This is it…1st day of 2016!
I’m so excited! I’ve always loved the beginning of a New Year. While some people may think it doesn’t change anything, for me it changes a lot of things. It’s a new beginning, the chance to re-invent myself, to look at things that happened in my life, that made me grow and make some adjustments, work out what worked for me last year and made me happy and what didn’t.

Do you feel that way too?

There is a lot of things I want to achieve this year business wise but I haven’t put them down in writing yet. I’m in the final stage of turning the page on a 10 years adventure with the shop and I’m pleased to say that I’m doing it in the best possible way because someone who has a similar aesthetics to mine is taking over and I know the shop will be in good hands…

However, from a personal level, they are four things I really want to achieve this year…LAUGHING
At the end of last year, I cried a lot. We lost our dad and my mum’s sister (her best friend) in less than two months. Too much saddness, too many tears. There is not a single day I don’t think about my dad but I really want to live and move away from all this sadness.
This year, I want to laugh… a lot and that means, catching up with my girlfriends, have great weekends away in London, Paris…anywhere I can go, watch funny movies, do funny things, anything that will make me burst out laughing.
Luckily I’m surrounded by a lot of amazing women and I kicked toxic people out of my life a long time ago but if you still have these negative people in your life, please kick them out! You don’t need these in your life.

BEING FIT & HEALTHY
Over the past four years, I made changes to my lifestyle that had major positive impact on my well-being and I know now, that being fit, eating clean, working out regularly, eating in moderation and mastering comfort eating (my downfall!) is the key to my happiness. As I mentioned on Instagram, I didn’t want anything for Christmas this year because the things I want are not available in shops. They are down to me and me only and it’s really about building healthy habits and small, manageable changes. There is no magic solution!
I’ve started Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Guide again (tough but short and efficient!) and I also want to take up surfing. I loved how it challenged me physically and emotionally when we went surfing in Cap-Breton last Summer. Realising you’re not as fit as you think is always a slap in the face but riding that first wave was… WOW!BEING IN LOVE AND GRATEFUL
When dad died, we received a huge amount of support from our friends but from you guys too and I read stories, lots of stories that were sadder than ours and brought me to tears. People who had lost a child, who became orphan too young, lost both parents within 10 days of each other, a brother or a sister. Death is terribly sad but it’s also part of life and as my mum rightly put it: “we had been spared until now”. Yes on the scale of things, we have been spared and this is why I am grateful to have a family I love and friends around. I’m not alone. You are not alone. It may feel like that sometimes but there is always someone looking out for you if you let them and I vow to appreciate life more and appreciate also all the things I’ve done.

Life is too precious and when it’s my time to go (hopefully not for a very very long time), I want to leave planet earth knowing that I’ve lived my life to the full and that I have built lots of happy memories for Mila, that I have showed her that Life is an adventure, filled with good times and bad times and that nothing is permanent but death and while we are alive, we should all make the most of it.TRAVELLING
Getting away to Croatia (my blog post on Rovinj is SO long overdue!), Paris, London, exploring the Bay of Arcachon,  skiing in Verbier have all been a breath of fresh air and allowed us to recharge our batteries while spending quality time we people we love so I want more of it this year. Not necessarily travelling the world but getting away more often to see friends and build new, happy memories.
Fifteen years ago, I read the book of Steven Covey: “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” which I highly recommend. I remember him talking about the emotional bank account where everything you do in life, everything people in your life do for you, contributes to your emotional bank account. Each time a friend has been very supportive, they contributed to your emotional account so if one day, things change for them and they start treating badly, you will forgive. You will forgive because they’ve put a lot of positive things into your emotional account, happy memories. A couple of weeks ago, I felt my emotional bank account was totally deflated, so flat that there was no spark for anything but I’m filling it up again. Our last weekend in London was fab, going to Verbier staying with people I didn’t know turned out to be a great experience and did me the world of good so I want to do little trips like this, more often to fill up my emotional account with positive memories. So pack your bags, check out Expedia and go!

How about you!? What things shifted for you these past few months? What do you want to change, to achieve? I would love to hear from you…xoxo

PS: I’ll be sending the first Blog’s Enews this month so if you haven’t signed up yet, please do it here.