Learning to let go...

Well I can’t believe it’s been 8 months since I wrote my last blog! I’ve blinked and the year has nearly gone. So I started 2017 in the crazy country that is India. WOW is all I can say, I had a very special time but I don’t think I would have coped there without my mind training. I had already decided that 2017 I was going with the flow, I had no plans at all and I was going to trust in the universe and see where it would take me. This is something I would never have been able to do before I always had to have a plan! (Which never went to plan) So I arrived in Delhi 2.5 hours later than expected, then I queued for 1.5 hours in immigration, to get to the front to be told I was in the wrong queue. I just laughed but I was a little worried as my friend from Nepal was meeting me, his phone was not connecting but I knew he would be waiting for me. So I joined another long queue and a hippie looking guy from London started chatting to me. He said he had been to India 9 times but the first time he came it was too much for him and he had to leave. He said the best piece of advice he could give me for India was that I had to let go and that’s where the magic would happen.
My phone finally rung and it was my friend, I met him 4.5 hours later than originally planned. India was a good place to practice patience and learn to let go!

I came back from India on a massive high. I needed that break so I could start 2017 fresh and ready for whatever the year would bring.  The year seemed quite slow to get going, but now I look back it has gone so fast. I feel this has been a year of resting and relaxing preparing me for the future. In March we were invited to London by NHS England to talk about our social enterprise at the GP forward view conference. We couldn’t believe they had asked us, we were a bit nervous but so excited!

At the end of 2016 two nurses from Wakefield got in touch with us to see if we would help them set up a respiratory network. They came under our social enterprise and had their second meeting this year. It has been nice to watch them grow quite quickly into a successful network. In April we had a joint conference with them which was our biggest and best yet.

Over the summer I had the wonderful opportunity to join the primary care respiratory academy for the second year running presenting with them. I can tell how much I have grown in the past year as I actually enjoyed it this year rather than being held back by fear. I have also got back in the saddle and I'm back at uni for a teaching course, then I’m not studying ever again! haha

So last September I gave up my job as a practice nurse for a 12 month contract at the hospital as a Respiratory Nurse Specialist.  With the aim, that in the year we would secure a contract for our social enterprise. A few people were a bit worried especially my mum, I told her not to worry and that it would be fine. By June she was like Mel what are you going to do? Previously I would have been very worried by now and jumped at the first opportunity that came along. The hospital also offered me the opportunity to stay permanently so that was a nice back up plan.

But my patience paid off as we have just secured a contract with a collaboration of GP practices to standardise respiratory care and improve outcomes. We have been given a blank canvass to be as creative and innovative as we like, we are so excited for the future!  I have really enjoyed my time working at the hospital with such a lovely team. I would love to have stayed but I feel like Santiago from the Alchemist and I have to continue on my journey. It has been a hard few years in lots of different ways but it has all been worth it to make me grow stronger. I feel like a caterpillar that has gone through the changes to become a butterfly, as this year has past I have felt lighter every day. Learning to let go is the best thing I could have ever done. Letting go everything; control, plans, fear, expectations and just trying to live in the present moment. Being happy to accept whatever comes my way, but this is turning out to be a great year where all my dreams are coming true. In 2 weeks I will be having a girly break in Ibiza before I start my new job. Then in October for my birthday I will be visiting New York a place where I have always dreamt of going. There’s still four months of this year left and I can’t wait to see what happens next…….