Wellness Wednesdays - I Am Awesome!

Welcome to Wednesday’s Wellness Clinic (although, as today is now Thursday, I think we shall have to temporarily rebrand it Therapy Thursday!) I can promise you I am not a doctor, a psychotherapist or a preacher, just someone with a lot going on inside her head looking for a way to calm the storm and impart that wisdom to you.

I would like to start this session with a simple reminder: You. Are. Awesome! You are a unique, perfectly formed individual who has so many fantastic achievements and qualities that you might not remember to celebrate. This is just one of the messages that Milly Smith wants to remind you of in her book, The Adulting Manual, an interactive guide to getting through life’s ups and downs which acts as the sidekick to my ‘i am here now’ book. I carried it around with me for the last two weeks, filling in bits here and there to try and boost my level of self-love, and I think it may have had an effect, however temporary.

An example of some of the exercises includes:

• body positivity colouring in (with the words ‘My body does not define me’): While this may not be the biggest issue for me, it still felt good to colour those words in and remind myself that, for all my ‘imperfections’, I am loved, often because I am the only one who sees small boobs, large thighs, white hairs and a flat ass as ‘imperfections’. You need to learn to love your body whatever shape, size, or colour it is.
• 
  celebrating achievements (on the side of a big bowl of fruit): This one was certainly useful to help me remember all the awesome things I have accomplished from being able to cook, to graduating university, to learning how to cope under pressure at work – the kind of things I have either taken for granted or forgotten about. By celebrating those achievements, and coming back to them in periods of self-doubt, you can affirm your ability to be successful, no matter how big or small a thing it may be.
  
• recognising your awesomeness (what makes you special): I found this one to be quite similar to the achievements activity but it allowed me to highlight those things I pride myself on, like my taste in music, my fashion sense and, just recently, my ability (for once, anyway) to get out of bed before 10am on a weekend. Maybe no one else sees this special thing, but it’s worth noting to yourself, because if you think it’s what makes you shine then be proud!

There is also a section on being comfortable with your sexuality and sexual preferences/fantasies, etc which, at present, aren’t easy things as I’m still a bit uncertain how I feel. I might be bisexual, but I can’t meet anyone to find out. I might be polyamorous, but I can’t fully engage with that either right now. So I guess it’s all down to self-love for the time being. I was still able to partially complete this section, though, which helped to cement some of my vague fascinations and proclivities – though I’m keeping those to myself!

I think in this fortnight, much like my last session, I have come to realise that some of these tips and practices can’t be fully explored and appreciated in just fourteen days. They need to be built on and sustained for months to get any decent results. For example, I have been incorporating a morning meditation session into my pre-commute free time – with mixed results – but it’s helping me to make sure I dedicate time to myself. To get the most out of this fortnight’s practice, I will need to continue filling in The Adulting Manual and consult it where necessary as a reminder of how awesome I have been, how awesome I still am, and that there is still so much time left to me to carry on being awesome!

If you’d like to purchase this book for yourself (or someone you know), you can get it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787416135?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details