When you are in the thick of battle...

It's hard to keep your head up when life starts chucking curve balls, especially if you've been struggling for a while. There are some things that will help to lessen the load a little and give you just a little more room to breathe.

1. Meditate
Hippy? Airy fairy? Bit too fluffy bunny-ish perhaps? Not at all....there is a body-chemical reason as to why it really works. In the top of your nasal passages, there is a gland that releases serontonin (the body's natural calming chemical) when air passes over it. The most important factor, while you meditate - is calm steady breathing - in through your nose and out through your mouth. You are literally treating yourself to a free serotonin buzz every time you meditate. Perhaps you think you don't have time? Most mothers feel that way but if you think about it - there is that little bit of time first thing in the morning or last thing at night when you can sit for five minutes and calm your mind. And five minutes is all you need. Try it - even Roseanne Barr does it now!

2. Keep a Smile Diary.
When you're swimming through mud every day, it's very hard to remember what makes you happy. And there are many things when you think hard enough about it. Take a few minutes to count off 10 things that make you happy right now. At first - it can feel almost insurmountable but I guarantee....you will manage it. Get a pretty little book and keep it by your bed. Sit down for five minutes at the end of the day and take a physical note of the things that made you feel good. You'll find (in no time at all) that you'll start taking note of them more when they occur rather than almost missing them in the din of what's going on in your head at the moment.

3. Understand...
...that what other people say or do does not have to define us. Know that we matter - more than we realise in many ways. That we can choose to pay attention to the beautiful things in life or the crap - I know what I'd much rather pay attention to. Understand that everything that lives and breathes is unique to the universe. Everything that lives and breathes has an important place at the very centre of its own personal spiritual universe, regardless of the vessel. And everything that lives and breathes was chosen by the Divine to share all that they have learnt with everything else forever more. There is no exception to that rule. And nothing ever changes it. No matter what anybody does to you - no matter what is said to you - nothing changes it. It's more constant than taxes.