I didn’t realize how much I was carrying when I was working full-time. All the expectations of my job and those of the pandemic were heaped upon me for three years. In an instant, I retired and the work email vanished and so did all the constant contact with my class (on Google Classroom), and… Continue reading Goodbye Great Expectations
Category: emotional journey
Creativity: A Writer’s Gotta Write.
There was fear and uncertainty when I started this blog. I’d never written for a larger audience than my class and their parents. I wondered if I would run out of ideas. Surprise! I’m discovering that the more I write, the more I have to write. Creativity Grows The More You Use It. It turns… Continue reading Creativity: A Writer’s Gotta Write.
Loving This Version Of Me
i will never have this version of me again let me slow down and be with her – Rupi Kaur. Body Acceptance Is Hard. Slowing down and appreciating this version of me was hard. I’m not a make-up and nails kind of person. In the past, I didn’t spend much time considering myself. Maybe it… Continue reading Loving This Version Of Me
Joys Of Today
I’m trying to stay true to the perspective that this blog is build on. What happens when you retire? How does it feel? What are the challenges and what are the rewards? It’s natural for me to barrel ahead into the challenge side. When I see an obstacle, I tend to work hard to figure… Continue reading Joys Of Today
Missing Friends And Connection.
Now that I’m out of the workforce and not seeing work colleagues every day, I’m feeling it. Collective loneliness: it’s loneliness from not being part of a group that’s working towards a common goal, according to Dr Marisa G. Franco*. Working in a large school (1400 students), the colleagues that I saw daily were the… Continue reading Missing Friends And Connection.
Difficult Emotions And Toxic Positivity
I find it one of the hardest things to do, to just sit with uncomfortable emotions. I want to talk about them and fix them. I look for a way to make these feelings go away. I really need to work on sitting and observing them. Toxic Positivity. The belief that everything should be rosy… Continue reading Difficult Emotions And Toxic Positivity
I Named My Inner Critic
I gave my inner critical voice a name* and it’s made such a difference. I thought about her personality and what she would look like. For me, she’s an older nosy-neighbour type who always thinks she knows best. I chose a name for her that isn’t a name that I have encountered very often in… Continue reading I Named My Inner Critic
Building On and Moving On
“She failed retirement,” laughed a retired work colleague as she spoke about her partner. Her partner had tried to retire for a year or so but was lured back to work in a job that used some of the skills she had developed from a career in education. It wasn’t the same job that she… Continue reading Building On and Moving On
Find The Funny.
A Personal Lesson. Humour is essential to surviving the sad and difficult times in life and he understood that implicitly. Maybe it was surviving the Blitz in Coventry as a child, and surviving childhood TB, that formed his sense of humour? He enjoyed finding the humour in people’s everyday actions. He often poked fun at himself… Continue reading Find The Funny.
Being Kind To My Mind
Do I ruminate when I resist getting out of bed? I was listening to a well-known mental health personality the other day and she recommended the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown to get out yourself out of bed in the morning and prevent rumination. Being retired now, and having the time to think and write, I started to… Continue reading Being Kind To My Mind
Retired, and now what? 