Thoughts on a busy life – getting in touch with the simple things  by Chris Dowrick

I have a busy life, and generally it’s a great life – but I often find myself getting frazzled by having to much to do and too little time to do it. Particularly since my head injury from a cycling accident, which means I get tired much more quickly than I used to.  So it’s really important for me to build things into my day that help me to de-stress.

Here are some of the de-stressing things that work for me these days:

• a few minutes of mindfulness meditation every morning, with the help of the Headspace app on my iphone.
• my after-lunch siesta.
• a 5k Parkrun most Saturdays – I’ve just completed my 50th and have sent off for my red t-shirt!
• watching TV detective programmes of an evening with my wife Sue – we prefer ones we have seen before, so we can predict the ending.
• getting into our lovely warm bed at night, courtesy of our double electric blanket.
• before I go to sleep, remembering three things I’ve been grateful for during the day.

And (the one I still find the hardest) reminding myself that I don’t need to be perfect – that being good enough is, indeed, good enough.