Piano Joy

So part of my new years resolutions this year is that I am going to start doing more things that I love in my spare time and really try and embrace a healthy work/life balance routine.

I think lifestyle is absolutely connected with quality of life, and this in turn has an impact on your health, either positively or negatively.

I would like to talk more about work/life balance in my next post.

In the meantime, something which I am very proud of is that fact that I have started playing the piano again. I was a very good piano student, and I played piano from the age of around 12 until I was 17, in that time, I accomplished alot, I raced through my grades and almost got to the end. During the time of my A'levels, pressure and stress built up, and I was finding that I was spending hours on end every evening practising my scores, examination pieces, that I left little time to my studies.

One morning I woke up and decided that I no longer wanted to play the piano and that it was time I focussed on my studies and got through them. The idea was that I would resume and play again once I had finished my exams...

Somehow 10 years flew by, without me barely sitting down at a piano, but it was always at the back of my mind that it is something which I would like to resume. I finally plucked up the courage to go and book some lessons, and I started officially my first lesson today, and wow, part of me remembers the persistence and discipline that comes with playing, but I also remember a beauty about playing the piano which ignites something in me when I am back sat in front of it... and it is so easy to get lost in the sound of the keys pulsating through all senses in your body.

It is a true feeling of satisfaction and pleasure.

I would like to ask, do you have a hobby, or skill which you have abandoned? is there something which you have always wanted to do but never got round to actually doing it? When was the last time you experienced something for the first time? How much time do you spend doing the things you love?

If you don't, then see if there is something big or small that you can undertake that allows you to forget about all stress, pressure and trouble you may have in your life. It could be going for walks, taking up an instrument, or even watching that TV programme that you love, but just don't seem to have the time do watch.

Tomorrow, I would like to talk more about the work life balance, but in the meanwhile, start brainstorming some ideas, you will see that you will become a much happier person as a result of it. Don't make the same mistake I made and leave it 10 years before you go back to something you are passionate about. Time waits for nobody.