October: A month in review

It’s odd to face the first day of this new month, it feels like years have passed since the start of October. I read a blog recently that said that in order to live healthier, happier lives, we should learn to reward ourselves, something that I personally find difficult to do. But for some reason, when the start of this new month rolled around, I felt the need to stop and take stock and also to perhaps acknowledge the things I’ve accomplished in the last month. So here goes, this was my October (this is where you hear the drum roll and start the victory dance).

On writing

October was a good month for Existential Musings of a Mad Woman, not only because I pushed myself to write more but also because of all the support I’ve gotten in this month. I got to read some amazing blogs and to connect with even more amazing people, in my book if nothing else, that is a huge win! And of course, when I say good, please don’t read dollar signs here, I mean it was good to write and good to connect with other bloggers across the world. All the benefits I’ve reaps from this in October were purely of the non-monetary kind! I’ve written 12 blogs in October and for the first time ever, I can say that traffic to my blog was in the thousands (usually it’s single digits but I believe that if my dogs could visit my site they would!)

On health and wellbeing

I’ve never really been one to step on the scale and I actually hate using it as a proxy for my body image, but after a particularly slovenly couple of months I decided at the beginning of October to pay the dreaded number guessing game. No surprises when I realised that I actually needed to get myself back on track and start making a conscious effort to get back to some semblance of a healthy lifestyle. It’s been two 5kms, 20 gym visits, many good days (and probably and equal number of bad days) later and I’m definitely a healthier (and slightly lighter) version of my former self. What I guess would be the best part of this entire thing is that I realised that I’m not actually working towards a fixed goal, I don’t want to lose 2kgs by the end of the month, I just want to look and feel healthy and if that is not a win, then I have no idea what is!

On reading

My Goodreads tally puts me at seven books this month and even though I’ve left this for later in the post, perhaps this is my greatest achievement, to actually get back to something that I truly love and to allow myself the opportunity to get lost in the world that books create. I’ve longed for the days of my youth where I could spend endless hours absorbed in a book and getting to read this voraciously again has certainly rekindled those memories (albeit with added commitments and stress but hey we all have to grow up sometime).

On buying a house

I suppose there is no real way to describe the feeling of being given the keys to your new house, it is feeling of equal part joy and apprehension. I remember the first time I stood in our new house all by myself, apart from the panic, I was excited and impatient to begin this new journey. In the short time between being handed keys and starting the renovation work on the new house, I guess I fell in love with the place (maybe it had something to do with seeing the dogs frolic in the yard that did the trick). Sadly, the house is now a construction zone which means I’m in line for greater stress before we can move in but maybe I can list “Surviving the renovations” as an achievement for November?

On to November

It is partially my fear of success that makes me feel like I shouldn’t be making any concrete plans for November, but I’m all too eager to quash that fear and replace it with something more exciting -hopeless optimism! And it is exactly this hopeless optimism that has allowed me to join in on National Novel Writing Month. So, this is more than my goal, this is perhaps an ardent hope for myself, it is the hope that November shall be the month that I finally write the novel I’m been dreaming of!

I would love to hear from you, what successes did you celebrate in October and what are your ardent hopes for November?