Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

This is our old goldfish bowl.  We have put sand and shells from our favorite beaches into it to remember holidays gone by.  This time last year we came up with the idea of writing, on little slips of paper, the things that we had done that had made us feel good.  We then placed them in the bowl with our name, and the date we wrote the note.  We started this off well, but as the year passed, and we got busy, we kind of forgot about doing this.  Anyway, today we took it in turns to open the ones we had done and instantly wished we had done more.  We were reminded of the little things we take forgranted like grandpa buying my lass a paintset, which she used to paint us all picture of the seasons.  Also the time we went to the museum and bumped into a friend and then had lemon drizzle cake and custard which made my lass feel 'happy'.  We were also reminded of the time we were lucky enough to get tickets to 'Stargazing Live' where we ate meteor icecream made from liquid nitrogen.  I'd forgotten about that.

We really enjoyed looking at these little slips of paper with our thoughts scribbled onto them.  It made me feel good to do this.  It felt good for mine and my family's wellbeing and for a while we all really connected.

This brings me on to the Five Ways to Wellbeing.  Katherine Brown at Beauty and Utility Arts is running a 365 day wellbeing challenge.   Based on the five ways to wellbeing, Katherine invites us to document the things that make us tick and how that impacts on our work with communities and individuals across Arts, Health and Wellbeing.  You can document this in a blogpost or a facebook entry or tweet via twitter etc.  I think this is a supurb idea and I am going to give it a whirl.  I may not manage all 365 days but I will try my best.  If you would like to join in too, share this post and link to Katherine via twitter using the hashtag #5ways2wellbeing

Well my wellbeing challenge for today was to start writing our notes of 'things we did that made us feel good'.  You can see the first 4 in the bowl in the picture above.  This year I will encourage the whole family to continue doing this. 

Did you do something that helped you to connect or be active or take notice or keep learning or give?
If so, take a picture and tweet here: #5ways2wellbeing