Love your life.

Hi everyone

I just had to share this uplifting post with you. I was in a dark place years ago, not liking my life, or who I was, so I changed it. I changed my circumstances and my environment automatically changed as a result. I changed and developed myself until I was happy with the best version of me that there could be, and I am still evolving now. Nowadays I am happy with who I am, and comfortable in my own skin. I enjoy being quirky and pride myself on not being normal – If I can help it. Even though my life can still be up and down sometimes, I am the happiest I have ever been.

Be true to who you are. If you don’t like who you are, then make changes and become the greatest version of yourself that you were born to be.

If you love this post from Carolyn Hughes, you should enjoy reading “L is for Love Yourself” in my Break through the barriers of redundancy book – Coming soon to Amazon.

Write soon
Sandra

The Hurt Healer

Life – Kathleen Tennant

“A new day: Be open enough to see opportunities. Be wise enough to be grateful. Be courageous enough to be happy.” ~ Steve Maraboli

Life can be tough. And if you’ve ever had one of those days, that turns into one of those weeks it can be to hard embrace the new day and be happy. Everyone has difficult times and whilst it’s essential to your overall well-being to feel your emotions, but it’s also crucial to have some balance. You have to love your life too.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself. ~ Maya Angelou.

I spent many years battling the depression and addiction that defined my existence. Whilst my circumstances had a huge part to play in how I felt, the fundamental issue was that I didn’t know how to enjoy my life because I didn’t…

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How are you celebrating being single on Valentines Day? – 26 ideas

Hi everyone

Happy Valentines Day.

To those of you who are in a relationship and taking time to celebrate today, good. Love and life should be celebrated.

To those of you who are single – What are you doing to celebrate being single today?

I am celebrating by going to Bristol today. I am so excited and blessed to be able to spend a day doing whatever I like, when I like, it is amazing and incredibly empowering. If you are single and not doing anything special today, think of something you love to do and do it. Life is for living and you only live once. Every minute that ticks on a clock, is a minute gone by and can’t be got back. Every day should be a day when you do something that makes you feel good or happy. Here are some ideas of what you can do:

1 Watch a favourite movie
2 Go to the cinema
3 Go out for a meal
4 Buy yourself a food treat
5 Go for a massage
6 Read a book just for fun – A guilty pleasure book but without feeling guilty
7 Buy yourself a cake or favourite food treat
8 Have an indoor picnic
9 Have a party
10 Dance around your home to your favourite music
11 Run a bath and put candles around it and use your favourite bubble bath
12 Buy yourself a box of chocolates
13 Buy yourself some flowers or a plant
14 Buy yourself some new clothes
15 Buy yourself some new music
16 Buy yourself your favourite aftershave or perfume or a new one you haven’t tried before
17 Take yourself out for the day
18 Take a mini break
19 Visit the zoo – You can use waterproof garments
20 Visit an aquarium – I am doing this one today
22 Go go-karting
23 Go to an indoor climbing centre
24 Visit a spa
25 Buy yourself any gift you like
26 Write a list of positive things about yourself, what you love about yourself and what makes you happy – Read it daily from now on, believe it and take action on the things that make you happy

Please feel free to add your own.

I love the feeling of magic and being special and I take it upon myself to create that kind of day for me. There is nothing stopping you from doing the same.

I am currently on the train and have already started my celebration with some no added sugar jungle fruit shapes.

I am going to the aquarium in Bristol, to the cinema there, and for two thai meals. People ask me if I feel strange doing things like that by myself, I say, “absolutely not.”

I enjoy making myself happy and you can do the same.

One guy on my Facebook page commented that I am breaking the rules, I replied – “That is rather negative – There are no rules, other than the ones we set for ourselves” – That is the rule I always live by.

Enjoy your special day.

Write soon
Sandra

Do you see the light?

Hi everyone

It can be very easy to slip into a negative state of mind, when everything seems to be going wrong or not as planned. As one thing builds on top of another, it is extremely important to still see the light.

One of my mottos is – Through the downs comes the ups – So if I am experiencing a lot of downs, it must mean there is a ton of ups coming my way.

