I‘m back 
Not that I ever mentioned I was going anywhere but I was rather in need of a break. So I took one. That’s the beauty of this job, that you can tweak your timetable to suit your life, although manners should possibly have dictated that I might have mentioned it first…
If I could take a moment away from the topic of stamping (to add to the many other moments I have taken up until now!) I want to expand a little bit on the process of simplifying that I mentioned in my previous post. I made a brief reference to needing to simplify on a number of levels and this was based on feeling that I was dropping my bundle a little…or a lot. I was overcome pretty much constantly by feelings of being overwhelmed that I found difficult to shake and that, up until that point in time I figured were just “the way I operated”.
Following the overwhelmed-ness would be the “snap out of it!” self talk where I would mentally beat myself up for not being able to cope with my lot – a lot that is no more, and in fact probably much less than, the lot of many others. I just seemed to have lost my coping mechanisms somewhere along the line. The tiniest things would turn my world upside down and my way of dealing with it would be to take it out on the people I loved the most 
And the most tiring part was keeping it all together on the outside when I didn’t feel at all “together” on the inside.
Everything sort of dropped into place when I went to see about figuring out what the hell was wrong with my immune system as I spent the entire year catching pretty much whatever was going around – from laryngitis to pneumonia and more than my fair share of doses of the common cold. Considering that I can mostly get through a year with barely a sniffle, it was a bit out of the ordinary to say the least. But what started out as what I thought would be an investigation into my physical self ended up with treatment for an anxiety disorder that I never knew was there. Again, I figured the thoughts and feelings that were so much part of my every day were “just me”. The relief of knowing that it didn’t have to be like that was immediate, and following was a series of sessions that, although hard going at times, have helped ENORMOUSLY in the process of changing how I think and respond to situations.
Phew. If you made it this far, then thanks for listening. Originally I didn’t plan on sharing this whole process here since the very vast majority of you would visit for stamping inspiration rather than amateur psychology. But then I thought that perhaps there are others of you like me. Getting through each day by the seat of your pants and then wondering why you’re so TIRED all the time. So I wanted to share. And encourage And say that if what you have read here sounds like you then maybe you might want to talk to somebody about it.
I also wanted to share some of my favourite resources that I have found recently in case anybody else can find some value in them:
Simple Mom – my new ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE blog. I couldn’t even tell you what it’s about as there is SO much on there and I haven’t even got thr0ugh all the content, but what I have read, I have related to is SO many ways. Go read it. It’s GOOD!
Small Notebook – A lovely blog about living simply. I couldn’t even tell you how I found it but I stumbled across it recently, as these things tend to happen when you most need them to, and now I check in all the time
Change your Thinking (Sarah Edelman PhD)- this one’s a book rather than a blog or website but it delves into the topic of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and is a great resource (thanks for the lend Aunty Mair )
I have still been creating during this whole break, so I have a few things to share. I had a bit of crunching and grinding to do in the background of my blog though, but that is pretty much sorted now (you may have noticed some strange goings on in the past day or so if you popped in!) so I am looking forward to getting some stampin’ inspiration to you soon.
Thanks for listening!
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