Tag: new year

Back to Reality with Urban Retreat

It got to the point with my back, neck and shoulders that every single day I had a tension headache that rooted from one of these three areas, the tension was round the back of my head at the base of my skull, and would actually be relieved from pressing on my spine, my ribcage, my shoulder blades and my neck and back muscles. Being as busy as I am daily, I tended to ignore it and take paracetamol (which didn’t help) until I felt a pain early December 2018 that felt like I had pulled or strained a muscle, and it was painful to even take a deep breath in, my flexibility was affected as I could no longer twist round to the right and it was just damn sore every single day; driving, walking, sitting, breathing. Not good.

I think as humans what we forget a lot is self-care. When was the last time you really sat down and said ‘I’m going to book myself a massage because I a) have a sore back, b) am stressed or c) because I bloody well deserve some relaxation after how hard I work weekly!!? Probably the answer is that you can’t actually remember. You are a body, your body is the only one you have and its the most amazing and powerful instrument and tool you will ever own. Why not take care of it? Think of it this way. You play an instrument, you drive a car, you own a house – do you let these things suffer as a result of not caring for them? If your instrument breaks, you’ll get it repaired, if your car has a flat tyre, you replace it, if your house has a leak, you get someone onto that as soon as possible! So why do we neglect what really should be our main focus, our bodies? I decided that for me, it was time to get back to reality and get my back muscles back on track to start the year off with a more positive outlook on self-care, and I knew exactly the place to go.

My New Year’s Resolutions 2018

Some of us love them, some of us hate them. It’s New Year’s resolutions! Personally I see a new year as a fresh, clean slate. A chance to start things over, try new things and set new goals. I love to create a list of resolutions at the start of every new year, but admittedly, a few weeks down the line they either get forgotten about or life simply gets in the way, they don’t get attention and I am left feeling unaccomplished. That’s probably part of the reason why people don’t like them, because of the sense of  disappointment when they aren’t fulfilled. This year, I decided to start my resolutions on the second week in January because let’s face it, the first week is finishing off leftovers from the festive period, being hungover, trying to get into a routine and wearing something with a waistband – and feeling it a little tighter than you remember – for the first time in a fortnight.

I’ve also decided to make my resolutions this year a little easier to accomplish, and instead of setting a huge goal (for example ‘get toned and get my ideal body like the ones I see on Instagram (even though I’m not the same height or shape as them)’, I would make it ‘start lifting weights again’. Real goals, that you can achieve. I have a mixture of small ones, and bigger ones, but I think over 2018 they will be easy to accomplish, because this year they are a little more realistic and less vague.