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In 2015 I started this blog when I was dealing with treatment for a life threatening form of leukaemia. I kept the blog up for some while – it helped provide me with a focus – and when I was able to go out, I enjoyed taking photos and sharing them.

As life returned to some form of normality – I had survived! (needing checks every six months) – my blog writing slipped. I had a couple of attempts to rekindle it but somehow life got in the way. Yet when I wrote my first book “Life Happens, Live Happy” (available on Amazon – author Kay Underdown), I fully realised how both writing and blogging had helped me through some very challenging times.

When I eventually graduated from University in 2017 with my degree in Social Sciences, having had a whole year out due to my illness, the idea for Life Story Writing was born. Workshops and courses using my own unique approach combining coaching, creativity and sense of belonging.

Following graduation I had to negotiate some difficult, and unexpected, life paths. the outcome is living in the most wonderful area by the sea, one of my dreams that I had long wanted to achieve but never before had the guts to see it through.

There followed a period when I half-heartedly worked towards working for myself as a coach and running workshops but somehow the time wasn’t right. Life was good. I still felt as if I was on holiday whenever I had the time to wander but I lacked something and I just didn’t know what that something was. So I returned to University to start a Masters degree in Methods of Social Research and during this time I had a period of exploration and fine-tuned my direction. It was the Life Story Writing workshops I wanted to focus on. I had an inner conviction that they could really make a difference to people’s wellbeing, and could help increase happiness and sense of belonging.

After a few initial workshops on happiness and empowerment and life story writing, I started running a longer course for a local charity aimed at people aged 50+. That course has led to something very special to me – a small life story writing group. One of the outcomes from this will be my next book – “Writing back to Happiness” Life Story Writing the Waves and Pebbles Way. I started handwriting this book just after Christmas with a lovely new fountain pen, part of a set gifted to me by my group.

It is during these meetings that I have realised how much I really enjoyed blogging, and not really understood why I stopped doing something I loved so much. Anyway, here I am, back again!

I am excited for 2020. It somehow feels that it is a year of the unexpected but that it will be good, providing new adventures with opportunities to explore all that life has to offer and doing it in my own way.

I truly wish anyone reading this the very best for 2020 and the coming new decade. May you give yourself the gift of time to explore what it is you really want to do with your life – whether that’s carrying on doing the things that you love or allowing yourself to explore new avenues based on your own life values and future dreams.

Watch this space as I continue “Writing back to Happiness”. My focus for my Waves and Pebbles blog continues to be random stories about life, creativity and memories – with the addition of nature – which are all reflected in my Life Story Writing workshops and groups.

I live in Broadstairs, on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, England. We are blessed with beautiful bays, sandy beaches and amazing skies. In 2020 I will be running short courses at various venues, usually hotels and cafes where you can relax and enjoy a social occasion and do some life story writing back to happiness along the way. I am also exploring the possibility of offering online groups so if you might be interested in this, please let me know.

I hope you have all enjoyed the festive season and are looking forward to what the New Year 2020 and the next decade will bring. I’d love to hear your life stories and what your hopes and dreams are for the future.

Kay xx

Please feel free to comment here or visit my website http://www.kayunderdown.com. You will also find my page on Facebook @empoweringyoubeyondyourdreams (Kay Underdown, Happiness & Empowerment Coach). Like my blog, this has not been kept up to date and I am looking at developing my social media presence specifically aimed at Life Story Writing. I’d love to hear your own experiences of writing … or perhaps the reasons why you don’t write … I also encourage people to draw their stories if they don’t want to write or to do storyboards, a bit of both!

I know I need to eat healthier. It’s not that I don’t eat reasonably healthily, as I think I do. But it is what the ‘reasonably’ stands for. Some days it’s chocolate, including keep returning to that delicious block of Belgian chocolate gateaux that I thought was such a bargain as I can slice it straight from the freezer and no longer wait for it to defrost. Other days it’s butter, too many things throughout the day that just wouldn’t be the same without it: hot buttered toast, mushrooms cooked in butter, cauliflower cheese with a rich sauce. Then recently I bought a second hand Kenwood food mixer and have been making my own bread and baking cakes. How do people who bake all the time manage to keep trim? And going out socialising, eating and drinking in restaurants and cafes. Yesterday I was offered dessert (after a fairly healthy and very filling jacket potato with cheese and salad). Usually I decline but I was tempted by their homemade Raspberry Pavlova. When it arrived the raspberries were sitting on a thick blanket of fresh cream. It was delicious but even I realised it was a bit over the top.

When I was first diagnosed with leukaemia in January this year I was in hospital for three months and lost about a stone and a half (I never can visualise my metric weight). I must admit I was glad that I had some weight to lose as I eventually couldn’t eat and had to have nutrition intravenously. The medical staff were concerned that I got my appetite back and ate things that would build me up. So when I could eat, it wasn’t particularly what I would call healthy – it was a bit of a mix. Which is probably where I am at now. I do believe that as long as the healthy and unhealthy is properly balanced then it is not a problem. But what is that balance? Balance is probably the wrong word as it definitely should not be 50:50. What do you think?

When I was in my early twenties I was forever trying to lose weight, trying different diets with my friends then putting the weight back on. Then I stumbled across something that worked for me, losing over two stone and keeping it off for many years. I still recall that I had a set menu every day, it became a routine. I had cereal for breakfast, crispbreads with apple sauce (yes, sounds strange, but I discovered it and it worked for me) then a chicken salad in the evening. I also walked to and from work, a good half hour each way. The thing was I didn’t have to think about what I was going to eat. I knew. Once I got used to it, I stopped being obsessed with thinking about food. Have you found something that has worked for you?

I know what I need to do. I need to plan what I am going to eat, make a shopping list and stick to it. And how difficult is that? Simple. Then why is it so hard to do? Why do I seem to have such a block when it comes to planning my diet? I have come across some blogs on here which focus on healthy eating, including people who have been affected by cancer and discuss the best types of food to eat. The problem is there is so much information out there and it’s knowing the best places to look. Have you found a really good blog or website? Is there a book you would recommend?

I should have the motivation. I have good reason to want to eat healthily but somehow that isn’t always enough to do what’s needed. There must be other people out there who are struggling like I am, or who have moved on and now living a healthy life. I am therefore setting up a page which people can visit and share their own experiences, what has helped them overcome blocks to healthy eating, what healthy eating means to them in practice, what the risks are – such as what has stopped them following a healthy diet, what has got in the way. Things such as stress, relationship break-ups, long working hours, cooking for family? I’d love to hear from bloggers all over the world.

Please visit my new Forum https://wavesandpebbles.wordpress.com/healthy-eating-forum/ and let me know what you think of this idea. I hope it will bring people together to discuss their issues related to healthy eating. You may have noticed I don’t talk about losing weight. I do need to lose weight but I think that once I am eating a healthier diet, my weight will gradually reduce which is the best way of keeping it off.

I look forward to hearing about your own experiences and am hoping that by doing this, it will help me, and others out there in the blogging world, live a healthier life.

Happy blogging.

Kay