Sarah Cawood

Inside Sarahs Notebook

Blues Blasting and Extreme Cleaning

Monday Jan 09, 2012

Well I don't know about you but my January blues fest is well under way! Urgh:(. I'm resisting the temptation to dive back under the duvet and not come up for air until March but I have to be honest, I'm struggling with how to lift my spirits. So I had a look online and will definitely be implementing the following:

Avoiding high GI foods (you know the culprits: white bread, pasta, rice and anything processed or excessively sugary such as watermelon). Although lets be honest, sometimes only a Dominos pizza will do;). Just not every night. And I guess if you limit those sorts of foods, then when you do treat yourself, it really does feel like a special treat.

I'm going to start doing a bit of gentle New Year exercise. A walk in the sunshine usually  takes the edge of the blues, and if you can do it near some trees or greenery then all the better. Somehow nature makes everything seem like it's going to be just dandy. I think I'll start with some swimming tomorrow if I can get my Weeble shaped self into a swimming costume.

Change the bed sheets for crisp, freshly laundered ones. Sometimes, it's the little things;)

Burn some refreshing and uplifting essential oils. Some of the ones recommended for the blues are: Bergamot, Neroli, Chamomile, Rose Otto and Rose Absolute. I'm doing that as I type with some Roman Chamomile.

And the last but by no means least and in my opinion most effective way of chasing away the blues is to GET CLEANING! Sweep away all the stale festive energy, don't leave your Xmas tree lying in your front garden waiting for the council to take it: they probably won't. Get it to your local recycling depot then get your marigolds on, get your duster at the ready and scare the cats (if you've got 'em) with the Hoover;). There is nothing more invigorating than making everything pristine and shiny. It's like the physical equivalent to emptying your email inbox.

I know that sometimes forcing yourself to be proactive about cheering yourself up is really hard to do. Today has definitely been one of those days for me. There's been a part of me that actually wanted to wallow in my pit of misery and I'll admit, I did give in to some grey sky tears but decided about 20 minutes ago that that was enough wallowing so I thought I'd come and prattle on here and then I will go and do a bit of light cleaning. Frustratingly, now I'm getting quite big (28 weeks into my pregnancy now, eeeeek!), it's a lot harder to buzz around the Lily Pad making it sparkly and nice but I will give it a go and see if I can get my chin up.

So if you can't face the full on spring clean and let's face it, who really has the time? then just give the place a little tweak here and there: do the washing up, make the bed, put away any crap lying around cluttering the place up and burn some of those yummy oils. Here's where I found those tips for Blues Beating with Essential Oils. I've only got chamomile so I might invest in some bergamot since January always feels terminal and I'm sure the grey skies will need metaphorically lifting again sometime before we can feel the warmth of some spring sunshine. It feels like an impossibly long way off doesn't it? Hang in there kidz....

Happy New Year to you all and here's to a Blues Busting 2012;).

Sxxx