10 Happy Things..

Since setting my New Years Resolution of being more positive, it started me thinking and researching about positive attitudes and how we often tend to focus on the negatives of life instead of the pleasures.  One of the consistent findings in research was the value of keeping a Gratitude Diary. Researchers have found that people who write down three things they're grateful for every night (or even a few times a week) improve their well-being and lower their risk of depression. So, this is where I have decided to keep my Gratitude Diary in the form of 10 Happy Things from the past week..

1. I headed back Home to the Isle of Man for five days for the first time in a year to see my family and friends. My Mum comes over to stay with me quite often but I hadn't seen my Nana and Grandad, my Brother and my Best Friend since I'd been over last March.

2. Coming from the Isle of Man and living in Thurrock in Essex, there isn't much greenery over here and I miss it, so it was so nice to be able to get out and about in the great outdoors. I walked my Nana's and Grandad's dog Toby quite often whilst I was over.

3. Myself and my Mum headed over to Liverpool for a day trip as she had an appointment to go to and we managed to fit in a bit of shopping and a spot of lunch. We just had to go to Gourmet Burger Kitchen, as it is my favourite restaurant in the whole wide world! 

4. Back in 2014 when I started my Blog, my Mum used to take a lot of my photos, now I have to try and win around my Boyfriend to take them for me! Whilst I was back home it was nice to have her taking my photos again and there were so many locations to choose from!

5. I managed to convince my Brother to join myself, my Mum and his Girlfriend to join us for tea and we went to one of our favourite Italian restaurants for my last night at home. It was so nice for us all to be together as a Family, I miss being able to spend time with them.

6. For my last day at Home, myself, my Mum and my Nana all went out for afternoon tea at a new tea house that had opened up called the Tea Junction. It was lovely inside and the food and tea was amazing, I loved it and will definitely be going again when I'm next over.

7. I returned home for the weekend to spend some time with my Boyfriend. With working in Retail, it's always nice if we get to spend a weekend together on the rare occasion. We stayed in with a takeaway, a film and snuggled up on the couch together in my new pyjamas.

8. We spent Sunday afternoon in Brentwood, which is one of my favourite towns to visit, having a Toby Carvery lunch and a few drinks with friends of ours. There is nothing quite like a nice Strawberry and Lime Rekorderlig, especially coming into Spring!

9. I returned home to this lovely package from Aesop, where I have ordered the Chamomile Concentrate Anti-Blemish Mask and the Control Gel to try and tackle my blemish-prone skin. I'm so excited to start using them and will publish a Blog post soon..

10. I've started thinking and researching into Mindfulness and recently ordered these adult colouring books by Johanna Basford. Awareness of ourselves and the world around us, sometimes called Mindfulness, can improve our mental wellbeing. I will be publishing a blog post soon, going into Mindfulness in more detail soon, so keep an eye out for it..