I got out of bed on Monday morning feeling, well, less than optimistic about, well, pretty much everything. A shroud of negativity, which being honest isn’t that in-keeping with my personality, had descended upon me. You know the feeling? The type that can come out of the blue but can colour pretty much everything in your life. It has you questioning what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and what you didn’t do and why not! A perfectly great big knot of emotion and doubt. Yes! It was the start of a sparklingly negative cycle! But one of the great things about being a midlife woman is, this wasn’t my first rodeo. And I’m no longer prepared to just go with this. When I do, my productivity grinds to a halt and my anxiety and stress levels reach gold tier status.

Now, I obviously asked myself why I was feeling like this. My enquiries didn’t last that long. My hormonal cycle had peaked, I’m doing something that’s still new-ish by blogging and the social media element’s pushing me out of my comfort zone, oh and there’s a full moon on Friday. Why, you may ask, does the moon have anything to do with this? While I’m not in any way expert on lunar cycles and the impact that they have on us humans, trust me, they impact us all. You included. Just whether you’re aware of it or not is a different matter.  Google it, or just think about how you’ve been feeling this week too! Completely crazy, but oddly valid.

Whilst I resolved pretty much straight away that I wouldn’t let this negativity get on top of me, that I was going to smash this cycle to smithereens, there were two stumbling blocks. Firstly, I am human and secondly, my hormones can reduce my reactivity and willingness to follow through on my intentions. I did wallow in it a little on Monday and Tuesday. But it was a mistake. Once the negativity starts, it can begin to feel like the Universe is against you. Because things just happen. Random things that we almost draw into our lives by perpetuating these negative thoughts. I can be a little superstitious and the number of lone magpies that crossed my path was incredible (one for sorrow, two for joy for the non-superstitious), as was the number of random and being totally honest, rubbish things that subsequently happened. This of course, is entirely relative. There are millions of people facing truly gruelling challenges every minute of every day. I’m so entirely grateful not to be one of them. But none the less this negative spiral was pushing for momentum and was starting to affect me.

But one super simple thing I read gave me everything I needed to kick it into touch and this is one for you to keep in your back pocket too. How you feel today is not how you need to feel at the end of this week. Such wise and simple words. This made getting back to my emotional equilibrium seem effortlessly achievable. Because this was simply an acknowledgement that this is part of life, and we all sometimes just feel like this. But it only needs to be TEMPORARY!

However, experience has also taught me that this change in perspective and fortune doesn’t just happen. You need to dig a little bit deeper and break the cycle by throwing yourself behind your quest for positivity. It involves rolling with the punches and not over analysing the unfortunate things that may happen. They’re almost certainly a little deal, and not a big deal, when looked at in insolation. They are also life being, well, life! Still annoying and inconvenient, but we can live with that. You just need a little win to set the wheels in motion. Once you get that, you’re on your way. You may have to fight for it, but you will get it.  And the great thing midlfe has taught me is, these are moments for growth through resilience and not moments for self-destruction! Every cloud truly has a silver lining.  One of my wins was writing this post, which on Monday felt like Mission Impossible. Turns out nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it!