Wellbeing

Patsy Kensit: Appreciating Change

Appreciating change Patsy Kensit

Get up, get dressed, have a shower, get breakfast (the same one you eat every day), go to work. Spend weekends doing the same thing you do every week, and holidays going to the same place you go every year. You might think living like this is unusual, but actually huge numbers of us admit to mindlessly making the same life choices over and over, without ever questioning if they’re the right ones. Particularly if you’re highly sensitive, or prone to anxiety, having an established routine can feel like security and give us a sense of control over our lives, but as this year has proven to us all, it’s a fallacy.

Get out of your comfort zone

I’ve experienced for myself how getting too stuck in a rut can stop us from breaking out into a way of living that can make us much happier. Routines are safe, but if we never push ourselves out of our comfort zones, how can we ever really progress?

A therapist friend of mine suggests that when a woman comes in talking of feeling ‘lost’ she often starts the work with them by unpicking the little day-to-day habits that over time become prisons of comfort, stifling our ability to grow and move.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you suddenly overhaul your entire life without a plan for the future, but over the next few days, become aware of the patterns in your life.

Try a new workout (changing every four weeks leads to much better results). Order something off the menu you’ve never tried before. Explore a different town this weekend (lockdown permitting!). Trying something new is like a little holiday for our brains and invigorates our productivity and creativity.

Change your look

Perhaps you’ve always had the same hair colour? It sounds a small thing, but a stylist recently suggested a change to mine. I can be a bit of an ‘if it isn’t broken, it doesn’t need fixing’ person, so I was nervous. I went for it anyway (it is, after all, possible to re-dye it) and I’m so glad I did. I’ve never had more compliments on my skin, it’s actually easier to manage and I find myself swinging my mane down the street like Beyoncé – it’s a revelation.

There are, of course, big life changes. Work, marriage, friendships; the grounding points in so many of our lives. Changing these can mean major upheaval, but not changing them, when they’re not right, can feel like a living death.

Grounding yourself with a daily cup of herbal tea is healthy and helps you balance. Burying yourself in a mindless routine when you feel stuck is not. Get out there and find your next favourite thing to do today; you never know where it might lead.

Patsy Kensit her beauty range, Preciously Perfect, is available from Ideal World. Search idealworld.tv to discover the full collection.