiny Mice, Chase and Chance, and my beautiful well behaved mini lop, Lennon. In regard to work I had arrived at the conclusion that I simply needed to escape my job after it had failed it’s two chances with me, luckily finding one locally and totally by chance enabled me to achieve this, within a week of showing interest in the position it were out with the old and in with the new! There have been a few issues but my new job has been a vast improvement on the previous. At the start of the year I found myself becoming borderline Agoraphobic and would only leave the house when forcing myself to go swimming. I’ve since improved so much on this, getting out and about, resuming my social life with my friends, I did however find myself abandoning swimming due to a large amount of overtime of which were thrown my way. Getting help from professionals - well this one definitely didn’t end so well. I set out with the best of intentions, completing an online self referral to something my GP recommended, I found I then had to continuously chase this up however, multiple times, to only receive around two uninterested responses and with nothing materialising in the end. It turned out to be a complete waste of my time and as anyone suffering from any mental health related illness knows, when already vulnerable one of the hardest things to do is to reach out for or accept help. Their lack of caring really is the last thing a person needs who’s already in a fragile state and it proved that I would have to yet again deal with things alone - luckily I’m highly experienced at doing so. Overall there’s probably more that I could be doing in order to climb further up the happiness ladder but this is a continued journey rather than a destination and I’ve definitely made a start of getting myself back up off of the ground!

2. Get Healthy

I were doing surprisingly really well with this initially. I thought that if I could improve my overall physical health that it would surely lead to having positive implications on my mental health also, therefore I cut out comfort eating, ate less junk - instead opting for healthier options, forced myself to bed at a more reasonable time (regardless of getting straight to sleep) in the hope that I’d establish an actual sleeping pattern, drank much more water and almost completely cut out alcohol. The latter were rather easy to do considering that I hadn’t actually been venturing outside of my own home. For quite a substantial time I were doing really well with all of this, though I have since caved. I love my food too much and enjoy sampling culinary delights - what is life if I can’t indulge guilt free? I would definitely like to get active again though and I’m eager to reunite with the gym following a recent operation on my foot.

3. New Skincare Routine

I’ve always been useless with stuff such as this and I’m unsure if the fact will actually ever change. I set out with great considerations for this although rapidly lost momentum and still often find myself dozing off on a night before having the chance to remove my make-up, never mind anything else. Although I don’t wear make-up for work any more under any circumstance and depending on where I’m going, the rest of the time I often either go make-up free or use a minimal amount. I’m still desperately in need of a good exfoliator!

4. Tidy and Organised

I were especially intrigued as to how I’d fare with this one once I got back into the world of work following my sick leave. On the organised front I actually adapted rather well with the help of my beloved diary, as long as I’ve been remembering to update it regularly then I’ve not been finding myself missing any social events or double booking things. My levels of messiness have persisted, with my bedroom currently resembling something similar to that of a natural disaster! I have however improved on being able to actually find the motivation to tidy in the first place, it’s keeping it that way of which is the difficulty. Socialising is definitely the culprit here as clothing and make-up is strewn everywhere in a matter of minutes during the preparation to venture out. I really need to find the time for a thorough blitz.

5. Learn to Drive

This is something I have been intending to do for a ridiculous amount of time now and is also something of which I plan and set out to do over and over again, but always result in telling myself that I’ll send off for the required changes to my provisional after a particular event for which I’ll need my ID. The trouble with this is that there’s seemingly an endless supply of events in close succession from one to another. It were well over due that I got my priorities in order and got the wheels rolling with this one, finally having been in touch with the DVLA and sending off for the relevant forms and such for the required changes to my provisional. Whilst in the waiting process to receive said forms, I’ve been on the hunt for a driving instructor, preferably an independent one rather than a company. If you’re able to recommend anyone in the Leeds area then please don’t hesitate to get in touch, I’m a little out of my depth with this!

6. Get my first tattoo!

I’m planning to get this booked specifically for September 27th, therefore it’s too early as of yet to have this checked off of my list. It’s probably time however that I get finding myself an incredible tattoo artist for the job - do you have any Leeds based recommendations? I’ve recently acquired an obsession for watercolour tattoos, consequently being something of which to consider when making my choice.