Be your own cheerleader... and on counting your blessings

I had a whole crazy car experience at the weekend and whilst there were definitely moments of challenge, and definitely times I certainly didn't feel strong, during most of it all I felt incredibly lucky, calm and content that it would all work out OK.

One of the things I reflected on was a recent trip with my daughter. Travelling back from a day out in Scarborough with a migraine didn't make driving the greatest fun ever. My daughter sat at the side of me and encouraged me onwards... 'come on mum, you can do it', 'you've got this', 'I'm on Team Em', and the like. I chatted to my mum about it after the event and she reminded me of a trip we'd made to Scotland, when the sky felt to dump the entire snow content of some big old clouds on the section of road we were on. Leaving the motorway onto an exit road saw us seeing a lorry pulled over (skidded to the side of the road), and Isla suggesting we queue behind that. 'We don't want to be there, they're stuck, we need to keep going, but this isn't nice to drive in, I'm a bit scared'. Perhaps too much honesty but sometimes words come out before I've thought about it. Damn that human-ness!!

'Mum, you're the best driver I know, if anyone can do it you can...' and we did it. Of course we did. I'm the best driver she knows.

So this time, after a late night rescue the night before, after walking home in the dark at 1am (couldn't get a taxi for love nor money after my broken car got towed and I couldn't get close to where I was staying on the truck), I again called the AA to try and get home. They managed to fix the car, which was a relief, albeit on my 4 hours of sleep, with a 4-5 hour trip ahead of me, I wasn't overjoyed about starting out at 6pm last night.

But, alongside, I was also so conscious of how much I'd been supported over the time. How tiny things had happened that had meant it was all so much better than it could have been. How I was lucky, in a crazy sort of way, and how many people had been rooting for me during my adventure. I reflected on that time and again this morning, to the point I made a list. There were 30 things in 36 hours I was incredibly grateful for, before starting on the things that we often take for granted, clean water, air, not living in a conflict zone.

One thing I heard during my 5 hour - with stops and slower driving as I was so tired - trip back last night, was my daughter's voice. 'You can do this', 'I'm on Team Em' etc. It may sound silly but it got me thinking. How often we're not like that. How often we berate ourselves for 'silly mistakes', for things gone wrong. We are so harsh on ourselves, so very often, and perhaps, just perhaps, things might be different if we were gentler, kinder, more encouraging.

What if we went so far as to experiment with how we'd speak if we loved ourselves?

Love to know what you think,

Em x

PS this was such a sight for sore eyes at 11pm last night. Home!!