Obviously Staring You in the Face!

I was visiting a friend this week for a catch up, we normally do a relaxing spa day when we are together, this time I thought it would be great to do something different and random. So I booked an escape room. If you haven’t done one, I can highly recommend them. Basically a group of you (from 2-8 people) get locked in a room and you have to solve several puzzles in order to get out! The clues are all located in the room and you work together to figure things out, usually once solved you can unlock a padlocked box or safe or cupboard which leads you on to another set of clues, eventually getting a key to unlock the door. It’s essentially a treasure hunt with pressure! You get one hour to solve it and if you do – then you escape and if you don’t you get locked in!

My friend and I were doing a room that was based on The Loch Ness Monster. It was just the two of us, but we were up for fun and that’s what it’s all about. So we spent ages on the first clue….trying to find the first clue…we looked around, we found loads of puzzles and parts of clues and checked in books and boxes and just couldn’t get anywhere. After about 15 minutes, the guy buzzed through to see if we needed a hand. So he pointed us in the direction of two places on the wall that had (obvious) clues. We couldn’t believe we had spend so long looking when right in front of us the first clue was there! Ugh! Annoying. We’d been looking for the complicated and overthinking things.

We did get some further help throughout the game and we ended up getting locked in because we spent so much time trying to get the first clue! However, we learnt a lot in that hour, mainly to stop overthinking and look at what’s right in front of you. It’s no more complicated than that!

This made me think about life and missing what’s in front of you. A really simple example would be my walk to work each morning. Every morning the sky is amazing, the clouds make different formations, the birds are singing and finding what they can from the ground or underneath the leaves. The wind swirls and picks up these leaves and bits and pieces. No two days are the same but by simply taking the time to notice, I appreciate things are constantly changing. Our lives are subtly changing daily and will not be the same forever. We take for granted what is right in front of us.

Your friends, your family and everyone you come into contact with daily, we always assume they’ll be there for us, making us cups of tea, saying hello, having a chat, helping us when we need it, giving advice, going on holidays and enjoying life. But this won’t always be the case. One day, they won’t be right in front of us, they wont be there.

We’re all guilty of allowing life to take over or doing more important things or working too hard and not taking the time to stop and say hello and have a chat. Our family and friends are right in front of us – maybe not in distance – but they’re part of our heart and our everyday. Why not stay that extra 20 minutes instead of rushing off or pop round or call or text them after work just to say hello and ask them how they are doing. Appreciate every time they do something nice for you and make sure they always know how much you love and care for them.

We can be blind to what’s in front of us, not on purpose but because we aren’t aware when there are subtle changes with people, when they need help and when they need space. By making ourselves more available it may encourage others to approach us when they do require help.

When you think about missing what’s right in front of you, what comes up? Is there a family member you haven’t spent time with recently? Or is your career not making you happy? Or is your hobby your future career and you haven’t yet made the connection? Take time to think about what could be staring you in the face that you are missing. Don’t feel bad about it, instead do something about it.

Thank you to everyone who reads my blogs, I really appreciate it. Have a lovely week and look after you and spend a few minutes extra with those you care about.

Love Emma xx 😀