I don’t know about you but I always find February a strange month. For the first two weeks, everyone seems to be preoccupied with Valentine’s day and there’s a lot to be heard or read about the topics of love and food. In my opinion, both of those are great topics but, from about 15th February onwards, it stops. All of a sudden Easter eggs appear in shops; the focus shifts from love and good food, to fixating on the day we can legitimately start to overindulge in chocolate! The remainder of February is overlooked and yet, despite the cold (and the rain!), there is so much to enjoy about February…

There are hints of spring, with longer days and even some spring flowers starting to peep through. The birds start to sing and we even have a few warmer days. Personally, I’d rather make the most of this than worry about what size or type of Easter egg to buy people or whether I should make a simnel cake or not… although I probably will make a cake, just not yet.

Thinking about all this, I realised that the one thing that we seem to forget about is time for ourselves. Given the focus for the first part of February, surely giving ourselves some time is an amazing act of self-love…… and is something that I know I’ve totally disregarded in the past.

It’s too easy to get caught up in the hamster-wheel of life, with the multiple demands of work, family, chores etc I also used to feel really selfish if I said I wanted some time for ‘me’. That said, surely any time I can spare can’t be selfish but an act of self-preservation!

It doesn’t matter how you spend the time, it’s about what feels right to you; so you may look at the clouds, or sit with a hot cup of tea, anything is fine. It’s your time.

So, for the next two weeks, I challenge you (as I’m challenging myself) to give yourself some time. You don’t need half an hour or an hour; if you have 5 minutes give that to yourself. If you have 10 minutes that may be better, but it may not be. If all you have is 5 minutes today then give that to yourself…. That will be perfect.

This quote resonated with me this morning: