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2022 was a year I took a step back.
A step back from self-care.
A step back from self-love.
A step back from my mental health.
I feel it.
I feel further away from myself than I have in five years. A discovery that not only hurts but disappoints. I made my self-love journey a priority for so long and then I just walked away.
I said hurtful things to myself.
I treated my body badly.
I believed that I didn't deserve the things I was receiving.
All of these habits made it harder to look at myself in the mirror with love.
I know and understand the devastating effects that this has on me and now I am back to reignite the passion I have for myself.
LOOKING AT 2022 WITH LOVING EYES
2022 was a year of extreme ups and extreme downs. Moments when I didn’t think that my dreams were going to come true and moments when I was on top of the world and nothing could go wrong.
I have learned throughout the years that there is no reason to have regrets and so I jump into everything I do with both eyes wide open and sometimes (most of the time) with little planning. If I think too much, I will talk myself out of everything.
I focused on all of the external pieces of my life that I forgot to continue to nurture the internal pieces that so desperately needed me. So I look back on 2022 with eyes that are filled with compassion and tears.
How can I make 2023 more about the pieces inside than I do about the pieces outside?
How can I continue to move my life forward by healing on a deeper level?
How can I fall even more in love with myself than I have been in the past?
How can I make 2023 a year where growth is the only option?
I can acknowledge what I didn’t do in 2022 and know that in order for 2023 to be better mentally, I need to do the things that I didn’t do in 2022.
MENTAL HEALTH INTENTIONS FOR 2023
To be accountable to myself, I have found that when I share my goals and intentions for everything in my life, I tend to stick with them even more. This blog post is my declaration to myself to take control of my mental health in 2023.
It is going to be a little bit scary because I want to do things that I haven’t done in the past but in order to move forward even more, I need to do things differently.
Drink more water
I will be the first to admit that I am not always the greatest at drinking my water. I have gotten much better in the past month or so but it is still something that I am striving to work on more. My co-worker gave me a beautiful travel mug for Christmas that I have been using.
Intentional movement
I grew up playing sports and I loved every second of it. I have realized that as I have gotten older, I don’t enjoy going hard with exercise. I absolutely love doing yoga and pilates. I want to be more intentional with the exercise that I do. I will be adding swimming to my routine as well. I absolutely LOVE being in the water. Different ways that I am going to add even more intentional movement into my life…
Hiking in the mountains
Walking through my neighbourhood
I’d love to give Tai Chi a try
Increase my daily silent meditations
For the month of January, I am doing 15 minutes of silent meditation every night. Every month I am going to add five minutes to that. Once the weather gets nice and warm again, I am also going to make it a point to go outside on my front deck area and meditate in the morning sun.
Eat out less
I won’t lie, I struggle with this. I do enjoy eating out as it gives me a break from having to do all of the work that comes with cooking and feeding a family. I really want to focus on eating out less and start to have more fun in the kitchen.