2014 Review / New Year (woo!)

On January 1st 2014 I decided I needed to remember the good things.

The thing about a mental illness is that you tend to fixate on a negative. Or lots of negatives.

So the new year brought with it a chance for me to -

1. try to focus on the good things
2. find the positives
3. use a spare diary I got for Christmas
4. make a New Years Resolution I might actually stick to for once

And so, the Book of Gratitude was born. The aim? That every single day of 2014, no matter how shit my day was and no matter how low my mood, I should try to find something to be thankful for.

THE Book

These moments would serve as a record of why 2014 was okay. That's all I wanted; an okay year.
And these thanks go from anything as large as being thankful for amazing and supportive people in my life, or as small as crawling into bed at the end of the day. Or Sunday 9th February where I'm thankful for the bun Thelma bought me. Or on March 28th when Aonghus called me and said 'you too' when I said 'I love you'. Or a 14 hour sleep. Or my internship. Days when I'm not alone. And sometimes for days that I am alone.

Look at my dodgy internet cable... 

Or Thursday 23rd October when I was thankful 'for getting to meet & talk to & hug & kiss Andrew Scott this evening'.

Just chilling with my BFF

For 2015 I'm doing things a little differently. (Partly because I did not get a second diary this Christmas.)

Instead, I have created a Memories Jar. Yes, yes I know that I haven't invented this type of thing. But I've totally Zoe-fied it. (This is the first time I have used that phrase and I think it might be a keeper...)

With some Mod Podge and a Chalkboard sticker, I now have a personalised jam jar for all of my favourite 2015 memories.
Unlike last year's Book of Gratitude, this jar is for the big things. Honestly, it was a challenge and sometimes a chore to find something to be thankful for everyday. I know that sounds horribly ungrateful, but the Book had some flaws ...

- I wrote in it at the very end of the day meaning I was either in bed half asleep, or I actually forgot to do it. As a result, sometimes I was too sleepy to think of anything, or remember anything. Or I wrote in it a few days later with a skewed sense of events. In the end, there are a good few pages left blank in the book. 

But with the Memories Jar I aim to gather nice memories - even if it just a compliment after a few crappy days, it'll be going in the Jar. The difference with the Memories Jar is that it will collect those moments I want to remember.
By next Christmas I should have a full jar of important and special moments to look back on. And it will serve as a reminder of why I should be thankful, and that there is something good to be found, even in my hardest hour.

To 2015