Today’s blog will be brief. A 40th birthday celebration awaits and, true to form, I have a long list of things to do before I can relax and enjoy it. Maybe next year, on the eve of my birthday, I’ll be having a massage or be sitting with my feet up but this year I’m running around doing all the preparations, including cycling for 10 minutes with 5 brightly coloured helium birthday balloons attached to my wrist. There were only four when I got to my destination. So one of those balloons is now free, it’s been released into the sky, which is rather fitting for the theme of this short blog.

Since yesterday, I’ve remembered that self acceptance means accepting all of myself, including those crazy thought patterns that sometimes keep me awake at night or drive me to distraction. So I’m going to accept those too, as part of me, and then I’m going to surrender them or at least try to. Challenging the thought patterns when they arrive is a really good discipline but battling against them, trying to wrestle them to the ground, doesn’t seem to be getting me very far. So acceptance and surrender is today’s mantra. I’m going to try to accept them and then give them to God, release them into the sky, send them off into the wind. So maybe we’ll see them up there, floating around with my birthday balloon.

Now back to the party preparations. Goodbye 39, hello 40. I’ve decided 40 is my new favourite number!