What do you do to escape from reality? When your mind is too busy, too loud it overwhelms you. What is your escape?

When things become too overwhelming for me, I try find things, safe things, to lose myself in. Something that takes my mind off whatever is bothering me in my day to day life.

One thing I love to do is read.

My favourite author is Nora Roberts. I own so many of her books. Too many, some would say HAHA.

If you love thriller romance novels, I can recommend a few of hers you might enjoy.

The search – A canine Search and Rescue volunteer fights danger and finds love in the Pacific Northwest wilderness in this riveting #1 New York Times bestseller from Nora Roberts.

To most people, Fiona Bristow seems to have an idyllic life–a quaint house on an island off Seattle’s coast, a thriving dog-training school and a challenging volunteer job performing Canine Search and Rescue. But Fiona got to this point by surviving a nightmare: an encounter with the Red Scarf Killer, who shot and killed Fiona’s cop fiancé and his K-9 partner.

On Orcas Island, Fiona has found the peace and solitude necessary to rebuild her life with her three loyal Labs. But all that changes on the day intensely private wood artist Simon Doyle barrels up her drive with an out-of-control puppy, desperate for her help.

As Fiona embarks on training Jaws, and Simon begins to appreciate both dog and trainer, the past tears back into Fiona’s life. A copycat killer has emerged out of the shadows, a man whose bloodlust has been channelled by a master with one motive: to reclaim the woman who slipped out of his hands…

Undercurrents – Every town has its ugly little secrets…

From the outside, the house in Lakeview Terrace looks perfect and the Bigelows seem like the perfect family: the respected surgeon father, the glamorous, devoted mother and two beautiful children. A perfect family, in a perfect house living their perfect lives.

But perfect surfaces can hide dark undercurrents and behind closed doors lies a very different story. Teenager Zane and his younger sister, Britt, are terrorised by their violent father and dysfunctional mother. Too afraid to speak out, Zane does his best to protect his sister and counts the days until they can finally be free.

One dark, brutal night when their father’s temper takes a horrifying turn for the worse, the perfect façade is exposed for the lie it is and Zane and Britt manage to escape. With the help of their beloved aunt, they rebuild their lives a day at a time, creating new families and putting their past behind them. But a childhood like that can cast a shadow the length of a lifetime. Can Zane and Britt ever be free of their past? Or will those dark undercurrents rise to the surface, forcing them to fight for their lives once again…

Angels Fall – The sole survivor of a brutal crime, Reece Gilmore is on the run, desperately fighting the panic attacks and the nightmares that haunt her. She doesn’t intend to stay in the sleepy town of Angel’s Fist one second longer than she needs to, despite its friendly – if curious – inhabitants, and the irresistible attraction of local writer Brody.

However, on a hike into the mountains she witnesses a couple having a vicious argument that culminates in murder. Faced with a lack of evidence, the authorities in Angel’s Fist find it hard to believe Reece’s story. But when a series of menacing events prove that someone wants her out of the way, Reece must put her trust in Brody – the one person who does believe her – to find the murderer before it’s too late.

I thoroughly enjoyed these books. The Search and Angels Fall were among the very first books I’ve read from Nora. I have to stop myself from buying any book I see with her name on it. It is becoming harder to find books that she’s written that I haven’t already read, or own for that matter.

But she continues to write top-selling books.

She also writes under a pen name – J.D.ROBB. I haven’t read any of these books as yet. I own one or two, but I have many books that are unread at the moment and had to restrain myself from buying more.

I hope to get to them one day.

But for now, I am content with the books I currently own from her. Ones I’ll re-read and others that have yet to be read.

Music.

Another escape. I know I am not the only one who finds comfort in music. It can take you to many different places. If you want to wallow in sadness, there are an abundance of break-up songs or songs that talk about depression or sadness. If you want to pump yourself up, either for a workout, or for me, and this is showing my age – cleaning the house, there are plenty of songs that can get you going. Songs to dance to, cook to, get married to, make love to. You name it, there is a song for it.

Cooking.

Gosh, I love to cook. It is a way to create something for your family. You get to smell the process, taste the result, and watch other people enjoy what you’ve created.

Then you can merge some.

Cooking and listening to music. Man, I can lose myself to that. I often have to pop some headphones on as my choice of music, at times, doesn’t quite suit the other five people in my household.

I’ve never been one to meditate nor have I been into yoga. I’ve tried both. Unfortunately, my mind works on overdrive for me to be able to escape my reality using either of these two methods.

Not that I haven’t tried though. I remember I did a hot yoga class with a friend of mine once. While I had a lot of fun in the class, and found that I was a lot more flexible than I thought I would be. It wasn’t something I was running back to.

I understand that meditation is about controlling your mind, focusing on what you can feel, can smell, and things like that. My understanding of it is very minimal because I’ve not looked deeper into it. I hear great things about it, but I just can’t clear my mind enough to get the hang of it.

Painting, diamond art, and puzzles are other activities I do to help calm my mind. And when I say painting, I am no freelance painter. I have absolutely no talent in that area, I paint by numbers.

My favourite escape is reading though. Sometimes finding the time to sit and read can be a struggle. When you see things around the home that need doing or that mental list of things you wanted to achieve that day. They scream loudly at you and sometimes can prevent you from taking that time out to relax and read.

Sometimes, guilt can be a deterrent. I’ve felt guilty for taking time out for myself.

But I try to remind myself that I shouldn’t feel guilty. That it’s okay to take time out for myself. We all need it. sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t.

All these things focus my mind on something other than the thoughts I battle, obsessing over situations I can’t control. Reliving a situation over and over in my mind.

Living with acute high-functioning anxiety can be difficult when you don’t have the tools or knowledge of how to manage it.

These things are just small things I use to help calm my racing mind. I’d love to know what you do. Feel free to drop a comment. You never know, you might help someone out, or find something that’ll help you.

If you need to reach out, feel free to contact me, I’m always here to help where I can.

Until next time remember,

Be kind to yourself x