How To Be A Courage Queen Book Review

How to be a Courage Queen written by Rachael Alexander, a behavioural change psychologist, is a helpful guide to help change your life. This strategy-packed guide is available for £29.99. Anyone who reads my blog will know I suffer anxiety. The tiniest things can get me ridiculously worked up. I struggle to say no, feel guilty about small things and tend to feel like everything is my fault and will go wrong simply because it is me.

Courage Queen

Courage Queen

I figured How to be a Courage Queen was worth a read and wondered if it would be helpful. Often I struggle to see the positives in life and focus on the negatives. I’ve been trying over the last few months to make postive changes and help myself. If I want things to improve I have to work on my issues and accept I will have bad days without putting myself down for it.

This book helps you cope positively with what is going on around you. It helps you reflect on your life and take action to think or behave differently. Rachael Alexander suffered anxiety too until she began to learn about herself and it changed her life for the better. This gave Rachael the confidence to share these ideas with others in this book knowing it will benefit the reader.

Contents

This guide is broken down into 3 main sections. Each section is then broken down into manageable sections for you to complete. Each section contains different strategies to help you feel more positive and in control.

The guide begins with a declaration to yourself to commit to a journey of overcoming fears, living a life of courageous action where you can learn to love and be loved. You declare to commit to living a life of love, peace, purple, passion and joy which you sign and date.

A lot of sections ask you questions with boxes provided to fill out your answers. This is great for going back and reviewing your answers and seeing the progress you are making. The guide helps you seek out the answers and solutions to your own problems with simple questions and exercises. Filled with inspirational quotes along the way, you can’t help but feel a little more positive each time.

Others

This book covers issues that many people face and definitely feels like it is a helpful book.

 

Do you think How To Be A Courage Queen could benefit you too?

 

Staying On Top

I’ve shared quite a bit on this blog over the last year and I have to say it’s definitely helped, even when I went through a quiet patch the blog was still here being read and liked & commented on and I’ve started to get back into the swing of things again.

Staying on top

I’ve met some lovely bloggers & I’ve noticed myself interacting more and over the last few weeks that has given me a bit of a boost to be honest. Now I’m full of idea’s again and being a lot more organized jotting down notes and dates so I don’t keep forgetting and feeling empty and useless.

On top of all that reading what other’s have gone through or are going through has really been a big motivation for me on bad day’s, if they can carry on & find ways around their challenges I can too!

Sometimes it makes it easier to push through and get things done and sometimes it reminds you to take that much needed break. All in all I think it’s helped me restore some kind of balance and I feel like I’m staying on top of everything again not just the blog.

During my quiet patch I spent a lot of time thinking I was completely useless. My brother especially has helped me see that although I am limited by what I can do, it doesn’t make me lazy, he reminded me of our ‘mother’ growing up and how much more I do for my girls in comparison.

I spend a lot of time pointing out what I can’t do and all the things going wrong but I’m trying to focus on what I can do and what’s going well instead. Instead of feeling awful for taking a break I use that time to blog or chat or crochet so I’m still doing something rather than feeling sorry for myself.

I know there are still going to be days where it is all too much but hopefully with a bit more positivity those days will become fewer.

I’ve started writing notes in notebooks, on post it’s and on our little whiteboard on the fridge to help me remember things & it is definitely helping me be a bit more organized. Perhaps if I finally start using my planner and calander a little better too I’ll spend less time frustrated & forgetting things & getting more done aswell as actually resting when I need to.

Hopefully I can stay on top of things and keep positive for a while! How do you stay on top? What help’s you stay positive?

Ups And Downs

This past week has been full of ups & downs for me. My pain levels have become unbearable across the week. I’m suffering majorly, in more ways than one because of it.

Ups And Downs

That’s the problem with Chronic pain, it isn’t just the pain the gets to you. Anxiety is a huge problem for me right now, as is depression. I’ve recently discovered the term brain fog. This is what I feel when my pain heightens, I becoming confused, dizzy, anxious, struggling with my short-term memory etc.

When I get like this it’s extremely hard for me to ‘word’ (talk) as I call it. If I am asked something, even if I know what I want to say, it comes out all jumbled up. This leaves both myself and the person im trying to talk to extremely confused. I get frustrated with myself very easily at the moment and have become quite emotional.

