Happier. Healthier....

Back in July I confessed to you all the real reason as to why I needed to leave the UK and my home, and travel to a new destination of which I chose New Zealand. I had been diagnosed with suffering from depression back at the start of 2014 and had come to the point where I could no longer take anymore. No more stress, no more heartache and no more chaos. I had had enough and simply needed to get away.

I have been living and working in New Zealand for two months already and it's scary to think how quick my time out here is going. I have loved every moment so far and I'm glad to inform you all that I am starting to feel a lot happier and healthier not only mentally but physically as well.

For the last two years in particular I had started to notice that things weren't right not only with the critical voices and negative thoughts I was constantly hearing and repeating over and over in my mind, but also with certain aspects of my body.

I had always had good hair as a child and even through my teenage years, but the last two years I had started to notice a change. Every time I would wash my hair, a large amount would always fall out and no matter how much I washed it, it would never seem clean.

I had never really suffered with poor skin through my teenage years, something which I had felt extremely lucky about, but in the last 18months my skin had gone through a really bad stage. I started to drink more water, improve my diet and changed my facial cleansing products to try and find something that would work, but nothing seemed to improve my skin.

Probably the worst thing I had noticed about myself was my eyelashes. As a child I was always told how great my eyelashes were; they were always complimented for being extremely long and being extremely full and thick. Unfortunately the last 18 months I had noticed my eyelashes had lost their fullness and for some reason were falling out. I stopped wearing make-up thinking that might have been causing the problem, but nothing changed and the problems still remained.

Thankfully all these aspects have improved since I have been here in New Zealand and on a whole I am feeling a lot healthier. The best improvement for me has to be my eyelashes, I can't remember when I last had eyelashes this good. They are long and have amazing fullness and it feels great. It's crazy to think how much stress and depression can affect you but it's even more amazing to see the outcomes when you start to overcome them.

Being away from the negativity and the chaos for this short amount of time has made me come to realise what are the important things in life. Living in both the city lifestyle and the country lifestyle I have come to learn that city people tend to get caught up in the continuous goings on of work, work, work, whereas in the countryside you learn to appreciate the simple things.

One of the first things I noticed when I arrived here in New Zealand was not only the beautiful landscapes, but it was the birds, the feathered variety of course. They don't stop singing.....literally they don't stop, but it's so beautiful and calming to listen to. Combining this with the gorgeous landscape and the amazing teamwork and general laid back lifestyle has made me feel a lot happier. It's great to know that I'm starting to smile again and overall start to feel more confident within myself.

Waking up and starting my working day in the dark and being able to watch the sun rise and still be awake when it sets is a great feeling.

A very good friend of mine told me not long before I left for my journey that when it comes to the heartache, it's only going to take time, but it will start to get better. I do believe that taking myself away from the negativity, gossip and memories has started to make me concentrate on myself. All my life I have put others first but now all I need to concentrate on is myself and what I want.

Overall I'm smiling and laughing a lot more and generally feel a lot less tense and stressed. I just hope this feeling remains.

H x