Blogging for Change!

Between my Nine Months Of challenge, Sport Relief and International Women’s Day, my blog posts lately have been rather more focussed on campaigning for one thing or another. And I have to say, it has given me such a boost and reminded me why I haven’t given up blogging yet (despite considering it several times).

You see, in between all the random bits and pieces I have blogged about, I have always had an underlying passion to use my words to raise awareness of various things. It took me a year or so of blogging before I felt confident enough to start writing about the things I really cared about rather than just the day-to-day stuff, but it has always been there.

At first, it was Endometriosis. And this actually led to my first series on iVillage.co.uk where I wrote as a freelance writer for about 2.5 years. Then it was Hyperemesis Gravidarum, which went hand in hand with the book I was writing. And then I lost my nerve.

I stopped writing about these things because it just didn’t feel “right” somehow. Once I was a “parent blogger” I felt my blog needed to be more “carefree” somehow and “fit in” with everyone else’s. I think this was partly because I was struggling to find the time to write and partly because I wasn’t sure all the awareness stuff sat so well with all the family stuff and didn’t think people would appreciate it. But by doing this I found myself losing interest in blogging altogether…

However this past month has reminded me just how much I enjoy putting into words the things that I feel passionate about and sharing causes that others feel passionate about too. I have loved pulling together all the information and stats together for the posts I have written to support Team Honk and have found myself being pulled into social media again too in order to keep up and spread the word.

In fact, I joined in the BritMums Twitter Party to celebrate Inspirational Women thanks to all of this and it was at that point that I realised just what inspires me the most – people who put their time, energy and passion into making change! It doesn’t matter if that change is big or small, or whether it is completely personal or affects the international community, all that matters is that when someone is passionate about something they automatically create change.

And I come across a lot of people passionate about creating change.  Suffering from conditions such as Endometriosis and Hyperemesis Gravidarum has made me very aware of just how much work is needed to raise awareness of these and create change for women like myself. Talking openly about either of these has led me to some very difficult positions – people just don’t want to hear about them. But they need to be spoken about, if for no other reason than to make it very clear that just because these only affect women they should be taken seriously (rather than being a “taboo” subject or something women should just endure because, hey we’re women and that’s what women do, right?)

So now I find myself wondering what direction to take with my blog – I don’t think it should become a simple commentary blog as I still love my crafts and various things we do around the house and home as a family. I also don’t have the time or desire to create a second blog. So I think that I need to find a balance between the causes and our general family life. After all, creating a happy and healthy home for your family is just as important as working hard on a major campaign, isn’t it!

I think it’s going to take me a while to find my new balance, but I think the timing is simply perfect. Over the coming weeks I can share with you bits and pieces about the charity auction I’m organising and that means mixing a personal hobby with a major cause I care about. Hopefully that will  instill within me the confidence to continue mixing the two together. And if nothing else, simply being able to share the health issues I am currently having (which I have avoided writing about for the most part this past year or so) will be both good for me and raise some awareness in some small way.

In the meantime, I’d love to know what you think about all of this. Do you struggle to balance different areas of your life on your blog?