When I was really ill, I was often told by my therapists to keep reminding myself of my favourite things about life or just favourites in the form of things I like. I still think about my favourite things in life when I'm feeling down to remind me of the things that make me happy, after all happiness for me is something that I've been striving for ever since I began recovering. So I'm going to share with you a few of my favourite things that make me happy.





The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 
If you've read this book then you may be thinking what a strange thing to make you happy, and obviously the storyline didn't make me happy, and like a lot of people I ended up crying for hours, but it's my favourite book ever. I just love the way it's been written, and the love story behind it all is beautiful. It also made me feel really grateful for the things I have and how lucky I am to not be suffering from terminal illness, because in all honesty I do not know how I'd even begin to cope with something like that. I'm so excited to see the TFiOS film, even though I'm not always a film person, the trailer looks incredible and I just have this feeling that despite for me books being better than films, I'm going to love this film just as much as the original book.

not my photo

Sheep
Again this may sound like a little bit of a strange one, but it all becomes normal, trust me. I live on a farm and although it's mostly an arable (crop) farm, we have an ever growing flock of Norfolk Horn sheep. Being a farmers child means that even if you no desire to go into a farm career, you're still expected to help out on the farm. So every Spring when the lambing season begins for us, it's all hands on deck. Now there are things I hate about this; being in a freezing cold barn for a large portion of the night, having to be woken up if there's an emergency and of course any possible losses, but at the same time there are lots of things I love about lambing - and I feel like being so heavily involved with them has helped me in some way to recover more. This year, due to various reasons, we ended up having to bottle feel six lambs. I love feeding the lambs because once they learn that you're getting them food they become very friendly and will surround you when it's getting close to their meal time. Feeding lambs also gave me a sense of responsibility; I was put in charge of feeding two lambs that were rather attached to me, which I affectionately called PM and Dorcas. Both of these lambs were abandoned by their mothers and so were extremely small and most days they hardly had anything to drink at all, which made me worry that we might lose them. But through perseverance and a lot of early morning and late nights, both PM and Dorcas are now very healthy lambs and are looking much more like lambs of their age. There's something about knowing that a life has been dependent on you and has succeeded when there were problems, and it's probably one of the best feelings ever. I don't know if that's to do with how maternal my nature is or anything, but for some reason I just love watching them grow up into happy lambs and return to the field and eventually become parents. (PM is a ram lamb and Dorcas is a ewe lamb)

Me attempting to feed PM the day after he was born and abandoned

Make up
I hate to admit it, but I used to wear make up because I felt like I had to. As I've grown up I've fallen more in love with make up, but at the same I've learnt that I don't have to wear a full face of make up day in, day out if I don't feel like it. I just wear the make up I want to wear, and that's seriously made me feel much more able to accept compliments about my make up, because I haven't felt like those compliments I've got because I've worn make up like I had to, but because I might have put in an extra effort or tried a new product. My love of make up may become a problem when I go to university and have more of a limited budget, but it worries me less because I know that I don't have to pile on foundation and cake my face up with too much concealer and powder.

again, not my photo

Music
I strongly believe that music is is ideal in any situation, no matter what you're feeling there is always something that you can listen to. I can name a song I listened to on pretty much every dark day I've ever had, and that's a lot of songs. Although, I find that songs comfort me in different ways, but when I listen to the same songs now that I'm much better I find myself listening in a different way. For example, I seemed to listen to 'Breathe Me' by Sia for hours on end because I felt like I related to the lyrics a lot, but I recently listened to it again after not hearing it for almost a year, and I felt like me listening to it must have been a cry for help but through music. Having said that, there is also always a song that can make you happy, no matter what your music taste is, and that's why it annoys me so much when people are judged for their music taste. I personally feel that it's impossible for a person to tell another that they have a bad taste in music because they like completely different bands to you - that's like saying they have bad taste buds because they don't like your favourite food! Music means different things depending on the situation, how you feel or memories you associate with it, but one thing is certain; music is always there for us. (favourite song of the moment)

I feel this goes without saying, but obviously everyone is different and so you won't all feel like it does, but people that make me extremely happy are my friends and family. I'm really lucky in the sense that I have an amazing bunch of friends who I all have different things in common with, so whatever we feel like doing there is always one of us to chat with, and not to mention it's extended my friendship circle and interests :)
 I feel so lucky to have a close knit family; I have incredible parents who are always there for me no matter what happens and two amazing brothers who I honestly don't know what I'd do without. Families have arguments, that's expected, but at the end of the day, they will always love you for who you are - and nothing beats forever feeling wanted and loved unconditionally.



So there are is just a handful of things in life that make me feel happy and positive. Hope you enjoyed this rather ramble-y post and I'll catch you all later

Em x