Can you believe it is October?! Utter madness. We are now entering my favourite season of them all: Autumn. Happy days indeed.
I am back at University and am already stuck in to second year.
Another milestone worth mentioning is that on 19th September this blog turned two years old! I posted about it on facebook so some of you will have already seen but for the rest of you: thank you so much for reading, encouraging and supporting this blog! I said I would keep writing this until I stopped enjoying it and it is thanks to you that I am still LOVING it. You may also notice that the blog has now had a facelift... this is with huge thanks to my girl Beth (follow her on Instagram @faulknerbeth) who designed the new header. I hope you like it!
Right now let's get down to bizniz...
I wanted to talk about a shift in mindset that I have had recently.
The process started the week before I came back to Uni when I went for a night away with some of the other students from St Peter's in Brighton. At the start of our time together we were asked to go round and each say what our 'hope' for the coming year was. When it was my turn I said 'my hope is to not let fear get in the way of me taking new opportunities'. This was my hope because I felt that in my first year I said no to a lot of things because it all just felt so overwhelming. Mostly I think this was okay because you can't do everything! But also I feel there were missed opportunities that actually would have been good for me.
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| the view from the manor house we stayed in on the night away |
So I came back to Uni and started the term. The first week was a bit of a struggle as I always find it hard to readjust. At the end of the week two opportunities came my way... one for the Saturday and one for the Sunday. Both times my automatic reaction was 'I'm going to have to say no, I can't do this. It's too much'. I made excuses in my mind about why I couldn't/shouldn't and tried to strategise ways to make the situations easier for me. In the past I would have let myself get away with this and either would have said no or would have said yes but spent the whole time stressing about it.
This time was different. This time I called myself out on it. I thought it's all very well 'hoping that I won't let fear get in the way of me taking up opportunities' but I actually need to do something about it too! So I just said yes. I said yes to both opportunities and did my best to just let things happen; to not try and plan everything or second guess everything. And, guess what, it was all a-okay! I would have totally missed out had I said no and neither situation was as big of a deal as I had made them out to be in my head.
I think I often feel I need to protect myself due to my years of being ill... I got used to having to say no to everything because there was so much that I couldn't do and always held a fear of 'over doing it' and causing my body to break down even more than it already had. Now that I'm well I need to remind myself that I don't have to think like that anymore. It's both exciting and terrifying!
As with everything in life, this is about balance. Of course you can't say yes to everything because you do need to look after yourself and try to avoid burning out but equally if - like me - you know that sometimes your fears around taking new opportunities may not be worth saying no for then try just saying yes! And then deal with what happens when it happens rather than trying to work everything out beforehand. At the end of the day you can not protect yourself from everything and can't go through life avoiding things. It ain't the way Jesus wants us to live...
"I have come so that you may have life, and life in all its fullness." - John 10v10And on that note, I'm going to leave it there! This post was just a quick reflection. Please do let me know if you have any 'yes' moments over the next few weeks - challenge yourself to say yes to a new opportunity every month and see how it goes. You may discover something amazing.
As always, thank you for reading! Don't forget you can follow the blog by clicking the blue button in the top left corner (if you can't see it, you need to click 'view web version' below!)
Love,
Katie xxx
