HELLO AGAIN. NEW WEBSITE. NEW(ER) BLOG.

New website and new blog post! In 2015 I started a blog that I loved writing. But I haven’t written in it for a while, almost a year now.

Last spring and summer were tough. Overwhelming and overpowering. Too much to handle. So much that it became a mess of depression, anxiety and thoughts I shudder at now. I hit a low point, hopefully and likely the lowest point in my life. Because I cannot imagine going any lower than that and coming back from it.

But somehow I managed. I came to Finland and decided to stay. It felt safe and at least a bit familiar. It was small and slow enough to handle. It had friends and a network. It had a culture of fitness, health and the outdoors that are the things that make me the happiest. And it was summer, a happy time of year.

Slowly I started to rebuild myself.

• With the help of family and friends. I love you and thank you for having the energy and love to keep going when I didn’t think I could.

• With doing things I love. Running and being as active as I could in the circumstances. Being outdoors. Seeing friends.

• With trying to change my ways of thinking that had become negative and overpowering. Through mindfulness, meditation, consciously challenging my thoughts, and some new science.

I won’t lie, there have still been a lot of old issues and new setbacks. But they have felt a bit more manageable. The thing about going through something tough – it puts things into perspective. Things that might have felt terrible before, you realise actually aren’t such a big deal and just a minor annoyance, and something you won’t actually remember a week let alone a year later.

I have learnt a lot from last year. I was excited to start a fresh new year in 2017. It didn’t go according to plan and came with new setbacks. But I keep going. And I am still better than last year. And will keep getting better.

There’ll be a lot on this blog about my realisations. Also about all things running, health and happiness related. First some from my previous blog. Then lots of new stuff. So keep coming back to check :) Or follow me on social media for updates!