So we have entered a new year. Happy New Year! And may I wish you a prosperous 2011 full of laugher, joy and happiness. I always love new year as even though nothing has changed except for the date it does seem to have a air of rejuvenation and a renewed sense of possibility and optimism. Of course this is a manmade oddity, but I think it is quite wonderful that people all come together with a sense of renewal and revived enthusiasm. It's incredible that a change in date can make people let go of the past years events and look forward with positivity at the possibilities that lay ahead in the coming year. Albeit that this feeling last until about midday on 1st January when people go back to complaining! Lol. Human nature...you've got to laugh!
So here is a brief overview of a few things that have happened in the past few weeks. I will write more in upcoming blogs.
Christmas
So this Christmas I travelled back to Portsmouth. Over the past couple of years I have been away from home for Christmas in London or New York or Las Vegas. But there is something about going back to your childhood home that makes Christmas feel proper. It was wonderful to see family again, and this year I saw nearly all my family all in one day. But it was fantastic! It was great to all be together, having fun. I had a great time playing video games with my cousins whilst the rest of the family joined in for a singalong when we played Band Hero. It was just good, clean, family fun and I wouldn't change it for anything!
New Years
New Years is one of my favorite nights of the year. I get a real feeling of mixed emotions on New Years Eve as we say goodbye to everything that has happened and end the chapter of 2010. But I also get a great feeling of excitement as the countdown begins!
This year Hasinah, Louise and James came to my house and we left 2010 how Hasinah and myself spent most of 2010 - Dancing! We had so much fun playing dancing games. And I never knew just how much stamina I had. After we were battled out James and Louise headed off to the fireworks on the Thames whist me and Hasinah tried to out do our scores. This may not be what most people feel is the most exciting way to celebrate new year but I felt appropriate to dance our way into the new year! The company of great people and doing something you enjoy is the greatest celebration of not only an event but also life itself.
The snow!
I think the snow is possibly the best thing to happen to London since the war! I delighted in a few precious moments where people all came together, which is something exceptionally rare in London. One Saturday Hasinah and myself attended a day full of dance workshops at Sadler's Wells. During the first workshop it started to snow. But the end of the session the snow was curb deep! I couldn't wait to get outside to experience it. I love the crunch of fresh snow underfoot. During a well deserved break, Hasinah, Ben (our choreographer) and myself ventured outside. It was inevitable that Hasinah and I would engage in a snowball fight but what occurred was quite extraordinary. Once we started other passersby join in. Adults and children alike! It was such a great sense of community and fun! Everyone let their inner child out and it was wonderful. It is so rare for people to even smile at each other in London so to see everyone come together to play was magical.
At one point I threw a snowball at Hasinah's head but it went straight over and hit a man on the back of the head. He then turned around and I tutted and said 'children!'. I guess the naughty child inside never stops putting the blame of mischief onto peers!
A few days later I tried to venture out in my car which was covered in about 8 inches of snow. Whilst trying to dust it off a lady and her 2 children came along and asked if they could help remove the snow by having a snowball fight. Needless to say I was well up for that! It was so great to see once again the playfulness in adults that the snow brought out! Afterwards the lady and her children still helped me until my car was completely clear. Again it was such a joy to see the community spirit that the weather brought to London.
Once inside my car I was waiting for the car to warm up and had Michael Jackson blaring out. I didn't realise that it was loud enough to hear outside until a man came up to my window and started dancing in the street. I think it was the best 5 minutes I had had in a long time. I really hope that we Londoners can learn from this and keep it up!
Resolutions
I have never made new years resolutions as it seems almost inevitable that people break them quite quickly. I think putting pressures or boundaries on yourself in most cases ends in failure of some sort, whether it be failing at the task in hand or making yourself miserable whilst trying to achieve said task. In my opinion happiness is the most vital component in life so anything that restricts or disables this, especially if it is self-inflicted, is counterproductive and life limiting. We have one life. Enjoy every moment and never succumb to living a mundane existence. When you are on your deathbed you won't remember all the spreadsheets you filled in, you will remember the experiences you have had. So make sure your life is filled with those moments! There is a big difference between living and simply being alive.
As Abraham Lincoln said
"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
I think it is the saddest thing when people never really find true happiness or enjoyment with life as they get caught up in the struggle for survival or other people's expectations. It is truly liberating to cast off your inhibitions and expectations and live how you want to live. And I should also add that happiness can not be found with financial or material gain. It is something that is found from within. I think this is something we have lost touch with in the West, but this is mainly down to us all being a product of our society and the systems we have been indoctrinated into.
I encourage people to try this year to truly find your personal happiness and see just how much of a difference it makes to your mental well-being. This is the one thing I feel I really achieved in 2010 and I am so much happier for it!
But for the first time this year I have felt like making resolutions. It may be due to the fact that 2010 was quite a year of upheaval and the turning of a new leaf represented by the new year seems like a good place to put a full stop at the end of the uncertain times. But I have not succumb to making resolutions. Instead I have planted a seed in the back of my head that now is the time I should go about making sure I am truly happy and accomplish things that make me feel that way. Hopefully the brainbox will nourish this and I will see this come to fruition!
I had better stop before I start rambling (oh wait I think I already did!). But until next time I bid you much happiness.
Sophie
"Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."
- Groucho Marx
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