Struggling

The hard part for me is being aware of all these symptoms. Knowing it is  my body’s way of saying ‘help, I’m struggling!’ yet not knowing how to change that. I just can’t get my mind and body to cope and ride it out.

After hoovering just a small corner of the girls room, whilst the Mr did all the heavy work, I managed to hurt myself. I did this without realising, I thought I was being careful. I guess a walk into town afterwards tipped me over the edge.

To top it off the following day I managed to trip over our cat, Batgirl and fell into the doorway. I banged my hip on the frame as I fell and landed awkwardly on my right side. I instantly vomited from the pain and ended up passing out. When I woke I was instantly in tears because of the head splitting migraine. I also felt pain all over my body from the fall. 2 & 1/2 day’s later and I am still paying for it, but it is gradually easing again.

Being A Spoonie Mum

I need to learn my limits but I am struggling with this greatly. I’m only 25 & I have 2 daughters that I wish I could get down on the floor with more. Being a bit of a lunatic I hate being unable to do so much. I had a huge meltdown at my Mr this week. I ended up crying that I couldn’t do such a simple task most mothers do weekly. Tidying and sorting through your children’s toys should be something I dread doing! Instead, it’s something I wish I could do more.

I spent a good half an hour telling my Mr all the thing’s I find frustrating. It’s so hard because its stuff I SHOULD be able to do. He sat and listened for a while. Then said this to me, ‘If you saw someone in a wheelchair would you tell them to get up and walk because they should be able to?’. Of course, I said no. He told me that as much as I am finding it hard and frustrating, I need to stop judging myself and beating myself up constantly over what I ‘should’ be able to do. I need to accept that I have limits but there are things I can do and I should be proud of that.

Feeling Better

That calmed me down and got me thinking. Eventually I realised how right he is and decided to sit and finish off Izzy’s blanket since I find it quite a calming hobby. I was in agony but still managed to complete it. Once I had done it I felt so much better, I had achieved something at last! I have made a few mistakes, there are 2 small button holes. They are barely noticeable, so I decided just this once I’d leave it. Afterall, it is my first big project. Luckily the fluffyness hid it well and Izzy had already been demanding I hurry up and hand over her blanket!

image

Over the last few weeks, knitting has helped me stay a bit more focused. It has helped me calm down a lot when I am feeling anxious. I concentrate on the next stitch, instead of sitting with a ton of thoughts racing through my head, over-analysing anything and everything possible.

Knitting that blanket has given me such a boost. Seeing Izzy’s face the following morning, watching her carry it all over the place and snuggling with it on her daddy’s lap, made me feel amazing. Such a boost after such an awful few days.

Becoming More Sociable

Some of you may have noticed I have been a little more active on twitter over the last week or so. I’ve had a few chat’s with some lovely blogger’s which has also cheered me up quite a bit. Some of my posts have been shared quite a lot surprisingly. Also, I have recieved several lovely comments which always seem to come through at a low moment and cheers me up.

As much as I have had some majorly down points this week, I have also had several good ones too. I definitely need to focus more on the good than the bad though.

Christmas

On that note, tomorrow we are putting up our christmas tree. I’m getting excited for that, I’m going to cut out a few cardboard shapes, stars, stockings etc for the girls. They can pretty them up with paint and glitter and hang them around the flat.

I have made a small start on christmas presents and we have almost built up enough amazon credit to buy the girls beds. So this week when we get paid, we can buy their smaller presents. We wont struggle as much to make christmas happen, even after out money screwing up several times throughout the year. I’m so grateful for that right now, I know its your presence not presents that children need, but at the same time I’d like to make sure they have a magical christmas. Focusing on tons of food and lots of decorations to brighten the place up and getting the girls into the christmas spirit!

Feeling Grateful

I am grateful for what I am able to do and know I need to give myself a break every now and then. I need to continue to help myself by busying myself with crafts, blogging and doing what I can with the girls. Im aware that anxiety and depression is part of the vicious cycle of chronic pain and thing’s will get worse a lot sooner, if I allow everything to get to me. So I plan to stay as positive as I can, distract myself as much as possible, judge myself less and try to accept my limits more.

Do you suffer chronic pain, anxiety or depression? How do you cope and stay positive? Drop me a comment or head over to my Get in touch page to find other ways of contacting me if you prefer. Thank you for popping by and reading my post x