So yesterday we chatted about meditation, which was one of Kerry Petsinger’s suggestions in the ‘spiritual wellness’ bucket of ways in which you can love yourself. Or rather my lack of skill in the meditation department. Your perspectives on that brought me round to thinking perhaps I shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and give up quite so easily, so I won’t. I’ll keep dipping in, in the hope that I’ll get the hang of it.

One of the other groupings she talked about was social wellness. Now that’s an area where I have a little bit more potential I think…I might not always choose to be sociable, but when I do, I can do sociable very well. Maybe not quite so well as I used to, I’m less inclined to surround myself with people these days – I value my solitude a lot of the time. But people still fascinate me, albeit more often than not these days on my terms!

Her first suggestion was to connect with someone who’s positive inspiring & encouraging – well would you look at that. That’s what we all do, every day. Our posse…we connect, we chat…some of you comment, some of the more shy voices amongst you choose instead to email me with your thoughts, and we have a bunch of folk in the posse who love to read and just take it all in, and join in the debate on a cerebral level only…but there’s such a groundswell of positivity, encouragement and sharing going on from which we collectively draw inspiration, you’re all amazing. So gang, we’ve totally got that one down!

Her next suggestion was to visit with your neighbour. I’m a bit less keen on that one, for a couple of reasons. Maybe it should come with a caveat, in terms of it depends who your neighbour is? For example, my nearest neighbours own a Chinese Takeaway. And they are lovely people but damn, it smells so good in there. I don’t use it very often to be fair, but it’s near impossible to leave without a bag full of food and that can’t be good for my diet, right?

During the day when they’re not open, they seem to shout at each other a lot, in very excitable voices, and the one time I knocked at the door during the day to collect a parcel they’d taken in for me, it was answered by a very small man holding a very large chopper, which did alarm me a bit. Maybe I’ll settle for waving when I pull onto my drive, does that count do you think?

I did love her next suggestion, which was to send a note in the post to a family member of friend. I’m an old fashioned girl at heart, and I love the idea of getting a letter, or a card. Cue all my friends falling over and yelling at the computer that I’ve never remembered a birthday in my life, and yeah ok, you got me…I’m crap at that. I’m a bit better now Facebook reminds me 🙂 but there’s still room for improvement. But a card to say thank you, or you mean the world to me, or just a note to say I thought about you today…that’s right up my alley.

Do any of you use the app ‘By Post’? That’s something I use all the time with my mum, especially when I’m away working, or on holiday. You take a picture on your phone, and the app turns it into a postcard and delivers it pretty much the next day – mum loves it, and you know what, I’m going to use it more…just thinking about the possibilities is making me smile.

Her last two suggestions in the social bucket were to plan a fun night out with friends – happening tomorrow evening, yey – and to snuggle with your love. I’ve got that one down too. I guess technically she didn’t have a four legged fur baby in mind when she penned the list but hey, despite his propensity for damaging the ozone layer, he’s the chosen one that I curl up with every night, and he gives the best hugs in the world.

My social wellness bucket feels quite full…how lucky am I 🙂

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