How to Survive the Post Festive Blues

Post Festive Blues and Reds

Let me paint a picture: I'm sporting my husbands black wellington boots, it's a whopping 107°F (42°C) outside and I'm armed with talcum powder.

Why?

Ants. An army of the most vicious, biting-bastard ants. When they sink their mandibles into you they cling on for dear life and inject what must be acid into your feet and legs — this results in red marks all over your pins. It's not inspiring to say the least.

Why am I telling you this?

I have nothing else to write about…no, only joking — there is a point.

Since the passing of 2017 and the sudden surprise of 2018, I've been in a bit of a weird space. It feels like I'm not able to move forward and God only knows I can't go back. It's a no-mans-land feeling. It feels like the jolly old festive season flashed by in the blink of an eye (and I was semi-working over the period, so, it really zoomed by fast).

Back to Ant Story

So, I've been sitting on my couch pondering what the hell am I going to be all about in 2018? I'm not talking about new years resolutions or any of that stuff. The only resolution I make is ‘follow your excitement' and I make that every day not once a year.

As I'm sipping my coffee, my husband asks me if I could brave the great outdoors today and water the garden as he is going out. I freeze.

I know what awaits me out there — a barrage of blood-thirsty ants (I'm not over-exaggerating here, honestly, these ants are Satan's spawn!). I finish the last dregs of my java juice and slip into the wellington boots — in the blazing heat — armed with my talcum powder (short-term ant repellent).

I go out there guns blazing — take that! And that! It looks like a snowstorm in the outbacks of the South Africa Karoo desert. I get out the hose-pipe and manage to water the gasping plants.

The Moral or Possibly the Ant-i-Climax?

I did it. It took guts, determination and will. My plants are happy again. My pond is topped up so the birds and amphibians can drink and bathe. I have a sense of accomplishment against all odds (only 1 bite in tow! Not bad). And I have a story to tell, so, not bad for a mornings work.

“One step at a time is all it takes and with every step, you'll feel a little more lighter and encouraged to take more steps.”

As I was raining water down upon my flora, I was considering the ants and my situation (micro/macrocosm stuff). The ants represented the things I don't want to tackle.

With a bit of fore-thought (the boots and talcum powder), I managed to achieve the task and it really wasn't that bad. I actually enjoyed being out there in my garden — even in the heat of the African summer sun.

I've taken this to mean that with a bit of planning, I can start to execute the things I need to do in order to set this new year in motion instead of feeling overwhelmed and impotent. It feels good to have a game plan and to tackle things accordingly.

Since, I have done a clearing of all my e-mails, filed a LOAD of things that were bugging me (getting photo's off my phone and onto my hard-drive for one!) and answered and addressed a ton of messages and loose ends that were on the back-burner since December.

That alone feels good. Read related article: How to Define Your Vision, Goals and Intentions for Empowered Manifestation

Now, I'm venturing into the rest of this month feeling pretty good about things. I've cleared a slate that I intend to cover in all things joyful and creative. It's a start!

If you've been feeling overwhelmed or even underwhelmed about the start of 2018 — perhaps it's time to take a knee and ask yourself what you can do to make your life more exciting, adventurous and joyful. Then take some steps, even if it is a spring-cleaning, to get yourself in alignment with that.

One step at a time is all it takes and with every step, you'll feel a little more lighter and encouraged to take more steps.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

To date, she has published 3 self-help and motivational books and brings out weekly inspirational blogs at her site www.cherieroedirksen.com. Get stuck into finding your passion, purpose and joy by downloading some of those books gratis when you click HERE.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (How to Survive the Post Festive Blues) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen