So the music is blaring over on Spotify. I'm listening to a public playlist I made to help manage stress and anxiety, feel free to check it out here.
Making a playlist/putting the music on is always ground level zero for me.
I have at this point perfected a method for change management that starts with the music and works super well for me. I am currently in the process of getting this process written into a format that will work well for my awesome readers. I am so grateful to every single one of you for following me over the last decade, and especially the last few years as this country girl has learnt the wonderful ways of city life, living here in London.
If you missed part one of this, then basically, I am from Newport, South Wales, I was in a long-distance relationship with a Londoner for 3 years and it was getting to that point where one of you needs to move. I'm also a Christian and so at the time, I wanted to be sure it was God's will to move to London, that I could be useful to His purposes, not just moving for a guy or even my own happiness.
I do after all believe that chasing fulfilment is far more worthwhile than chasing happiness. So, I laid an extremely obscure fleece before God and He met it so I had to keep my part of the bargain and actually move to London.
Part one covers what and how that happened.
Today though, I need to record where I am 5 years on because it really has a big impact on the new direction of this blog, and indeed all 3 my blogs for that matter.
This is a personal post, I doubt that many people will actually read this and well I believe in being extremely careful about what you put online, sometimes you need to throw caution to the eastern wind and just be unapologetically authentic.
Today is one of those days.
Why?
Well, I have recently just got back from moving the last of my belongings out of my parents' house over in Wales. I am now in the position where London is my home and I need to do whatever it takes to make it work here. I have lived in London for as I said, almost 5 years now, and before that, I was back and forth for 3 years because of my LDR.
During that time, I have visited my old stomping ground very little, but as I said, I have recently and it turned into what seemed to be a closure trip.
Sure I know I will visit my family and friends over in my home town once in a while, but it doesn't feel like home to me anymore.
London does.
I have written several posts over the last few months about London life, and since I turned 30 (yes I know I don't look it but the birthday celebration art is on Insta so I am not going to hide my age) I feel differently about the kind of content I want to write.
When I was younger, I was very happy to be brutally honest about things in my life as a way to explain how to overcome certain things, especially surrounding mental health. My viewpoint was, if my story is useful to the cause of reaching people for Jesus Christ then I didn't care how damaging it was to me. I would tell you literally anything if I thought it could help you see the light of Christ.
These days I am not so open. This is because I have learnt the art of choice. By this I mean, I have learnt how to choose the details that are just open and authentic enough to get my point across, without spilling my heart out, and I have learnt to let people make their own choices about pretty much everything.
You will never catch me forcing my faith or views on you. I may stand for mine and be extremely comfortable with that, but that doesn't mean I have the right to tell you what to think.
I have learnt that life is not all black and white. There are many shades of blue in between every layer of grey, and nothing can shift a person's worldview unless they choose to do the work to change it.
Wisdom is far more valuable than knowledge and you can't fit a square into a triangle, so it's far kinder to allow people to just be who they say they are and focus on your own life.
With all of this in mind, I have been thinking a lot lately about how I want to proceed in the coming months and years with my writings.
I started out with a genuine desire to help people and to help make this world a better place. I haven't lost sight of that.
I used to do it by sharing personal development type posts that focus heavily on mental health and a term I like to call simple temple living ( I am going to redefine this next post)
Again, I haven't lost sight of that.
One new thing has sort of crept in over the past few years, and I need to show my hand now because I have been playing these cards extremely close to the chest.
Before and indeed over the last 5 years, a lot of well-meaning people have given me advice about navigating life in London. I am super grateful because a lot of it has been super useful. There are however 3 things that I was advised not to do, that I have decided to do with my blog moving forward because of it right for me, I have thought about it and decided this based on what I genuinely believe is best for my readers.
I was advised to not talk about my faith in London.
I was advised to not talk about mental health in London.
I was advised to hide my story, where I come from and the fact that I have survived trauma and live with chronic pain.
I know the people who advised these things were well-meaning and want what is best for me. I am grateful but respectfully...my answer is no.
I won't hide.
I will be respectful and I will keep healthy boundaries in place, but I feel like I am in a unique position, because I have learnt to handle all of the above in London and I am a woman on a mission to be a beacon of light, hope and joy wherever I go, even when that requires silence.
As an outsider, I can see the thing that the thing most people in London need most is serenity to handle all the stresses that come with living in the fast lane.
As a now local I can see that joy really can be our strength and not everyone understands what joy even is.
When most people think about joy they may think of happy emotion, they mean even think about Marie Kondos amazing books Spark Joy and the life-changing magic of tidying up, but this is such a superficial view of what joy actually is.
As I said, I come from the country, but I have also got the sea in my blood, and I think just as deeply as the great blue blanket. That is why I have a side project called Myrrhmaids Treasure Box, coming soon.
I don't think any highly of myself than I ought, but I am for the most part, a confident woman. I know that surrender is vital for success and I have surrendered to the blueprint.
This all leads me to announce the new direction of Daisy Change is to reveal what Joy really is, help people from all walks of life learn the art of finding serenity even in the midst of stress, trauma and chaos and finally to help country folk like myself, learn to navigate life in London.
I believe in leading my example so, in order to do this, I have decided this year to run a spin-off project blog all about anxiety over the holidays and how to navigate Christmas with grace, joy and practise tips to light up your festive season even if things are really tough right now.
I am going to be drawing from my background in business and marketing to bring you some savvy savings tips and help you find ways to make your Christmas special this year.
We are going to do this Hayley Esther style AKA outside of the Christmas box.
I have playlists, fashion sets, gift guides, memes, crafts and activities for you to check out because it all goes into what it takes to keep calm over the holidays and have a cracking Christmas.
I also won't be doing this alone, I have been putting the word out to find the very best bloggers, craftspeople and artists to add to my resource list/'collab with because sharing is caring right?
Then after Christmas, I will be implanting this method into this main Daisy Change blog, and relaunching the savvy artist's guide to business.
Daisy Change has always been about helping savvy artists make the most of life, but now we are branching out to help you with your business as well.
Oh, and of course Lambi and her friends will be along for the ride.
I do believe exciting times are ahead and given my past it's about damn time!!
That's about it, for now, guys, I have to get to work on all of the above so I will leave it there today.
Feel free to follow and/or contact me if you want in.
I would love to have you along for the ride!
Take it easy and as always,
