Hello there and welcome to my 100^th blog.

On 1 November 2019, I launched my website HealingwithHayles and I published my first blog.

I started my blog initially to talk about my personal nutrition and eating journey, which then led me to further research on various topics, with my main focus on health and wellness. It has been a fascinating voyage and it has been a huge learning curve for me on so many different levels and platforms. I have written blogs that have been an absolute hit, and there have been others that were not. I realised very quickly that some people will read some of my blogs and never comment, and that others will. This is absolutely fine. Many of my friends do not read my blogs, and why should they? On the other hand, some lesser-known acquaintances have often surprised me by their awesome messages sent and stunning comments made.

I understand now that I struggle just to write a blog in a very short space of time. Most take six hours or more to complete. There is the odd very quick blog that comes straight from my heart, when little or no research is required, but these are few and far between.  I think that my writing has improved over this time, and I know for a fact that I have learnt so much about so many different things. Initially, I wrote weekly blogs and then, as I have become busier, I have published blogs as and when I want to, trying to be more organic about the writing of them. However, I still do put quite a lot of pressure on myself to write them, it’s the nature of the beast, heaven knows why, as no-one has ever asked when my next blog is being released!

Having skim-read through my last 99 blogs (quite an onerous undertaking, I might add!!) I have picked up key themes which have consistently come up in my blogs. I thought it would be useful to reflect on these for this seminal blog!

Even before I went on my daily kindness mission from 1 October 2021, so many of my blogs were about just trying to be kind. Kindness is definitely an ongoing perseverance for me. This does not mean that I am never mean or nasty or that I do not judge and criticize. Wish this was true. I know now that the minute my self-esteem is a little low or when I am feeling vulnerable, this is when my defence mechanism of judging and criticizing of others happens Just hoping to do this a little less and to be kind a little more as I meander my way through this crazy little thing called life. I have made huge progress in being kind to myself and this is so positive for my health and wellness.

I speak about nutrition and aiming for optimal eating often, and also about helping others aim for theirs. This is a very big part of my personal and my work life. I find the eating minefield beyond fascinating. The basics seem to remain pretty steadfast but it’s the add ons that change. The superfoods, superhype, clean eating, ongoing and evolving fads, and the forever new and different diets make for stimulating learning, and then the tedious task of extracting the facts from the fiction.   It would seem that I will be learning new things about nutrition forever!  I create a different eating plan for every one of my clients as we are all so very different in so many ways. Personally, I have eventually comprehended that my eating habits are created by what I do consistently, not by the now and again non-nutritious food that I eat.

My overthinking, worrying and people pleasing are my ongoing roller coaster ride and rear their ugly heads in many of my blogs. I do believe that half the battle is acknowledging these. So now just to work on the fifty percent that requires me to lose them! My breathwork has been a good tool to assist towards this. I have now recruited My Favourite to help me, so watch this space!

I began blogging four months before the Covid pandemic swooped down upon us, wreaking havoc with our lives, and forever and irrevocably changing our normal. My chronicles on Covid may be quite interesting to re-read in years to come. As a family we seemed to remain fairly upbeat during this time, helped hugely by the fact that my boys were at home together for an extended period of time…that is until Muz died. This was a very difficult time for us, and we still miss her terribly. We feel beyond blessed to have masses of magnificent and wonderful memories of so many fun and laughter-filled times together. I will be forever grateful to Muz for all that she taught me and our Boys, and I have slowly, but surely, started to learn to live without her.

My yearly poetic licence is very easy for me to write, so much quicker than my other blogs. It really is just rhyming slang, and I find it so much fun!

Balance and moderation seem to have generally become less like swear words for me over the past couple of years. I cannot honestly say that I have embraced them or these concepts fully, but I really am trying to, on an ongoing basis. In a similar vein, my consistency, is a tad difficult for me to maintain in some areas of my life, but I have definitely mastered the art of dusting myself off properly and happily hopping back onto the wagon after my many falls off it!

I often refer to my blogs as  coming from my heart, and the fact that I am aiming to try to be as authentic as possible. However, authenticity does seem to be another of the words of the moment. Just be yourself, they say. We are all often struggling to be just this, and I love Rangan Chatterjee’s take on it. He feels, and this resonates hugely with me, that it is quite difficult to pin down what our authentic self is. Is it being the person we want to be, the happier and stronger version of ourselves, or is it the person we truly are right now, warts and all?  This is where integrity comes in. Integrity is about being truly honest with yourself and others which requires you to practice true authenticity. So I need to be sure that I have integrity to start. This is definitely well worth exploring in a future blog.

The pillars or principles or foundations of health are widely and well documented and I have spoken about them often and in various forms and guises. There are differing schools of thought on this concept. My four are physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pillars.

The physical is obviously eating to live, exercising regularly, sleeping adequately, not smoking or over imbibing.  I am quite good at some of these! Just rather bleak with the seemingly repetitive injuries that I keep incurring. This time I am determined to get strong. Please make sure that I do!

The mental is about reducing stress, improving sleep (again), being productive, having strong relationships, being kind, being thankful, laughing and having fun (my best), spending time outside and getting my dose of vitamin D (both beyond important to me), keeping curious, and having energy and motivation. I do fairly well on most of these.

Emotional health is being aware of our emotions and understanding how they affect us. Over the years, and with a bit of help from my friends and a couple of other folks, I seem to have developed relatively healthy management techniques for dealing with my emotions, especially  stress and adversity. There will always be hiccups on the way, and that is okay. We are only human, after all.

My deeper spiritual health is a very personal concept for me. I do chat about the more tangible aspect of this, like my acts of kindness, trying to be more mindful, and working on my breathwork as my meditation basic.

Maintaining these pillars, as an ongoing and fruitful labour, is something I shall continue to strive towards.

The physio practice that I took over from Karen in April 2020 has been one of the biggest recent blessings in my life. It has been incredible for me in so many ways. I have learnt so much about, and from my elderly folk, and this has led me, amongst other stuff, to giving fall-prevention talks at various retirement homes, which I absolutely love doing. These patients have given me so much and words cannot express the gratitude I feel for this. I have written about this often. The extra income has been wonderful, and I also have less time to shop so retail has taken a back seat. True words, I have too much stuff anyway. Having such full days are the best.  The only downside is that I have to plan holidays, as I always need a locum to help me when I am away. There are worse problems to have.

My time management, also alluded to often, is pretty good, except for my ongoing struggle with decluttering and tidiness. I daresay this is an area in my life which will be difficult to change. I will keep trying.  I am definitely having more down time than I did at the start of my donning my new hats. I have learnt to juggle things a bit better. I love to be busy but am hoping that I am a little less manic about this.

My family are beyond important to me, and especially their overall health and wellness. I speak of them all the time. I absolutely love my friends too, and, it goes without saying, my girls, who are often mentioned in my blogs. The apron strings are an ongoing struggle, but I work on it constantly. We are back socializing and sometimes a little too much. I so enjoy this, but also need to watch it, as it does impact my wellbeing.

Well, here we go. One hundred blogs later. I am really hoping to continue publishing and, you never know, I may well pen a book within the next decade. Let’s just see.

Thank you, my blog friends, for so much.