Maya Saric

I feel like I should scream from the rooftops, that I felt awful, and I'm really excited about it. I had the most amazing weekend in Canberra with one of my adult sons and a friend. Lots of flowers, lots of friendship and not a small amount of food and alcohol. Just bliss. We went down to see Floriade, great food, just a whale of a time, but Sunday night, by about 10 o'clock, I was feeling just hideous. I didn't realise that it's the hangover effect of any huge level of excitement, whether it be alcohol or drugs, or flowers and friendship, that there's got to be the rundown.

We came back from Canberra after lunch. We did have a flat tyre, but we managed that, I thought, extraordinarily well, not a biggie. I had to do some work when we got home, which I also thought went relatively well,

and then grocery shopping,

and then making dinner,

and then organizing the house,

and then packing away all our stuff,

and then preparing for tomorrow

and slowly coming off that magical, magical high, and by 10 o'clock Sunday night, I felt wretched, absolutely revolting. I felt incredibly ungrateful, like, how after such a magical weekend, could I possibly be feeling so revolting?

This morning I remembered the conversation Luke instigated, about being prepared for the hangover. When you drink excessive amounts of alcohol, the hangover the next day is to be expected. It's really, really obvious and it's directly proportional to the amount of alcohol you consumed the day before,

But I'd not thought that getting exactly will have the same hangover effect as every other high, whether from substances or activities that give you a real emotional boost.

Luke was talking about being prepared after the high, for the low, and for the hangover that naturally follows the fabulousness, because it's our body's natural desire to manage its dopamine after such a Magical weekend and so many feel-good chemicals racing around my body that I had simply run out of feel good, and was in this state of absolute dread and revoltingness by mid evening.

Monday morning I woke up and I was in neutral, the horribleness was a distant memory, and the fabulous friendship and flowers left me with a lovely memory and a pleasant smile on my face.

The excitement and euphoria had run its course. I'd recovered through the hangover stage. This morning I'm out the other side to being tranquil and neutral.

Thank you, Anna Lembke.

Luke learned all of this from the fabulous book called Dopamine Nation; Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke. How amazing is the modern world, I bought him an audio book so he didn't read it, and then he taught me all about it, so I didn't even listen to it. But I feel really grateful for the knowledge, because now I'm not perplexed and frustrated, at feeling so bad last night after such a fabulous weekend.

One of the fabulous side effects of my holiday in Japan with Luke Saric is getting accustomed to a significant , for me, amount of walking each day. I decided to continue that (almost) everyday since returning and it seems I have now walked the full length of Italy.

Italy is little but I'm still very proud of myself. Now I look forward to getting the length of Australia badge

I have signed up for the Mental Heath Push up Challenge and I'm asking for your support. I'm raising funds for Headspace Australia who provide mental health service to youth 12-25 years old.

I have committed to completing 1625 push ups (or similar) in 24 days. I'm doing 'similar' as I have a physical disability that affects my left ankle and hip making push-ups even on my knees a virtual impossibility.

Join me in the pain by joining the challenge or in spirit by donating the price of a coffee, once or for each of the 24 days, or something in between.

Australia's medical system is amazing at providing a cute care if a mental health crisis is identified correctly, but we fall short on catching the decline to head-off the crisis or providing long term chronic care so that suffers can remain stable.

Please support my challenge.

Donate to level-up mental health in Australia Help raise funds for much-needed mental health services and initiatives by donating to my page. I’m completing The Push-Up Challenge to support this great cause and would love your help to reach my fundraising target.

Day two of the birthday celebrations and a double header with my goddaughter Maya Mitic whose birthday was 2 days ago and d'boys Kailin Saric-Williams and Luke Saric for a lovely meal at Linda's on King.

Now home with a wee drop of the wine Susan McEvoy bought for me for bookclub/ birthday dinner last night, which was also a double header with Tracie Devlin.

I am open to more joint events with Taurian's...

I've been taking this over the last year and it's working for me

Can You Believe This Wonder Drug Exists? #shorts Combining a whole, unprocessed diet with the right exercise does wonders for your health.Exercise helps us become more sensitive to insulin, reduces stress, ...

Simple explanation, love it.

These chicken tenders are unreal #healthyrecipes #shorts

Happy Chinese New Year and welcome to all the baby rabbits due this year!

This group had two adult dragons and a baby red one. Very cute

Happy birthday Luke

At the 11th hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the radio station went silent and the beautiful sounds of the bugle began.

Remembrance for the end of the first world war; Lest we forget.

I always find this minute of silence deeply emotional thinking of the millions of lives lost to war, being lost in several parts of the world this very day.