I didn’t always used to think so positively, in fact, I used to be very negative and in a depressive state, but when I was made redundant for the second time in my career, in 2009, my life began to change for the better.

It’s been a while since my last blog post. To give you a quick update, after being off sick from my day job for 4 weeks, I went back to work and got an upper respiratory infection and had to be off another week. I went back to work part-time last week and today is my first day working full-time. If I am off sick for a third time this year, before the 5th of December, I am due to be investigated and possibly have a first written warning. I don’t feel that this would be fair, as I have doctor’s notes and was taken to hospital by ambulance whilst in a work meeting, for my first illness. Nevertheless, that’s the situation.

I am still self-employed and so long as I do that, I will always be in work, but I currently do need my day job to pay the bills.

After my illustrator moved the book completion deadline from Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd, and I started back to work on the Tuesday 21st, I had to work throughout the night on Tuesday, to get my book finished for Wednesday morning.

Although in theory I did finish the book and the cover is now complete, I am still working on the index and book content. Whilst the number of pages has to remain the same, I am adding some text and cutting some out to make improvements to it, before uploading it to Amazon. It needs to be the best it can be.

I start teaching again next week, on one of my days off from my day job, and yesterday I had to attend a tutor meeting.

Yesterday, I also got my four furry babies back from their long vacation at my parents. Daisy has recovered well after major surgery to remove a lump that turned out to be a hair follicle cyst that had got badly infected.

At the moment I teach on a self-employed basis but I have recently been offered a contract with the NHS to go on their staff bank, with a new job title and 69p per hour pay rise. I don’t work many hours for them but I still think it’s fantastic. I have to have an informal interview with them before becoming staff. That I can hopefully do soon because I am feeling better than I was. I have had to stop taking one of my tablets because it was giving me bad side effects and even working part-time last week, was a struggle towards the end of the week.

My Grandma was very poorly with an infection before her birthday but is off anti-biotics and thankfully seems to have improved.

I got upset when I visited her and she said to me, “I want you to hold my hand until my name is called.”

Me and my Grandma have a special bond, I can usually understand her when no one else can and when anything does happen to her, I will be devastated. We just ‘get’ each other. Whilst some others, just don’t.

I have faith that there is light at the end of this down tunnel and that I still have lots to look forward to in 2014. The teaching contract is a great achievement for me, as I got a teacher/trainer PTTLS Level 4 qualification in 2012, but I couldn’t get a teaching job back then because I didn’t have enough experience. Consequently, I went back into retail for a 16th year. Ironically, since working in retail, I now have a teching job.

I want to thank you for your patience, time and understanding whilst I finish my Break through the barriers of redundancy book.

I know I haven’t visited many of your blogs recently or left many comments and I thank you for your loyalty and support whilst I finish my book. I have people waiting for it to be published so they can buy it. Therefore, I do need to take more time out to do just that.

I hope if you are experiencing a lot of downs, that you too, can see the light.

Write as soon as I am able to
Sandra

I Have Been Chosen To Meet HM The Queen

Hi everyone

I am very happy and excited to have been chosen to meet Her Majesty the Queen, at St James’s Palace, on Monday 15th of July.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may already know this and a few of you I have mentioned it to in my comments. For the rest of my lovely blog followers, the last update I gave you, was that I had been invited to St James’s Palace in the presence of HM the Queen. I have since had a letter to say I have been chosen to meet HM the Queen.

I have been sent a map of the inside of the Palace and have been told I am group 10, in the Queen Anne Room, to meet the Queen.

There is a red dotted line to indicate which route HM the Queen will take.

There are instructions of what I should say and do when I meet HM the Queen.

I am going there, to celebrate CSV (Community Service Volunteers) 50th anniversary. I do voluntary work as a Health Buddy for CSV and got nominated by my Manager to go.

If someone had told me a few years ago, that in the future I would be meeting HM the Queen at St James’s Palace, I would have laughed and said they had a vivid imagination, or yes, in my dreams. But I did something very important in my life, I changed my attitude and my belief in myself.

When I was made redundant for the second time in my life, in 2009, this was the starting point of that change. I knew from then on, that I was born 100% to write and to help others who have been made redundant to get back into work. It was the start of my creative journey. However, needing money and taking on a succession of temporary jobs, that I wasn’t happy in, took it’s toll, and although I still had these goals in mind, I didn’t do much about them at that time.

