17. continuation of gratitude

4. Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Where do I start with this man? I wasn’t aware he did tv programmes like Doctor in the House, the first I heard of him was when Sian from P3 lent me her copy of The Four Pillar Plan, I will point out at this stage that I gave it back a third of the way through and bought a copy myself, it’s even been lent out by me too!! It’s a book written by a doctor that knows that what he learnt in medical school isn’t the be all and end all, real people with real lives are the key to any learning. The book is divided into 4 sections (hence the name!) they are Eat, Move, Sleep and Relax, seems obvious but when someone spells it out to you it starts to make sense, it’s written in easy to understand terms that everyone can relate to, it’s led me onto other books, podcasts and online communities, it’s available at nearly all book selling outlets, and it’s worth having a copy that everybody can refer to.

I’ve since read the Stress Solution and Feel Better in 5, this last book is easy to understand and takes three 5 minute spells during your day to feel better, and it does.

I also downloaded his podcasts which are very informative and his gets are excited about their particular subject, I’ve even been that impressed by some of them I’ve bought and read their books! I’m up to number 105 now so nearly caught up, there are a few that were totally irrelevant to me so I did skip them, probably count them on one hand too!

Finally, the Dr Chatterjee Facebook page is definitely worth following, there seems to be a large number of people with minor and or major issues in their life but they all seem to support each other no matter how bad they may be feeling themselves, there’s people on there that you can relate to and realise that you’re not the only one and there are people coping with much worse than us.

Dr Chatterjee books I have are

The Four Pillar Plan,

The Stress Solution

Feel Better in 5

The podcasts are on all podcast suppliers and are called Feel Better, Live More

The Facebook page is Dr Chatterjee 4 Pillar Community Tribe

5. Calm app

One of the podcasts I listened to from Dr Chatterjee was the founder of Calm, I’d heard of meditation, yoga (my sister used to love it) me time and all the other things people call it, the long and short of it is that we don’t take 5/10/15 minutes a day to relax and think about nothing, how many of you get 5 minutes and pick up your phone to check Facebook, Instagram or Twitter in case anything has changed in the last hour? You’ll pick up the phone (I was guilty of this too) check social media, get annoyed and stressed because let’s be honest, there’s some shit posts on there that will wind you up, you’ll lose 1/2 hour which you’ll never get back and be less constructive afterwards due to the negativity!

Since I tried Calm, there’s loads out there including Headspace, that get you to practice meditation, how hard can it be? 10 minutes sitting down listening to some soothing sounds, well let me tell you, it’s bloody hard! I now understand why it’s called meditation practice, that’s what is needed, practice.

I am nowhere near being any good at it but I am improving, slowly, one thing I have noticed is when I don’t do it one day I miss it and chastise myself for not taking 10 minutes to do it, 10 minutes out of a day consisting of 1440 of them!! When I have done my daily relaxation I do feel so much better, a good friend of mine has started doing it too before work having read my blogs and says it’s great, he knows who he is 😉

Calm is a paid for app so not for everyone, they do have free bits on there too but I would highly recommend people get themselves a suitable meditation/relaxation app and give it a go, what can you lose? 10 minutes as opposed to 30 minutes lost to social media!

6. Everyone else

A bit vague I know, the previous acknowledgements were people or businesses that helped by going about their jobs in a professional and caring manor, these people are doing it for kindness,

Firstly and most importantly my wife, she’s my rock and best friend and has helped me immensely, I wouldn’t be here today without her and no you can’t have her details!

Then there’s the rest of my family including my mum, she has been through a trauma that many of us will never understand and hopefully never have to experience but she is always there to check I’m alright, she’s the perfect mum and mum in law I’m told!! There’s the kids that have always been supportive even though it must be difficult watching someone you love suffer and not being able to do anything other than listen, thank you Bex, Marc & Luke and of course, Evelyn my little monkey that makes everything perfect.

Finally there’s the friends, they always say that you find your true friends when you’re having difficulties, Len & Caroline, Dunc & Vicki, Sally & Simon, Richard & Julie have all been supportive in their own way which has meant a lot, even when they’ve had their own problems to overcome, and Steve W, my betting buddy, he’s been the one that always adds a little comment or text message after each blog, it’s surprising how effective that is in someone’s recovery, thanks mate

I’m hoping someone out there has found something useful in the weeks I’ve done these blogs, even if it has helped one person then I’m happy.

Thank you to everyone that has read these and more importantly shared the links, means a lot xx