RAK Yourself

It's the old airline adage of 'putting on your own oxygen mask before helping others'. Most of find the time to make a kind comment or gesture to those around us but how often do we extend that same kindness to ourselves. I'm sure I'm not the only one whose inner voice can be a little harsh, a little nasty and sometimes just downright rude.

My inner voice feels free to speak to me in a way that I would never dream of speaking to anyone else. And yet, more often than not I tolerate it. I don't question it.

This serves as a welcome reminder to me that my RAK challenge isn't all about making others feel good, it can be about allowing myself to feel good too.

So, today I am going to tell that pesky inner voice to pipe down and play nice while I sit in my favourite craft corner and play with yarn.

For December... something a little different

Hands up who is feeling a little bit overwhelmed as the festive season approaches?

To-do lists, shopping, groceries, carol services and decorations. It can all seem a bit of a frenzy at this time of year and I don't think I am alone in what I have heard people refer to as Seasonal Overwhelm. It all seems a bit too much, especially as we tend to put pressure on ourselves to have the "perfect" Christmas.

This month, in December I plan to take a little step back from my endless to-do lists and instead focus on small things that could help bring a smile to some other seasonally overwhelmed soul.

I took inspiration from this random acts of kindness calendar which allocates a small task to each day of December in the run up to Christmas. Because I am a Knitter I felt compelled to re-work it a little with more of a craft related emphasis - apart from which - I am British and the notion of approaching random strangers in the street is more than a little disconcerting.

I took some great suggestions too from members of my Ravelry group, as between us, we discussed small ways in which we could brighten someone else's day (and cheerfully procrastinate about not writing our Christmas cards).

So... the rules... well there are none really. The 24 suggestions I have laid out are just that, suggestions. I intend to do one per day and will try to post an Instagram picture or Tweet of my #rakdec15 action. If you would like to join me - as much or as little as you like - that would be fabulous too and if you use the hashtag I'll be sure to track you down.

As it is the season of giving I will have two skeins of yarn from my stash (yet to be determined) which will be given as prizes. If you are a member of my Ravelry group feel free to chat about the RAK challenge over in the thread and after Christmas I will do a random prize draw for 1 skein from among the chatterers. The other skein will go to a random prize draw from anyone on Instagram or Twitter who posts a picture of their random act of kindness and uses the #rakdec15 tag and #louisetilbrookdesigns.

Above all, have fun, relax and be kind to one another this festive season