The #Narrowboat Wife Guide to Reinventing Yourself After #Divorce

When life hands you lemons you’re supposed to make lemonade right? After thirteen years as a narrowboat girl I had no idea what I was going to reinvent myself as. ‘The Narrowboat Ex Wife Who Lives in a Cottage in Devon But Still Writes Several Narrowboating Blogs’ was just too long for a new blog title.

So I started a completely different blog about how to take charge of your life and take care of your soul after a break-up. There’s no such thing as five guaranteed shortcuts for moving on in record time, but if there was then I might put these five beauties on the list: 

1. Let it Go

For a while I was practicing ‘letting go’ and one of the most important things I noticed was that I needed to let go of the idea of being my ‘best self’ all of the time. Holding on to that idea didn’t allow me to make mistakes, or to learn from my mistakes.

Can you accept that you’re a person who makes mistakes? What idea could you let go of, just for today? It may be the easiest way to forgive yourself.

2. Have a Perfect Day

Earlier this year I had a perfect day. I didn’t know it was going to be perfect but I did hope that it would be good. I started the day by sticking a post-it note on the bathroom mirror that said, ‘I love you.’ The second one said, ‘How can I make you happy today? It made me cringe to do it and it makes me cringe to write it, because I’m embarrassed by the thought of such airy-fairy new age love-yourself stuff. After all, most people think that kind of thing doesn’t work, right?

But I think that little thing made a difference that day. Do you deserve a perfect day?

3. Meditate

Have you tried meditation but just feel that you don’t really ‘get it’? Do you sit there searching for a Zen-like calm but within seconds you’re planning your shopping list or analysing the plot of last night’s telly programme?

You are not alone!

I too am challenged in the Zen department! So I had to do some research in to meditation techniques for people who just can’t stop thinking.

4. Make a Break-Up Bucket List

Last summer I discovered a great blog called The Break Up List. When Ali Burns’ nine year relationship ended, she made a list of things she’d been meaning to do over the past few years but never quite found the time.

It has inspired hundreds of people to do similar and I was just about to make my own, when I realised I already had one.

On New Year’s Eve I made a list of things to do in 2014 – some big like go on holiday, go in a hot air balloon, and some small like drink champagne, draw cartoons, and go swimming. I can’t believe how many of them I’ve done already, in less than a year. I also can't believe how long number 45 is taking me! Check out my Break-Up Bucket List.

5. Reinvent Yourself in 10 Days

Being a complete self-help book junkie, and personal-development-addict, it wasn’t long before I decided I should bundle up all of my reinventing research into an e-course and give it away!

If you’re going through or have been through a bad break-up, sticky separation or depressing divorce you could begin to reinvent yourself in 10 days with my little course.

In just 10 days from now you could be on your way to more health, wealth and happiness with a clearer idea of how to improve your relationships and career.

Is your life is too busy for a personal development course? This very simple, very quick, e-course is the solution you are looking for. Are you ready to get what you want, and want what you get?

Yes please! I like the sound of that. (Click to sign up - your email is safe with me!)

What sort of things have you tried when getting over a break-up, separation or divorce?

The Secret Waterways That Nobody Tells You About (Except Amy @nbwillow)

When I think about places to go and canals to see I think of the obvious holiday destinations: The idyllic Llangollen canal, the Norfolk Broads, or the popular Kennet and Avon. If I want to explore a city navigation I consider doing the London ring, or visiting Birmingham, which has more miles of canals than Venice. I had lived on a narrowboat for years before I realised that Cambridge and Ely are connected to the navigable canal network, via the East Anglian Fen waterways! Not far from London there’s a whole other water-world out there that nobody tells you about (except Amy, who blogs about living aboard in Cambridge!) 

For a long time all I knew of the world of canals was contained in the Nicholon’s canal guides, which don’t cover the Great Ouse, Cam or Middle Level waterways. (However, a range of canal books, canal maps, Imray’s canal guides, and DVDs for rivers including Middle Level, Ouse, and Nene are available in the Fox Narrowboats online shop. )

The East of England waterways have been described as “a hidden gem” by BBC Countryfile’s Adam Henson (pictured), perhaps because they offer peaceful and idyllic countryside cruises, shopping and eating in Ely and Cambridge, pretty walks, villages, churches,  cosy pubs, and the steam trains of the Nene Valley Railway. If you’re looking for uncrowded waters, beautiful little rivers, tourist attractions and historical places to visit then you may just have discovered the waterways’ best-kept secret. 

Imagine visiting the world famous Cambridge University and the grand Ely Cathedral, by canal boat! En route you’ll discover wildlife and wild flowers, traditional pubs and historic monuments. You can also visit St Ives; the birth place of Oliver Cromwell, on the banks of the river Great Ouse, and Oundle and Northampton.

When I find out about a waterway I haven’t heard of I always want to go exploring! It’s like that Star Trek thing of boldly going beyond the final frontier, except at three miles an hour, with a mug of coffee on the roof. Don’t you think that boating is just the best way to see England?!

If you’re canal-curious like me, check out Fox Narrowboats, a warm, friendly, family business offering narrowboat holidays and day boat hire in March, Cambridgeshire. As you know, I no longer blog about boats and living aboard here on Narrowboat Wife but if you want to read more about everything to do with boats and canal-life then you will now find me blogging regularly for the Fox Narrowboats blog. I’ve already written; Three Things You Must Do When Visiting Cambridge, and How Winter Threatens to Damage Your Narrowboat – Three Ways to Protect Yourself. 

Come and see, and let me know what you think of the new blog!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for Fox Narrowboats: Narrowboat Holidays and Day Boat Hire. Check out their new blog to find out more about the Fens and get boating tips, advice, stories and news.http://www.foxboats.co.uk/blog/