By the end of 2009, I got a job as an Assistant Manager of a shop and a couple of months later I was promoted to Shop Manager. The drawback was, most weeks I would be working 60 hours a week instead of my contracted 40.

In October 2010, I got headhunted to work as a Sales Person for more money doing less hours and so I took it. After almost a year of working there, I decided to take a year out from work, to develop myself, my skills, my knowledge and expertise to grow as a person and to finally fulfil my destiny of writing and helping others to get back into work. During that time, I gained all of those and so much more.

Although I am working again in a retail sales job during the day, I have chosen to be in a job as a Sales Person not as a Manager, so my hours are stable and kept to a minimum. The pay is not great but I can focus on building two businesses around my two goals during the evenings and my time off. I now know what action to take to make progress with those two goals. I still have time to do courses and to develop myself as a person. I am continuing on the path to fulfil my dreams and you can do it too. I am living proof that dreams can come true. Never, ever, give up on your own dreams. Believe they are achievable and that anything is possible.

Be blessed with what you have,
fight for what you want,
believe in yourself,
helps others along the way,
take action,
change when you are able to
and never look back.

Keep looking forward because your future is in your hands.
Treat yourself kindly,
look after those who are important in your life,
allow yourself ups and downs,
you are only human.
Above all, love yourself, live life to the max and do what makes you happy over and over again.

Until next time, keep writing and keep smiling.

Write soon
Sandra

My Invitation to St James’s Palace

Hi Everyone

I thought you may be interested to read my latest post from my other blog http://www.beatredundancyblues.wordpress.com – here it is below:

As you probably know http://www.beatredundancyblues.com is your one stop resource for redundancy. As well as the practical aspects of redundancy it also covers health and wellbeing including stress, anxiety and depression.

You may like to know that I do voluntary work as a Health Buddy for CSV (Community Service Volunteers) in association with BBC Radio Devon. We promote health messages, learn from health specialists and encourage the 5 ways to wellbeing:

1. Connect
2. Be Active
3. Take Notice
4. Learn
5. Give

On Wednesday 10th of March, I went to a CSV Health Buddy celebration of music and activities from local refugees who are being looked after by Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support.

I could not help but take notice of the variety of talent amongst the refugees. There were lots of activities including singing, sports, character making out of carrots and foods from their country. I learnt more about them and the foods they eat. People from different backgrounds connected and it was lovely of them to give up their afternoon to entertain and teach us.

At this event I was pleasantly surprised to be presented with a bouquet of flowers and a Certificate of Achievement for helping a distressed and vulnerable person as part of my role as a CSV (Community Service Volunteer) Health Buddy.

I was even more thrilled to be told that I had been chosen to represent the CSV organisation at their 50th anniversary celebration, to be held at St James’s Palace in London on Monday 15th of July 2013. In the presence of Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I feel incredibly honoured to be chosen for.

Redundancy can make you feel deflated and powerless. Take back the control in your life by discovering what you were born to do and make it happen for yourself.

I am living my dreams and I want you to be too.

Stay positive

Sandra Bellamy

Do you love the one you are with?

Hi Everyone

As you know, I like to be a bit quirky. In view of that fact, I am going to London for valentine’s to celebrate being single. I will be there from Wed 13th of February for two nights and I intend to have a blast. My motto is, if you can’t be with the one you love, or you don’t love anyone, then love the one you are with and if you are single, then that means loving yourself. You don’t need anyone else to make you happy, you can do that for yourself by:

