Sparkling Smile

I have just realised this is the first post I have written where I have incorporated my blog title in a post, that's a sign it has been a good few days.

After my previous post I had some lovely messages collectively saying "keep smiling..." and I decided to take the advice and these past few days things have definitely felt brighter.

I have posted before about smiling being infectious and it is something I truly believe and wish the world over would catch on. So I decided I would take this on as a silent promise to myself, that despite being faced with any adversity this face would simply smile back and hide my mind screaming in turmoil and see what the response is...

I will also add this was a particular challenging time to take this on as firstly I bank with the f***wits also known as Natwest ... and decided to make this the week I throw myself into potty training!!!

But despite going crazy inside and wanting to lock myself in a room to scream for a few minutes smiling through the stress actually made me feel better to cope with the situations that arose in a much more proactive way.

Now by no means am I saying that being falsely cheery and almost smug is the way to handle stress, anxiety and any form of mental illness but I have found that it does help alleviate some symptoms, a bit like hot water bottles do for period pain... doesn't cure it but takes the edge of for a few minutes.

I wanted to share this with everyone because its something anyone can try and pretty much a fail proof way of having ago at something without loosing anything, except of course you work for Natwest and are being shouted at by a hormonal woman because she can not access her account - smiling in this instance may have resulted in the banks defence screens being activated....!!!

Potty training was something I have been dreading and dreading! I had made the idiotic mistake of trying to get her to do it before she was ready, however at the weekend she asked to be grown up like my best friends little girl and in her words "mummy be big girl like ... and no nappy" so I went with it and barring a few little accidents and a rather large poo on a trampoline it is going really well and I am sure this is because I took away all pressure from her and let her go with it in her own time. But in taking the pressure away from Lylha I found almost instantly a large weight had lifted and something I have been fretting about for 6m or so and loosing sleep over has turned out to be less of a challenge than I overly geared myself up for. Sadly that's one of the symptoms I am yet to find a cure for, the anxiety that comes from the fear of the unknown be that a change in a bedtime routine or tackling the potty. And again smiling through this has made me feel so much better and I am sure has added to my tolerance levels as I am a bit of a clean freak when there is a mess on my floor, to my husbands and dogs annoyance, they think I ambarking mad on the cleaning front!

So my reason for this weeks post is simple: Smile and the world will smile at you!


Please comment, I love to interact with my readers be it here or on twitter @laurindaisla and please add any ideas for anything you would like to read... NB: I don't write about Grey silk ties and riding crops.....

 (proof we are smiling :) )