Promises, Promises
Everyone knows promises are important. As a child, you pinky swore to be besties forever (and some of us are still friends to this day. Go, us.) As important as promises are to others, don't forget the ones you make to yourself. You matter just as much as the people around you.
Every year, I choose a word and try to make it my "word to live by" for the year. This year's word is HEALTH, and that includes my mental and physical health.
The arrival of COVID-19 derailed most of us across the world. All the work I had done in the prior few years went right out the window with everything coronavirus brought with it. I will freely admit I stress ate and gained back all the weight I'd worked so hard to lose. Things were Not Good.
Getting the Gear to Get In Gear
This, I decided, is the perfect year to work on my health again. I work from home in my day job, so I have a standing desk, but that alone isn't enough. I need to do some real work. With those two aspects of my health in mind, I decided to add yoga back into my routine. Yoga works the body while helping you calm your mind with focus and meditation. I had taken classes previously, and an opportunity came up earlier this year that sounded uncannily like the universe telling me to get off my butt.
I have no excuses (well, nothing good unless you count watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy again), so I decided to get some pretty new yoga gear to encourage me to Do the Thing.
You can do yoga in a T-shirt and sweats, but if you have the means, new gear is a fun way to encourage you to keep new habits...and a lifestyle change of eating better and getting more movement (I will never call it a diet, because I won't stick to it) is, essentially, building a new habit. There's no exact science to habit building. It takes anywhere from a couple of weeks to a year, according to experts. Do whatever it takes to form that good habit, whether it's small steps or treating yourself to an inexpensive step in your goal. I got a bag, mat, and yoga blocks for less than $27.00 new...and don't forget the secondhand stores.
Staying the course takes a certain amount of willpower. Don't get too hard on yourself if you made a New Year's resolution, then faltered on keeping it. The beauty of it is, you can get back to it. Support networks are a huge bonus in this. Social media groups, friends, and family are just a few connections you can cultivate to help you through the tough periods of sticking to your goals. (I don't know where I would be without my friends and family after 2020.)
Got a resolution you're working on? Feel free to drop me a line about it, or subscribe to my newsletter to follow my journey and get other updates from me!