1. Affirming how wonderful you are – Write down a minimum of 20 positives about yourself. Try to read this out aloud on a regular basis. Reading five a day is good.
2. Celebrating 5 successes every day. Write down anything from washing up to having an article published.
3. Buying yourself presents – A writer’s journal. A book. Clothes. Perfume/aftershave. CDs. DVDs. Jewellery or whatever you want.
4. Taking yourself out – For a meal. To the theatre. To the cinema.
5. Going on holiday – To wherever you want, whenever you want. You could go to that writer’s retreat you have always wanted to visit.
6. If you are feeling sad then comfort yourself. Give yourself a hug and say out aloud –  “Things will get better and you are coping very well.” Self-talk is a good thing.
7. If anyone gives you a strange look because you are sitting on your own, simply by strong and happy that you are single and give them a smile. If you are confident that being single is right for you then why should anyone else question that.
8. Write a book about the adventures of being a singleton – Watch this space, as there is a possibility that there may be a similar book from me in the future.
9. Find what you were born to do and let no one stand in your way of achieving it. Being single is great because there is no one to hold you back and no one to think about but yourself.
10. Educate yourself. Learning gives us knowledge and increases our sense of worth making us feel good. If you want to do a course, then go for it.
11. Whatever makes you feel fantastic, do it and keep doing it.
12. Praise yourself at every opportunity and if something goes wrong, then treat it as a learning curve to make you stronger. You will love yourself more for it.

In case you wonder what I am doing in London. I am going to see The Bodyguard Musical on Wed, to The Sea Life Aquarium and Mama Mia Musical on Thursday 14th February and to Paradise Wildlife Park on the Friday. I am doing all of these by myself. You can have just as much fun by yourself – Sometimes more because you can do what you love and what makes you love your life without the need for any compromises.

Write soon

Sandra

 

 

Researching what your reader wants to read

Hi Everyone

Today’s post is in response to a comment from hutchagoodlife. To find out how you can research what your reader is wanting to read.

I recently wrote a non-fiction book proposal about redundancy and this involved a lot of research. This is what I did and what I would advise you to do, in order to increase your chances of giving the reader what they want and of getting published.

• Google your subject – paying attention to the top 5 websites and browse them thoroughly
• Use Google Keyword search tools for finding out what words and combinations of words are most searched for
• Search the web in general for your subject matter and note and explore your results
• Read as many books as possible, written by other authors on the subject/genre for which you want to write
• Read books by the publisher/s you are going to submit your work to, to see what’s been done before
• Look through magazines/newspapers, watch TV programmes on your subject
• Devise a market research survey or questionnaire and find a suitable place to action it – then ensure you do take action by noting the results
• Join social networking forums relevant to your subject and find out what everyone is talking about –  A good one for me is LinkedIn
• Go to your local bookstores and ask them for a print out on books that you can buy relevant to your subject, if there is a lot, choose between 5 -10. – Different bookstores will have some different titles that you can potentially buy but there will always be crossovers, which is when you can start to see patterns emerging of the most popular titles that you need to study
• Go to visit your local library and look at books similar to or the same as your subject – Pay attention to how many times each book has been taken out – That way you can compare the most popular titles with the most unpopular ones and analyse why you believe they are better

The amount of time you spend doing each of the above, will most likely be different for a fiction book to a non-fiction book and although all are relevant, you may find that some work better for you than others, depending on what it is that you want to write about.

Whatever you are writing about, ensure you put a different slant on it, to what has been done before. Stay positive, stay focused and believe in your-self.

Good luck.

If you want any more help, please let me know.

Write soon

Sandra

What E-Books would you like to read?

Hi Everyone

My quirkybooks.net website is due to change dramatically during this year.  It will become an online E-Book store.  But what type of books would you like to see?  Please let me know using the above poll.

Thank you.  Write soon.  Sandra

Five Fantastic Reasons To Put A Smile On Your Face!

Hi Everyone

Staying positive in this current economic climate can be extremely difficult, especially when the daily news seems to bring nothing but doom and gloom. However, one simple thing could help you on your way to becoming a more positive person.

Smiling, simple but true!

1. Smiling, puts other people at ease, it lets them know you are approachable.
2. A smile can break the ice with a stranger and lead to new found friendships.
3. Your usual tone of voice is lowered whilst on the telephone, smiling on the telephone allows your tone to become higher and sound more welcoming.
4. Even if you are feeling fed up, depressed and really don’t want to smile, try it, a little bit at a time, you will be surprised how focusing on something else which contradicts your current frame of mind, could actually be a step in helping you to get out of the poor frame of mind you are in.
5. If someone smiles back at you, it will make you happier and increase your confidence.

Keep smiling.

Write soon.

Sandra

quirkybooks.net     beatredundancyblues.wordpress.com