Stacey Turner, founder of the It’s OK To Say mental health awareness campaign, continues looking at how to cope with the New Year.

Following on from last week's piece, it's not just a case of setting intentions and learning from the previous year, there are two really important things that need consideration. First, we need to make peace with our past and reframe its meaning in our life. And second, it's essential to feel love in abundance for ourselves, honouring where we are and what we need. I mentioned a little bit of this last week, but I feel it is so important, I wanted to pick it up again, just in case you need some extra reassurance and a little nudge in the direction to where you truly want to be.

The reason many people don't stick to things, is while the intentions are there, they get stuck and get used to what has become safe and reliable. It is helpful to think about what holding on provides you or protects you from.

What is on the other side of fear? Moving forward is not about overlooking how you feel, it is about honouring and accepting how you feel in order to positively create space and with time, this space is filled with a happier you. You don't let go of pain, hurt and sadness, you feel it.

Yes, it hurts and can be scary, but give yourself time to embrace this and you will indeed learn that holding onto the story of your hurt is where you get stuck and by doing so, you make the past more important than right now, in this present moment and the future, cutting yourself off from possibility.

Embracing it allows you to take a chance, open yourself up, you get a gust of power that propels you into exactly where you're supposed to be. It is your story, there is going to be hurt, but you have the power to choose hope, love and trust your journey. Be kind to yourself, know that it's OK to feel how you feel and allow yourself to breath.

It is possible to grow despite our feelings by choosing to love ourselves through various healthy habits and surrounding ourselves with the right people.

While completely understandable, holding onto the past traps you, holding you back. There are various ways in which things manifest, poking holes into different areas of your life and all without you realising. It's not until you accept things and feel the emotions, allowing them to wash over you, that you suddenly realise just how these anchors of your story from your past have greatly affected your life.

With this realisation, you suddenly want to mend those holes allowing you to gain greater understanding about yourself allowing you to gain control over your life. I truly believe the past is there to teach us, not hold us hostage and therefore stepping away from things, one stepping stone at a time allows freedom.

How do we do that? By reaching out and talking, talk about the situations and how they made you feel, feel it, let it out. Learn new ways, make small changes that lead to big differences in who we are, how we feel and respond. Stop hoarding, visualise a box with your name on it, open it up and see little compartments that capture situations.

These situations are each labelled with how you felt, now imagine yourself taking out each situation one at a time and hold up each feeling and emotion, close your eyes and say, I felt like that because and focus on your breathing.

Take as long as you need continuing to focus on your breathing, it is all about the breath and allowing yourself time.

Brush that dust off and put an end to how you don't want things to be anymore. Let go of the small fights, that means within yourself and fight for you, your visions, passions, dreams, your story right now and choose to live well.